Kilburn State Cinema - end of year developments

I have earlier posted about the future of the Kilburn State cinema venue on the Kilburn High Road [http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/11/kilburn-state-final-closing-days.html] - two major developments have since occurred.

The first is the emergence of a group of residents up for pushing forward a positive agenda for the venue - mindful of its historical and architectural significance to the High Road and locality - but also wanting to see the building back in use and accessible to the public.

To that end we held a vigil on the 70th anniversary of the building being opening on 20th December 1937 - just in time for Christmas.

The was held at short notice but was brilliantly well supported.

Thanks to Councillors Anthony Dunn, Derek Jackson, Janet Grauberg, James King, David Abrahams and Russell Eagling for attending and helping.

A special thanks to Oliver Curry who set up http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savethekilburnstate/ and who sent round an email highlighting the vigil. Also heartfelt thanks to the residents and traders who came along - it was cold and windy!

After some discussion we have now resolved to formalise a group of residents and traders passionate about the buildings significance to establish a clear vision for the future.

The next major development however, is the news that the Kilburn State has been sold by Rank Mecca to the Ruach Inspirational Church of God - based in the UK in Brixton. The good news of this is that it isn't a property developer determined to make proft through exploitation of the site, but it raises a whole load of additional questions.

We will be working with Brent and Camden Councils to try and get a real meaningful dialogue with the new owners and secure some good access for the community - there are lots of ideas - we just now need to get the talking going and the action identified...

'The Pavement' on Mill Lane

Some roads you think you know so well and then 'bingo' you notice a feature for the first time. Yesterday was one of those.

I have been up and down, onto and across Mill Lane, West Hampstead, more often than I can remember and yet I had never noticed this sign that identified 'The Pavement 1888'. Now of course, this range of shops running from 41-83 Mill Lane on the North side are a great little run - inlcuding the famous Mill Lane Post Office.

So a bit of digging in the books at home and the best insights I can currently find is in 'Kilburn and West Hampstead, Weindling and Colloms' which references actor Joss Ackland as saying:

"I remember the little row of shops [The Pavement] around the corner. The sweet shop with liquorice bootlaces - all different colours; Mickey Mouse toffees - twopence a quarter; packets of Imps - tiny sweets made from liquorice with menthol, with the kick of a mule; pennyslabs of choclate - brown and white; packets of sherbet with liquorice straws; bottles of Tizer and fizzy tablets that exploded in the mouth.

"There was a chemist that smelt of camphor and a grocer where the salty rashers of bacon blended with the sweet icing smell of biscuit animals, and a hardware store with bundles of wood to light fires and the smell of parafin lamps, and of course, the newsagent and toy shop with copies of the Buzzer, Magnet, Gem, Champion and Film Fun and many others, sometimes with magnificent free gifts - water pistols, Japanese flowers that erupted from the shells when put in water and divers that bobbed up and down in the bath.

"And there were the soldiers and the cowboys were of lead - penny ones that stood; twopenny ones on horseback and sixpenny knights with removable swords - mounted magnificent and unobtainable."

The row is still a busy parade of shops and of course includes the popular Mill Lane Post Office. The picture here is taken from Mill Lane, where Aldred Road drops down onto it - for reference this is just opposite the top of Holmdale Road.

Granny Dripping's Stairs - West Hampstead

There is small footbridge in West Hampstead from where Priory Road meets Broadhurst Gardens. It's just an old railway bridge, but there is something of a story hidden behind it all - the reason why this arouses such comment at all is that it has as a route, gained a lot of traffic since the growth of the O2 Centre on Finchley Road and yet it has lain uncared for and increasingly unpleasant.


Locally the steps are known as Granny Dripping Steps [Granny's Stairs and also Granny Drippen's Stairs/Steps - apparently named from her bread and dripping sandwhiches] - named after the crossing sweeper who at the turn of the 19th/20th Century swept the stairs. The historical suggestion is that she was old ["looking for all the world like the witch in Hansel and Gretel"] and relatively ineffective at clearing the mud and muck that accumulated.


