Charming - just totally charming

This blog has posted before about the Steele's pub, but just around the corner (almost behind) are the two mews named after Richard Steele.

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2009/01/pub-in-which-to-put-pen-to-paper.html

Mews are quite common in this part of north London, but boy are these two charming and pretty. Dated to 1875 they are just lovely.

The cottage that preceeded the mews was demolished in the mid 1860's - it's quite possible that the arch that is dated 1875 is the last part of the construction over the previous couple of years.

This is just a gratuitous appreciation of them. :-)

Keep up at the back, it's changed already!

Ha! No sooner had I put up the previous post on the shop front in Flask Walk than I was up in Hampstead...

Blow me down if the shop hasn't been re-opened as this ice cream parlour (pic right).

So I thought it only polite to update the blog with the after as well as the before!

A good cut on request

I gave the retirement of Steele's the Butcher's in Hampstead quite a lot of coverage and was pulled up sharp in sunday by a resident who said I hadn't givent he same coverage to her local butcher...


So here putting the record straight is Barretts Traditional Butchers - they are in England's Lane, Belsize Park, and they do a roaring trade

They do food to order and to season and so are able to cater for all tastes and needs.

It's not unusual to see a long queue so get there early.

It's quite interesting to note the extent to which there were butchers in each local shopping parade and the extent to which these have no closed down in favour of the in house supermarket butchery provision.

Of course I will be giving coverage to the butcher on the Kilburn High Road have no fear... more to follow.

Butchers - and then there was one

With the closure of Steele's in Flask Walk the end of butchers in north london seemed terminal, when I was reminded that there was a butcher in South End Green - just on parliament hill.

Sadly now long gone, but happily this shop front preserved...

For old time's sake I have put in the link for the Steele's pictures below.

In line with the Ham and High this week I ought to point out that for over 100 years Barrett's have operated in England's Lane and anyone who wants advice and quality from a good local butchers would be advised to head there...

Here is the notice that sat in the window of Flask Walk butchers - currently being used as a store by the local traders... whoever moves in i just hope they keep the blood red tiled interior so typical of old butchers and fish shops.



http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/12/when-is-it-too-late-to-try.html

Long live the fresh fishmongers shop!

It might be considered sentimental, it might be slightly daft, but my deep affection for local independent shops is at the core of my political beliefs.

This fishmongers in Kilburn, on the High Road, encapsulates it for me - local, genuine, fresh, popular.

The whole notion of what makes up a strong thriving community is demonstrated by this fishmonger - for me it is as important as the butchers was in Hampstead (before it closed!).

So it's really very simple - use it or lose it. I use it - please do go along - they're friendly, helpful, informative, great value...

KILBURN: the closer you look... the better it gets!

When is it too late to try?

Steele's the butchers in Hampstead is to close.
Joe is retiring after a lifetime and so it will cease trading in the near future.

I'm not close to Joe at all - I pop in there occasionally, grateful and delighted to have a local independent butcher - I was in there last week to buy my copy of the Hampstead meat cook book, but is this the sort of thing you try and 'save'?

Linda Chung, the energetic Hampstead village campaigner, hit the nail on the head when she was reported in the Ham and High as saying there should be some kind of planning definition that replaces like-with-like. A formal planning guidance note that stops everything becoming a national/international coffee chain or mobile phone shop... that enables a local council, under request from the community to designate certain shops and locations to certain uses and identities.

There is talk in the village of some residents investing in the butchers (buying it?) and trying to keep it as a going concern, but there are also rumours that it is sold already and will become an office/shop front for a parking enforcement company...

Either way doesn't fill you with huge amount of hope, and I suspect there is more to it all than meets the eye. What I do know is that I care passionately for Hampstead, I love its village atmosphere, the area is the better for independent shops and Flask Walk is one of the most valuable illustrations of this.

'Something must be done' is the easy cry - but the fact is local planning laws are not flexible enough, it would require a Government amendment and no Labour or Tory Government has been prepared to countenance such devolved power... I fear this one will just slip past us and we will all be there to watch and regret it, powerless and sad.