Fitzrovia News

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 [...]

Powell’s film masterpiece set in a shadowy Fitzrovia on big screen

6:33 pm, Thursday, 3 October 2019

One of British cinema’s most controversial films, and which was shot on location in and around Rathbone Street in Fitzrovia, will be screened on Friday and followed by a Q&A. Peeping Tom (1960) nearly ruined director Michael Powell’s career after it was [...]

Crucial decisions on ‘Oxford Street District’ by Westminster council sound alarm bells for community groups

1:15 pm, Wednesday, 2 October 2019

Community groups in Fitzrovia and Marylebone are bracing themselves for another battle with Westminster council in advance of crucial decisions being taken on the future of Oxford Street this autumn and winter. While full pedestrianisation of Oxford Street is off the agenda [...]

TfL limits buses to 10mph on Tottenham Court Road after ‘a number of collisions’ with pedestrians

11:16 pm, Tuesday, 1 October 2019

More than five months after Tottenham Court Road changed from one-way to two-way traffic a woman has become the fourth person to be struck by a southbound bus on the same pedestrian crossing. The woman, who has not been named, was hit by a route 29 bus operated by Arriva [...]

Greenery at public open space will be slashed under refurbishment plans

10:44 am, Wednesday, 25 September 2019

Camden Council has signed off plans that will see greenery cut back at Whitfield Gardens public open space in what the local authority says is an effort to save money on maintenance and stamp out public nuisance. It is only eight years since Whitfield Gardens on Tottenham [...]

Architects and engineers can play their part against climate change and habitat loss

10:54 am, Monday, 23 September 2019

Friday’s climate strike saw thousands of adults join the movement started by young people taking action against climate change and species extinction. These included many architects and engineers in Fitzrovia. “More than 100 assembled outside London’s [...]

Fitzrovia business owner says high rents and rates, and Crossrail delay, is putting her business at risk

9:04 pm, Wednesday, 18 September 2019

A Fitzrovia shop owner appeared on BBC’s Inside Out London programme this week to explain how the delay in the opening of Crossrail is affecting her business. Rowena Howie told BBC reporter Tom Edwards that she opened her shop Revival Retro in Fitzrovia in the hope [...]

Westminster council announces consultation on 20 mph limit

9:48 pm, Tuesday, 17 September 2019

Westminster council has finally a got around to consider a 20 miles per hour speed limit across the city with the announcement this week of a public consultation on the plans. If given the go ahead it will mean an end to the two different speed limits in operation on [...]

‘Lost murals’ from Camden Town Hall go on sale at auction

11:03 am, Tuesday, 17 September 2019

A collection of “lost murals” which depict images from the former borough of St Pancras are going on sale at auction next week, reports Spitalfields Life. The three oil paintings which measure nearly six foot by six foot are by artist Cecil Osborne (1909-1996) [...]

Comedy festival brings Edinburgh Fringe acts back to Fitzrovia pub

10:47 pm, Saturday, 14 September 2019

On Wednesday 18 September the “Objectively Funny Festival” returns to the Albany pub on Great Portland Street with acts from all over the comedy spectrum for a marathon 42 shows over 12 days. The festival will be fresh from Objectively Funny’s success as a [...]

Pedestrian crossing on Tottenham Court Road has become a collision hot spot

12:18 pm, Wednesday, 11 September 2019

A light-controlled crossing on Tottenham Court Road has become a collision hot spot after three pedestrians were seriously injured after being struck by buses in almost identical circumstances. Since April emergency services and collision investigators have attended the [...]

Dear Marie Stopes: ‘birth-control opera’ returns as a powerful melodic reminder

9:10 pm, Friday, 6 September 2019

‘Please help me!’ This heart-breaking refrain from Alex Mills’ chamber opera Dear Marie Stopes is drawn from the thousands of letters which Stopes received after her sex manual Married Love was published in 1918. The opera had its stunning premier last year at the [...]

Investigation of former hospital and workhouse site reveals intact human burial remains

11:17 am, Friday, 6 September 2019

An archaeological investigation at the Middlesex Hospital Annex and former Strand Union Workhouse site has recovered 55 intact human burials dating from 1780 to 1853 from three test trenches dug into the ground. The findings are revealed in a report by Museum of London [...]

Autumn events in The Regent’s Park will interest gardeners and night owls

8:01 pm, Wednesday, 4 September 2019

The Regent’s Park programme of autumn events kicks off this Saturday with an open day at the park’s allotment garden. Visitors can enjoy apple pressing and tasting, and take home some garden produce. There will be a children’s treasure hunt, and [...]

Film festival celebrates the art of non-fiction at London venues

10:22 am, Tuesday, 3 September 2019

The ninth edition of the Open City Documentary Festival opens this week and runs for seven days at various venues in central London. Celebrating the art of non-fiction, the festival champions the art of creative documentary and non-fiction filmmakers from around the world. [...]

Camden seeks views on the cumulative impact of construction projects

9:31 am, Tuesday, 3 September 2019

It’s a little late in the day but Camden’s planners have finally woken up to the fact that a pestilence of planning applications and property development south of the Euston Road is having a negative impact on everyone’s lives. Camden’s strategic [...]

Third collision involving bus and pedestrian at junction of Tottenham Court Road and Torrington Place

8:09 pm, Monday, 2 September 2019

A pedestrian has been seriously injured after being struck by a southbound bus on Tottenham Court Road on Monday 2 September, the third such collision since the street was converted to two-way traffic in April. Fitzrovia News understands that a southbound doubledecker bus [...]

New Brexit group is stuffed above a restaurant in Charlotte Street

4:33 pm, Saturday, 31 August 2019

People chomping down sausages and slurping bubbly in a Charlotte Street restaurant will likely be unaware that in a room above their heads is the registered London office of a US-based pro-Brexit lobbying group. Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit party, hosted a launch for [...]