FN Newsletter 18-05-2023
FN Newsletter 18-05-2023
Goodge Street closed to through motor traffic, later hours for Rathbone Street restaurant, evening art, filming again, and the latest public consultations.
In this issue we have a brief update of the latest news and public consultations in the neighbourhood.
Covid is still a concern with an infection rate persisting at just under two percent of the population of the UK. Please follow NHS advice to avoid catching and spreading the virus. Vaccination information is on Camden’s website and Westminster’s website.
Camden’s licensing panels are still doing their best to make parts of Fitzrovia unlivable. The council’s Statement of Licensing Policy says: “We must seek to ensure that our residents can peacefully enjoy their homes and environment whilst also encouraging responsible and positive business investment and economic growth.” So that means granting a licence to stay open until 2am.
Thames Water appear to have dug several holes at random in Fitzrovia. One excavation is at Goodge Street. I’ve also spotted holes at Tottenham Court Road at the junction of University Street, and at Candover Street.
The Fitzrovia West Neighbourhood Forum will hold its annual general meeting tonight (Thursday) and will host a discussion on Westminster Council’s proposed traffic changes to Oxford Street.
Another film crew is due to traipse through the neighbourhood briefly on Thursday 1 June. They are threatening to park a mobile generator on Grafton Way and Fitzroy Square. I do hope the residents in the Indian YMCA, or anywhere else, are not downwind of it.
Evening art exhibitions are on offer again. Eight galleries will be open for a one-off event this month.
The Old Diorama Arts Centre, just across the Euston Road, is looking for five local people who live in Camden to take part in a street theatre. “This is a paid role. It will be performed at two summer outdoor festivals in Camden in July, with the possibility of adding a third,” say Old Diorama.
Fitzrovia has also been in the national media for all the wrong reasons this month. I’m not fond of the Daily Mail but this is the most comprehensive — and distressing — report on the Old Bailey trial which heard how 16-year-old Alex Smith was chased by six men along Great Portland Street before being murdered in Munster Square in the Regent’s Park Estate.
If you want to get in touch with us to tell us what you think of our reporting, have a question, or would like to contribute to Fitzrovia News please email us at news@fitzrovianews.com
— Linus Rees, editor
The latest on our website
Restaurant gains later hours despite pleas from local residents and businesses
A Fitzrovia restaurant offering pan-Indian cuisine has won an extension to its hours after councillors on a Camden licensing panel agreed to additional measures to prevent noise nuisance, despite opposition from neighbouring residents and businesses, writes Julia Gregory, Local Democracy Reporter.
Goodge Street is closed to through motor traffic
Art eight to open late for evening views
Single scene shoot for romcom at Fitzroy Square
Public consultations
Planning applications in Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia East, May 2023
Planning applications in Fitzrovia West, May 2023
Westminster Council validated planning applications in Fitzrovia West so far during May 2023.
Printed newspapers
Our next printed newspaper will be available from outside Fitzrovia Community Centre, 2 Foley Street, along with the weekly Camden New Journal and the Westminster Extra, in early June. The following printed edition of Fitzrovia News (an A4 sheet) will be published in September, and subsequent issues every three months, with the occasional special issues. See the newspaper archive for back issues.