A local campaign to protect a children’s nursery and playground on Whitfield Street in Fitzrovia has been successful.

Camden Council has registered the site at 54a Whitfield Street at the junction with Chitty Street as an Asset of Community Value (ACV), after a successful application and campaign by The Fitzrovia Trust.

The land has been leased to the Fitzrovia Trust until 2027 but Camden Council is the freeholder and could decide in future to sell the land to developers as property prices in Fitzrovia are so high.

Registering the site as an ACV gives it some protection and is a material consideration in any future planning application to change the use of the site.

After reviewing the application and supporting evidence the council agreed to make the designation.

“It is considered that the nomination provides sufficient evidence to demonstrate that Whitfield Street Children’s Playground and Nursery is a well-used community asset, which furthers the social wellbeing of the local community,” states the decision.

The Fitzrovia Trust said: “The playground and nursery are both very important community facilities. The Trust will make every effort to ensure these facilities continue to be open and available to those living and working in Fitzrovia and the wider area.”

The playground and nursery will be added to the list of assets of community value and it will stay on the list for up to five years starting from 20 May 2024. After the five years the ACV status can be renewed.

In February Camden Council designated the Launderette at 86a-88 Cleveland Street as an ACV, after an application was made by the Charlotte Street Association residents’ group.

In making the decision Camden Council said: “It is considered that the nomination provides sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the Launderette was a well-used community asset, which furthered the social wellbeing of the local community.”

However, the application was made while a planning application was pending to change the site to a coffee shop. That planning application was approved but the council stated “it is realistic to consider the premises could be used as a launderette in the future”.

The launderette site will remain on the ACV list for up to five years starting from 1 February 2024.

In 2015 the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre at 39 Tottenham Street was listed as an ACV after an application submitted by The Fitzrovia Trust. Its designation was successfully renewed in September 2023.

ACV letter: Whitfield Street Children’s Playground and Nursery, 54a Whitfield Street, London W1T 4ER (pdf).

ACV letter: Launderette, 86a-88 Cleveland Street, London W1T 6NJ (pdf).

https://fitzrovianews.com/2024/06/04/campaign-to-protect-childrens-nursery-and-playground-succeeds/

#assetOfCommunityValue #CamdenCouncil #WhitfieldStreet

Other Wines & Bites Ltd has applied to Camden Council for a new premises licence at Maya, 19 Goodge Street, on the corner with Whitfield Street in Fitzrovia.

The application seeks permission for the sale of alcohol to drink on the premises from 12noon until 10pm, every day.

The business is described as a cafe and occupies the ground floor, basement, and an outside seating area for which they are also applying separately for a tables and chairs licence.

To view the details of the application and make a comment, search Camden’s public licensing register for the following reference:

APP\PREMISES-NEW\121020, Maya, 19 Goodge Street, London W1T 2PH.

A public consultation on the application runs until 10 June 2024.

Residents in Camden may also contact the Charlotte Street Association for help and advice in responding to planning and licensing applications.

https://fitzrovianews.com/2024/05/14/licensing-application-maya-19-goodge-street/

#CamdenCouncil #GoodgeStreet #licensing #licensingApplications #publicConsultations #WhitfieldStreet

Twenty-First Amendment Ltd has applied to Camden Council to vary the premises licence at The Royal Cocktail Exchange, 31 Windmill Street, on the corner of Whitfield Street in Fitzrovia.

The current licence (PREM-LIC\2256) permits the sale of alcohol to drink on and off the premises from 11am to 11pm Monday to Saturday, and from 11am to 10:30pm on Sunday.

Permission is now sought to extend the hours for the sale of alcohol until 11:30pm from Monday to Thursday, and until midnight on Friday and Saturday.

To view the details of the application and make a comment, search Camden’s public licensing register for the following reference:

APP\PREMISES-VARY\120901, 31 Windmill Street, London W1T 2JN.

The last day for making a representation is 30 May 2024.

Residents in Camden may also contact the Charlotte Street Association for help and advice in responding to planning and licensing applications.

https://fitzrovianews.com/2024/05/07/licensing-application-the-royal-cocktail-exchange-31-windmill-street/

#CamdenCouncil #licensing #licensingApplications #publicConsultations #WhitfieldStreet #WindmillStreet

Artist Simon Klein is holding an exhibition of paintings and drawings entitled, Love in the time of…, at The Fitzrovia Gallery this week.

He works in a wide range of media, including drawing, watercolour, oil painting, gouache and pastels, and is a teacher of art and design at Kingston College.

Love in the time of…, by Simon Klein, from 7 to 11 May 2024 at The Fitzrovia Gallery, 139 Whitfield Street, London W1T 5EN.

https://fitzrovianews.com/2024/05/07/works-by-artist-simon-klein-at-the-fitzrovia-gallery/

#art #exhibitions #listings #TheFitzroviaGallery #WhitfieldStreet

A local charity is asking for help in protecting a children’s nursery and playground on Whitfield Street in Fitzrovia to preserve it for generations to come.

The Fitzrovia Trust wants Camden Council to designate the green space and children’s centre as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) to protect it from being redeveloped for commercial gain.

The land at 54a Whitfield Street at the junction with Chitty Street is currently leased to the Fitzrovia Trust until 2027. Camden Council is the freeholder and could decide in future to sell the land to developers as property prices in Fitzrovia are so high.

The Trust has submitted an ACV application with evidence to show that it is of value to the residential community.

The site has been used as a community facility since the early 1970s. In 2005 it was closed and under threat from the council who were considering selling it.

But it was saved and re-opened as a nursery in 2008 after The Fitzrovia Trust secured a 20-year lease on the site after striking an agreement with Camden Council.

