North London Food & Culture

Pinboard: All Change At The Junction? Plus Map Cafe, KERB Streetfood & KTNF


Those lovely fishcakes at The Junction
Will it change? A perfect plate at The Junction

1. The Junction Tavern Sold

First the Bull & Gate, now the Tav. Yes, we were sorry to hear that Kentish Town’s most loved gastropub was sold last week to yet another chain. Yikes. But at least this one is Camden Bars, the owners of a decent string of local boozers including The Abbey and Delancey Street’s Crown & Goose. (In fact, we enjoyed a stupendous pulled lamb bun at Farmer Tom’s Kitchen only last night).

Yet still, the acquisition is perhaps at first an odd fit, at least to us, as The Junction has always been such a personal place, intimate even, despite its cavernous interior and busy neighbourhood crowd.

We asked former owner (and fabulous Kentishtowner supporter) Jacky her plans. “World domination?” she said, presumably with a giggle (the conversation took place on email). “Who knows…but they don’t want to change anything too drastically. We’d been there a long time, almost 11 years, and pioneered the area on the “foodie” pub front. Time for a change now!” Fair enough. More news from the new owners when we have it.


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Kentish Town Neighbourhood Forum

2. Kentish Town Neighbourhood Forum update

Yesterday KTNF chairman Caroline Hill told us that, together with the Prince’s Foundation, they held a very successful day-long Neighbourhood Planning Workshop at St Luke’s, Oseney Crescent last Thursday. The workshop culminated in KTNF’s second AGM, attended by 62 people who live or work in the Forum area. “A new committee was elected,” she says, “discussing what people who live and work in Kentish Town really want to see happen here”.

Kentish Town Neighbourhood Forum has been selected by Creative Citizens of the Helen Hamlyn Centre, Royal College of Art, to be a Community Partner in a research project exploring the potential for digital and physical media to engage more people in our Neighbourhood Plan. That’s us, right?

Camden Town Tales Cover

“With Creative Citizens we are holding an Asset-Mapping Workshop later on in February. We will be discussing HS2 and how the proposed plans will affect everyone in Kentish Town,” says Caroline. “Last year we held a meeting with HS2 to help us to understand what might happen. Now we will be deciding whether to organize another meeting to put our points across. We have a project looking at accessibility for our main railway stations, especially Kentish Town West.”

3. Could Camden be the next Twilight?

Young Adult author Hilary Freeman launches the third book in her ‘Camden Town Tales’ series tonight at Waterstone’s on Camden High Street, starting at 6.45pm. The series is about a group of friends who all live on the same fictional street in Camden. Together, they hang out at the market, go to gigs, spot celebrities…standard Camden fare, naturally. So if you’ve got a handful of idle kids, drag ’em there pronto.

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4. Get your matinal kicks at KERB.

The lunchtime streetfeast that is KERB returned to King’s Boulevard this week, offering up a different selection of the capital’s best street food vendors Tuesday-Friday, 11am-2.30pm. With a ‘British Brunch’ theme, you’re looking at the likes of Original Fry-Up Material’s MabMuffin: ‘pucks of sausage patty and fried egg in a beautifully bouncy muffin with glossy cheese cascading down the sides.’ Two words: Mouth. Watering.

Map Cafe

5. The Kentish Home of Eclectic Music Fights Back.

Map Studio Cafe has quite the programme over the next few weeks. Tonight kicks off with the Julian Costello Quartet, described as ‘delicate and melodic saxophone led original material’, while next week sees the Jeremy Lyons Quartet on Thursday and the excellent sounding Afro Folk Sessions on Friday. Definitely worth swinging by this not-so-hidden gem (46 Grafton Road) if you fancy seeing – and hearing – something a tad different. Details for each performance are the same: £10 Entry, Doors at 7pm, performance from 8-11pm.

Newspaper

6. Get the Kiddies involved in Being Green.

Head down to Eleanor Palmer School this weekend for ‘Clio’s Crafty Workshops’, free family workshops where you can make fun things out out of everyday materials. This Saturday you’ll be able to engage in some newspaper crafts, making hats, baskets, toys, Valentine’s Day decorations and more, all using newspapers from the recycling bin. Everything is supplied, and you can book a morning (11am-12pm) or afternoon (2-3pm) session here or by emailing clio@ampersand-learning.com. 3yrs+ and, says Clio, no more than three children per adult.

Romeo + Juliet

7. Where Art Thou Romeo? Oh, in Highgate? Lovely.

A new production of The Bard’s timeless story of love and death being staged at The Gatehouse in Highgate is offering up quite the contemporary twist. Billed as Quadrophenia-meets-Shakespeare, it’s a unique celebration of the 40th anniversary of The Who’s rock opera. Interesting prospect, I’m sure you’ll agree. The production runs at The Gatehouse (1 North Road N6) from the 6th February – 2nd March 2013; Tuesday – Saturday 7.30pm & Sunday 4pm. Tickets (call 020 8340 3488) cost £10 (Tuesday); £14/£12 Concessions (Wednesday -Friday & Sunday); £16/£14 Concessions (Saturday) And guess what? We have one pair to give away to the first person to email us with the word ‘Romeo!’

Words: Conor Fisk, Tim Sowula and Stephen Emms

Got a story for the Pinboard? Email us 7-10 days upfront only at info@kentishtowner.co.uk – we are now receiving hundreds of emails a day so please bear with us if you don’t receive a response straight away. Many thanks!


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The award-winning print and online title Kentishtowner was founded in 2010 and is part of London Belongs To Me, a citywide network of travel guides for locals. For more info on what we write about and why, see our About section.