Fitzrovia News

Volunteers sought for Camden rough sleeper count

10:06 pm, Monday, 14 May 2018

Someone sleeping on the street under a blanket.

Camden Safer Streets Team will be carrying out a comprehensive count of people sleeping rough in the borough this week and is looking for volunteers from the community to help. In the autumn of 2017 an official count revealed that there were total of 1,137 rough sleepers in [...]

Summer gardening club aims to make Fitzrovia greener, not more commercial

9:31 am, Tuesday, 1 May 2018

A new gardening club will be launched on Saturday at one of Fitzrovia’s most used and abused public open spaces ahead of London becoming the world’s first National Park City. Volunteers from the Friends of Fitzrovia Parks will be spending an hour every Saturday [...]

Wilkie Collins lived out the double identities of his characters

10:52 pm, Monday, 30 April 2018

Scene from BBC adaption of The Woman in White.

Of all the 19th century Fitzrovians who had secret families, Wilkie Collins is probably my favourite. Famous for ‘sensation novels’ such as The Woman in White and The Moonstone, Collins was adept at probing the hypocrisy that underpinned bourgeois family values in [...]

Westminster Tories in disarray, Labour opposition defies Mayor, and new party to fight Oxford Street pedestrianisation

11:41 pm, Sunday, 29 April 2018

Plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street have caused Westminster council’s Tory leadership and their Labour opponents to defy Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, and have given birth to a single issue party to fight the local elections this Thursday. Westminster’s cabinet [...]

If we don’t care for our own backyard then nobody else is likely to

5:06 pm, Wednesday, 11 April 2018

By Griff Rhys Jones There are big plans for Oxford Street in the offing. You may already know of them and they are certainly going to affect the residents who live around that retail artery. There was a consultation with Transport for London, but it appears that they put up [...]

Parks group plans summer wildflower display in Whitfield Gardens

9:17 am, Tuesday, 3 April 2018

The Friends of Fitzrovia Parks will be holding a wildflower planting day in Whitfield Gardens on Saturday morning. Collections of native wildflowers will give an attractive display this summer and will help boost the populations of butterflies, bees, and birds. Seeds [...]

Tributes left for homeless man who died sleeping on Tottenham Court Road

8:44 am, Tuesday, 3 April 2018

Bunches of flowers and messages have been left on Tottenham Court Road in memory of a homeless man who died last week while sleeping on the street. The Huffington Post reports that a man who was aged in his 40s and was known as “Irish Keith” died on the pavement [...]

Mortgage providers will not lend for affordable homes at West End site

1:25 pm, Friday, 23 March 2018

A Westminster council planning committee is being asked to approve a legal agreement to enable affordable homes at a landmark West End development to be re-sold at market prices because mortgage lenders will no longer finance the type of property offered. The [...]

Oxford Street consultation report withdrawn after responses were not counted

10:15 am, Tuesday, 20 March 2018

A report analysing the responses to a consultation on the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street has had to be withdrawn after it was discovered Transport for London gave out an incorrect email address for respondents to use. Last week Val Shawcross, deputy mayor for transport, [...]

A history of every street in Fitzrovia West

12:00 pm, Tuesday, 6 March 2018

A comprehensive history of every street in western Fitzrovia is included in the recently published Survey of London for South East Marylebone (Volume 52, Part 2). It includes archive pictures of many pubs, concert halls, places of worship, historic restaurants, art schools, [...]

Camden plans two years of chaos with ‘ground breaking project’

12:49 pm, Sunday, 4 March 2018

Residents and businesses in Fitzrovia will have to endure two years of disruption as work is due to kick off this week to transform the Gower Street and Tottenham Court Road one-way system in what Camden Council describes as a “ground breaking project”. All bus services [...]

Police appeal for information after men are charged with Camden murders

1:48 pm, Thursday, 1 March 2018

Police have charged a Fitzrovia man with two murders and serious assaults which took place on a single night of violence in Camden. Eighteen-year-old Isaiah Popoola of Grafton Way WC1 is accused of killing 17-year-old Abdikarim Hassan and 20-year-old Sadiq Aadam Mohamed. He [...]