Now we have a need for Granny Dripping to return - in short the stairs are neglected and are a really unpleasant mess - graffiti, overhead wire meshing, broken bottles, litter under the steps and often dog mess... But of course no-one is clear who owns or maintains the steps. The network of rail companies makes for a labrynth of avenues.


So it's a cause that we have agreed to take up - working with Cllr David Abrahams we have started the task of unpicking the various responsibilities and seeing if we can allocate some direct and sustained improvements...


Local resident Jean Austin joined David and I when we looked at the steps and the need for a serious clean-up is pretty self evident - we'll keep you informed.

It was cold in West Hampstead last night!

I know it's one of the great British conversation pieces - but blooming heck it was nippy last night.

A pretty hectic round of events, AGMs, christmas drinks and meetings meant I was rushing from location to location.

The new coat was warm but it didn;t cover my ears and I hadn't got gloves so I got the full benefit of the 'chill'.

Just browsing through my computer files this morning, I noticed this (pic left) engraving from Robert Bloomfield's Farmer's Boy first edition (1801) of the winter scene - the attraction of the open fire and it's camaraderie that goes with that I think has just served to remind me of just how cold it was.

In terms of events and activities a huge well done to UCS for the Centenary Carol Service at St John's Parish Church, Hampstead - Poulenc, Rutter and JB (Junior Boys School) singing 'Little Donkey' - what more could you want at Christmas to set the seasonal cheer. :-) You really get a sense that UCS is a learning community - strong, confident, fun, but crucially inquisitive and challenging and it is this that I find impressive.

And Queen's Park Residents Association (also last night) - a very impressive RA and truly with a clear idea of what they should do, how they fight on local issues and keep a really active watching brief over the local area. Cllr Mark Cummins and Emily Tancred were there - I'm always impressed and amazed at just how assiduous and hard working they both are for their area and residents.

I also had some appointments with residents on very specific topics, some considerable number of letters to sign and then the attendant emails and post for the day...

Yep, I like actually handwriting letters...

The now perennial, season and annual debate on the design of our end of year psued Christmas Card was less painful than usual due to a tight timetable - but I'm appending here the main artwork design background for Hampstead and Kilburn Liberal Democrats this year.

I still like Christmas Cards - it feels old fashioned but I have an ink pen, I like writing letters - for me the personal thoughts, news and greetings is a relaxation that reminds me of friends and family of whom I see too little. So the coming week is a joyous prospect of letter and letter and letter again - to the scatter of family and friends - often it's something I allow to spill over into the post Christmas, pre-New Year period... this year, mainly because of the threat of a General Election I have missed too many birthdays so the annual letter write-fest that is Christmas for me will be especially heavy. :-)

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.

"Live differently" - living life as a Blakean

I have an interest in romantic 19th century poet Robert Bloomfield. Such an obscure poet (he was the best selling poet of his lifetime and indeed one of the best selling of the entire Victorian period) means you end up referencing your interest by the 'other' more household names.

In the case of Robert Bloomfield these are John Clare and William Blake. Clare was the great articulation of rural england and his reputation is increasingly being restored to public attention - Blake has enjoyed long recognition as illustrator, artist, poet and of course the author of 'jerusalem'. But of course, Blake has acted as an inspiration to many and some, try and lead lives that are actively Blakean...

All three poets have a respective society, but one of the leading champions of William Blake, his work, his lifestyle and beliefs, Peter Cadogan, has passed away: http://www.thecnj.co.uk/camden/2007/112207/obit112207.html

Here is what others said about him:

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/11/part-of-kilburn-has-passed-away.html

And for more on William Blake - this is a good start:

http://www.blakean.com/Blake1.html

and this is of contemporary interest in placing Blake in context:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/11/blakean_visions_in_south_londo.html