North London Food & Culture

History

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Faded Dartmouth Park

Ghost signs abound in the deepest valley of NW5 and its surrounds, says Amelia Horgan

History

Why we love Bumblebee – and the story of Brecknock Road

The Bumblebee Natural Food Shops opened their doors in January 1980 and have been supporting healthy living ever since. You mean you haven’t ever been in?

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Wednesday Picture: The Secret Shops of Harmood Street

In the 1830s, lovely Harmood Street was one of the first developments cutting into the fields alongside Chalk Farm Road (then known at Pancras Vale). …

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Wednesday Picture: How to mark the Olympics: closing Maitland Park Gym?

With perfect comic timing, Camden Councillors are limbering up to mark the opening of the London Olympics with a vote today, 18 July, that will …

Books

Wednesday Picture: Malden Factories, Kentish Town (or is it Chalk Farm?)

Last week’s lively discussion on local ‘boundary’ issues was interesting: on the one hand it’s perhaps a futile (and, as one reader said, middle-class) question, …

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Wednesday Picture: Holmes Road, Pathway to Industrial Kentish Town

Patchwork planning is the legacy of the area’s strongly industrial roots combined with a feel of perennial neglect

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Wednesday Picture: Who links Rochester Terrace to Brighton West Pier?

Stretching northwest from Camden Road, Rochester Terrace Gardens and its surrounding streets form an unusually calm and peaceful patch of south Kentish Town. In fact, …

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Where was Camden’s nuclear bunker?

It was dug out by the council in the hope that town halls would exercise some form of jurisdiction when the bomb dropped

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Wednesday Picture: Mary Shelley’s ‘Odious Swamp’

Why did Frankenstein author Mary Shelley call Kentish Town an ‘odious swamp?’ (If it makes you feel any better, local readers, Naples was a ‘paradise …

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Wednesday Picture: Dawson & Briant, since 1840

Kentish Town has been respecting its merchant past in recent months with the happy discovery and restoration of original hand-painted shop front signage. Concealed for …

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