‘In another life I was a teacher. Now I’m a refugee’ – film tells story of life at Calais camp known as the ‘Jungle’

11:48 am, Tuesday, 6 February 2018

The camp outside Calais known as the “Jungle”, once home to thousands of people, was demolished by French authorities in 2016. Now a new film tells the story of the camp from a refugee’s perspective. In Another Life was shot on location in the Calais [...]

Multiplex cancels overnight working on Charlotte Street site after pressure from local residents

7:16 pm, Thursday, 25 January 2018

International construction contractor Multiplex has caved in to pressure from residents and abandoned its plans for an overnight concrete pour at the redevelopment of the former Saatchi & Saatchi building on Charlotte Street. The construction site is Derwent [...]

Derwent and Multiplex want 24-hour construction on Charlotte Street

2:24 pm, Saturday, 20 January 2018

Construction giant Multiplex are pressing Camden Council to allow them to work through the night on Derwent London’s largest office and residential development, to play catch-up on a site which has been dogged by delays. Mutiplex wants to pour concrete onto steelwork [...]

Interactive artworks illuminate Fitzrovia evenings

9:11 pm, Friday, 12 January 2018

Lumiere London, the free outdoor light festival, is coming to Fitzrovia this month with installations incorporating lights and sound that will animate buildings and spaces. You will find interactive artworks by international artists at four locations in Fitzrovia. Jump and [...]

Appeal to identify man found collapsed near University College Hospital

3:43 pm, Sunday, 31 December 2017

Police are trying to identify a man who collapsed outside University College Hospital on Euston Road and is currently in a coma. Detectives from Camden are appealing for help from the public to identify a man who collapsed outside the hospital at around 1630hrs on Tuesday, [...]

Residents had ‘lucky escape’ after fire in New Cavendish Street flat

4:57 pm, Friday, 29 December 2017

Fire fighters were called to a fire at a basement flat on New Cavendish Street in Fitzrovia in the early hours of Friday morning. Three fire engines and 14 fire fighters and officers from Soho and Paddington attended the scene after receiving an emergency call. The Brigade [...]

Cycling is part of the solution to London’s transport challenge

9:38 pm, Thursday, 28 December 2017

Mayor Sadiq Khan wants to ban cycling along Oxford Street, yet it is an important route for cyclists connecting east and west London. So why is the London Cycling Campaign asking people to support the Mayor’s plans? Transport for London are asking people’s views [...]

Residents and business asked to say ‘no’ to Oxford Street plans

10:30 am, Monday, 18 December 2017

Better Oxford Street, the campaign formed by the amenity societies in Fitzrovia, Marylebone, Mayfair and Soho (and backed by Fitzrovia News) is asking residents and local business to say “no” in the current consultation on plans for the “transformation” of [...]

Cycling is part of the solution to London’s transport challenge

9:38 pm, Thursday, 28 December 2017

Mayor Sadiq Khan wants to ban cycling along Oxford Street, yet it is an important route for cyclists connecting east and west London. So why is the London Cycling Campaign [...]
Mother’s journey to love her ‘imperfect’ daughter revealed in intimate portraits

2:11 pm, Tuesday, 5 December 2017

An exhibition telling the story of a mother and the special relationship with her daughter who was born with Down’s Syndrome opens this week at the former Middlesex [...]
Most local residents oppose or have concerns about Oxford Street plans

11:17 am, Wednesday, 11 October 2017

People living in the neighbourhoods near Oxford Street have come out strongly against plans to pedestrianise the shopping street because of concerns about displacing motor [...]
Fitzrovia charity calls for tough action on air pollution in central London

12:04 am, Tuesday, 20 June 2017

A Fitzrovia charity has called on the Mayor of London to take tougher action to combat air pollution in central London by restricting motor vehicles on high pollution days. [...]
Women’s art group to take part in pop art exhibition at British Museum

7:21 am, Friday, 26 May 2017

A Fitzrovia women’s art group will join other community organisations this summer in putting on a display of pop art at the British Museum. London Pop is a collaborative [...]