Fitzrovia News

New venue for Bloomsbury ward councillors’ surgery

5:12 pm, Tuesday, 4 February 2020

Camden’s Bloomsbury ward councillors have a new venue to hold regular meetings with constituents. On the first Friday evening of every month, Councillors Sabrina Francis, Adam Harrison, or Rishi Madlani will now be available at The 52 Club at 52 Gower Street to meet [...]

Sleepless residents’ anger makes McGee apologise for overnight work

4:14 pm, Tuesday, 4 February 2020

Contractors McGee working for American private equity firm Westbrook Partners apologised to local residents after they ignored environmental protection regulations to erect a crane on a street in Fitzrovia overnight denying local people the chance to sleep. Residents [...]

Great Portland Street crown post office to close and pass into private hands

3:28 pm, Tuesday, 4 February 2020

One of the last remaining crown post offices in the West End and the only one serving Fitzrovia is to close this year and be taken over by a private operator. “Great Portland Street Crown Post Office workers were given the bad news at a staff meeting this [...]

Busy Soho walk-in health centre under threat of closure

10:49 pm, Thursday, 30 January 2020

A busy health clinic used by tens of thousands of local residents, workers and visitors to the West End every year will have to close unless changes to the way it operates can be made, say NHS managers. The Central London Clinical Commissioning Group are proposing to close [...]

Plans for roof-high office chill-zone give local residents the creeps

9:24 am, Thursday, 23 January 2020

Designers behind a massive sun-seeking terrace in Fitzrovia have stunned locals by omitting its crucial south-facing vista from photos sent to planners. Applicants renovating 60 Charlotte Street withdrew plans late last year for their third story piazza after residents with [...]

High air pollution forecast for inner London

10:02 am, Monday, 20 January 2020

The department of environment is forecasting high air pollution over inner London today. Defra says “light winds and areas of fog in the south may inhibit dispersal of locally-generated pollution and lead to areas of High air pollution”. Air pollution is [...]

Much loved cat goes missing on Cleveland Street. Have you seen him?

6:18 pm, Sunday, 19 January 2020

A much loved black cat has gone missing and we are asking readers of Fitzrovia News if they have seen him. “He is very much loved and we miss him so very much,” says Verity who contacted us. “He has been missing since 30 December from our flat on Cleveland [...]

Friends group puzzled why hawthorn tree in Fitzrovia park is sprouting blossom four months early

8:29 pm, Monday, 6 January 2020

A hawthorn tree in a public park in Fitzrovia is already showing off some blossom, yet it is only the first week of January. The Friends of Fitzrovia Parks have reported that the tree in Crabtree Fields on the corner of Colville Place and Whitfield Street is showing signs [...]

Public consultation on Fitzrovia West Neighbourhood Forum renewal application

8:00 pm, Monday, 6 January 2020

The Fitzrovia West Neighbourhood Forum is seeking to renew its status as a recognised neighbourhood planning body and has applied to Westminster council to continue its role for another five years. The Fitzrovia West Neighbourhood Area was designated in March 2014 and the [...]

Children’s nursery open again under new management

9:56 am, Wednesday, 18 December 2019

The children’s nursery in Whitfield Street has opened again under new management after being closed for more than a year. The Fitzrovia Nursery, which has space for up to 24 full time children, opened with little fanfare in September and hopes to increase the number of [...]

Westminster council has a problem with air pollution and FOI requests

9:17 am, Wednesday, 18 December 2019

Sign saying: "Switch off engine. Reduce emissions.

Westminster council wants people to help it improve air quality by reporting drivers running their engines when parked but hasn’t got a clue where the worst offenders are located, according to a Freedom of Information request made by a Fitzrovia resident. Yet despite what [...]

All Souls School winter fair 2019

2:50 pm, Tuesday, 3 December 2019

All Souls Primary School is holding its annual winter fair this Friday and promises lots of festive and fun activities. There will be lots of stalls to choose from with cakes, popcorn, savoury food, mulled wine and hot chocolate among the many treats on offer. There will [...]

Pub signs of Prince Andrew “are going nowhere” says landlord

1:31 pm, Monday, 25 November 2019

A Fitzrovia pub is gaining a lot of attention over the past week for all the wrong reasons. For the past five years the Duke of York in Rathbone Street has had two large images of Prince Andrew emblazoned on the outside of the building after special permission was granted [...]

Gower Street resurfacing and a confusing set of diversions

12:07 pm, Monday, 25 November 2019

People living on Grafton Way as well as staff and patients at University College Hospital are taking the brunt of the current traffic diversions as Camden Council’s West End Project grinds towards its final act. The air on TfL’s gyratory around the hospital is [...]

Museum is keeping the drama of toy theatre alive with a new exhibition

6:59 am, Monday, 4 November 2019

A special exhibition featuring 14 artists will reflect on the unique collection of dolls, teddy bears, and toy theatres, at Pollock’s Toy Museum in Fitzrovia this month. A Pollock’s Gallimaufry will be a month long event showing works by contemporary artists [...]

Local councillor takes a step closer in contest to become an MP

1:49 pm, Friday, 1 November 2019

A local councillor has made it on to the “long list” of Labour candidates to fight the Cities of London and Westminster parliamentary constituency in December’s general election, reports LabourList. Pancho Lewis, who was first elected last year to [...]

Photographic exhibition revisits Booth’s survey of a district

10:52 am, Tuesday, 29 October 2019

A new exhibition takes a contemporary look through the lens of a camera at the people and places in a London district first described by social reformer Charles Booth more than a century ago. John Angerson, an award-winning photographer and artist in residence at the Old [...]

Ten days of events take off in a moon-gazing celebration of Bloomsbury

10:24 am, Friday, 11 October 2019

The first events of the Bloomsbury Festival are launched today with a moonlight street party in Store Street to celebrate the 50 years since the first moon landing — the theme for this year’s festival. There will be 10 days of events, many of them free, taking [...]

Film: Reclaim housing as a human right, not a commodity

2:03 pm, Thursday, 10 October 2019

The increasing cost of housing and the lack of homes for ordinary people is happening because the wishes of global capital are serviced over and above the needs of the many. As Architects for Social Housing have observed: “Building more homes does not push house and [...]

Bloomsbury, Fitzrovia and the origins of eugenics

7:59 am, Friday, 4 October 2019

In the first of a new two-part documentary on BBC Four, science journalist Angela Saini and disability rights activist Adam Pearson take a walk around Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia to discover the people and the institutions behind the controversial idea that the human race can [...]