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Why It Matters: Gigging for the Over 50s

By on May 14, 2012 in Music, Why It Matters

When you get to a certain age, you still kid yourself that your peers are somehow older than you. After all, you are young. Nothing has changed despite the advancing years. You like the same things you always did – gossip, lipgloss, bags, jewellery (like Patsy, I seem to have forgotten the word accessories). Not [...]

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Why It Matters special: Who will Kentishtowners vote for as Mayor?

By on April 30, 2012 in Community, Why It Matters

We don’t, as a rule, get too involved in politics. After all there are plenty of other media outlets to satisfy that particular vice. We do live, however, in an ‘up and coming’ bit of north London and so are a teeny bit curious about who readers would vote for this Thursday as next London [...]

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Why It Matters: Dartmouth Park (the actual park, that is)

By on April 23, 2012 in Why It Matters

Nestled in the armpit between Junction Road and Dartmouth Park Hill is one of London’s lesser known and refreshingly unconventional parks. Most Londoners – if they’ve even heard of the area itself (named after the Earl of Dartmouth who bought the land in the 18th Century) – might imagine handsome if somewhat sleepy tree-lined streets, [...]

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Why It Matters: Protecting our dogs from dangerous dogs

By on April 16, 2012 in Community, Why It Matters

On Saturday our 7 year old Jack Russell, Pepper, was savaged for the second time in just over a year. This unprovoked attack, by two Staffordshire Bull Terriers off the lead, took place in leafy Highbury Fields. She was bitten in five places, from nose to armpit and hind leg, with two punctures, including a [...]

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Why It Matters: Free Swimming in Highgate Ponds

By on April 9, 2012 in Why It Matters

British Summer Time started when the clocks went forward just over two weeks ago. Right? Wrong. For a select bunch of Londoners, there’s another more important signal from mother nature that says summer’s truly here. When the temperature in the Highgate Ponds strikes 12 degrees, the ropes that enclose the swimming area move back – [...]

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Why It Matters: North London Cares

By on April 2, 2012 in Why It Matters

To the outside world, north London has long had something of a reputation. If you believe everything you read in the national press, all of us in Camden and Islington are comfortable, Guardian-reading liberals, hob-nobbing over long dinners in grand old houses on leafy suburban streets. Of course, that stereotype is partially based in reality. [...]

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Why It Matters: Camden Garden Centre (yes, even more than Boma)

By on March 26, 2012 in Shopping, Why It Matters

I’m a keen gardener, but probably not very good at it. Plants seem to wither and die a little more frequently than necessary, but I still love a good horticultural haven. When I first came to north London I’d travel all the way to Enfield to a store a friend recommended there. But then I [...]

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Why It Matters (2): A Gym Class For 4 year olds at Talacre?

By on March 19, 2012 in Why It Matters

Here is something of which you may not be aware; on the other hand maybe you were there shivering yourself. But this morning, there were extraordinary scenes of parents queueing up outside Talacre Sports Centre from 3am to get their kids a place on the gym class. Gas stoves were lit; mugs of tea handed [...]

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Why It Matters: Art Auction For Japan, Flat Planet, Soho this Wednesday

By on March 19, 2012 in Art, Why It Matters

Kaori Homma, Japanese-born artist and Associate Lecturer at University of Arts London. As told to Jaillan Yehia. With a group of fellow artists from King’s Cross-based Central Saint Martin’s – where I’m an associate lecturer – I’ve tried to find a way to help after last year’s nuclear and humanitarian disaster in Japan. If I’m [...]

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Why It Matters: Giant Olive at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre

By on March 12, 2012 in Film &Theatre, Why It Matters

Tucked away in leafy Gaisford Street above the Lion and Unicorn pub is a vital organ, kept alive by a passion for storytelling, and a dedicated team of hardworking theatre practitioners and associated artists. It’s called Giant Olive, and I founded it back in 2008. My name’s George Sallis and I’m Kentish Town born and [...]

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