Since 2022 Rainbow Angels Nurseries has operated on the site in a newly renovated building and improved outdoor play area.

More recently the location has also benefited from an air quality monitoring station as part of the Breathe London network.

However, Fitzrovia News understands that the bean counters at Camden Council could consider other options for the site when that 20-year lease ends in 2027 — including selling the freehold to the highest bidder.

The Trust wants to prevent that from happening and is asking local people to write to the council in support of the ACV application, which the council is currently considering.

To succeed the council needs to see evidence in the form of testimonials, letters of support and statements from local people — especially parents and carers of children who use the facility — explaining why they consider the site should continue to be used as a playground and nursery.

Anyone who would like to support this application should write a short email with the subject line “Whitfield Street Nursery and Playground” to [email protected] stating their reasons for supporting the application.

When these facilities have been registered as Assets of Community Value, and should they come up for sale, the Fitzrovia Trust has six months to try to raise the market value to buy the site. If this application is unsuccessful, the site could be sold off. 

https://fitzrovianews.com/2024/04/26/local-charity-seeks-help-to-protect-childrens-nursery-and-playground/

#CamdenCouncil #TheFitzroviaTrust #WhitfieldStreet

Ten artists are showing their works in a single group exhibition at the Fitzrovia Gallery in Whitfield Street this month.

“Universes”, which is curated by İlayda Uzunarslan, features works by Billur Engin, Dilek Hermenci, Feride Morçay, Hilal Danacı, İbrahim Türk, Marinella Pashova, Özlem Yüksel, Sanem Güvercin, Sezin Aksoy and Tansel Tanyeri.

“Every place carries the soul of the people it contains. Their identities, thoughts and dreams determine the identity of the places they are in. The house, the universe, the body are actually the same. They all host souls, thoughts, dreams and emotions,” says Uzunarslan.

“Universes” by various artists, until 17 March 2024 at the Fitzrovia Gallery, 139 Whitfield Street, London W1T 5EN. Open daily from 11am to 5pm.

https://fitzrovianews.com/2024/03/14/ten-artists-show-universes-at-the-fitzrovia-gallery/

#art #artGalleries #exhibitions #listings #TheFitzroviaGallery #WhitfieldStreet

A newly installed monitoring station has been recording the air pollution outside a children’s nursery and playground in Whitfield Street, and the public are invited to attend an event at the site this Saturday to learn more about the project.

The air pollution monitor is part of the Breathe London network — run by the Environmental Research Group at Imperial College London who run the London Air Quality Network — and has been set up by the Fitzrovia Trust, a registered charity which owns the nursery site and playground.

“We want to understand the current levels of air pollution in Fitzrovia and work with local clinicians and scientists to help objectively examine the impact this is having on users of the nursery and local residents,” says the Fitzrovia Trust.

The monitoring station will record PM 2.5 particulates and nitrogen dioxide levels.

Dr Ali Yazdi, a cardiologist at Barts Heart Centre, told Fitzrovia News: “We’re holding an event to discuss the results to date with the hope of starting up conversations about what can be done to improve air quality in the area.”

Nitrogen dioxide levels were previously recorded using diffusion tubes outside the Whitfield Street site between August 2017 and March 2018 by the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association, as part of a project organised by Camden Council.

Over the seven months the mean NO2 level was recorded as 40.3µg/m3 — just over the limit of the UK annual mean objective.

The new, more sophisticated, monitor will give more accurate results in near real-time from the project’s website.

Local people can come along to learn about the current air quality levels in Fitzrovia; find out about how air pollution affects health; and discuss what can be done to improve air quality locally at the event on Saturday.

Fitzrovia Air Quality Monitor Switch On, 2pm to 3pm, Saturday 2 March 2024, at Whitfield Nursery and Playground, 54A Whitfield Street, London W1T 4ER. Everybody welcome. Free event. Just turn up.

https://fitzrovianews.com/2024/02/29/air-quality-monitoring-station-at-whitfield-street-nursery-and-playground/

#airPollution #airQuality #TheFitzroviaTrust #WhitfieldStreet

Councillors serving Bloomsbury ward, which includes Fitzrovia East, are urging residents to respond to a government survey on the implementation of “safe access zones” around abortion clinics.

“For years we and residents in Fitzrovia have been dismayed by the way in which ‘protesters’ are able to approach, interrupt, and sometimes block the entrance to women and their partners, family and friends, going to the MSI Reproductive Choices clinic on Whitfield Street,” write Sabrina Francis, Adam Harrison, and Rishi Madlani in a letter published in the Camden New Journal.

The three councillors raise concerns that the government’s current proposals put up unnecessary barriers to enforcement of the proposed 150 metre safe zones around clinics.

Public consultation: Abortion clinic safe access zones: non-statutory guidance. Closes Monday 22 January 2024.

https://fitzrovianews.com/2024/01/21/bloomsbury-councillors-urge-residents-to-have-their-day-on-abortion-clinic-safe-access-zones/

#health #MSIReproductiveChoices #WhitfieldStreet

The Soup Kitchen in Whitfield Street, Fitzrovia is making an appeal for financial donations after seeing a huge rise in the number of people seeking help and an “exponential increase in the cost of food”.

In email to its supporters the director of the Soup Kitchen, Alex Brown, has said they have helped more homeless, hungry and vulnerable people “than at any point in our nearly four decade history”.

They now regularly serve more than 200 people each day and there has been a noticeable increase in the number of pension-age people seeking “support, food and friendship”.

With winter upon us they are appealing for support from the public to continue their work to “alleviate homelessness and food poverty”.

The Soup Kitchen is based at the rear of 79A Tottenham Court Road and is run by the Whitefield Charity SK Corporation and regulated by the Charity Commission for England and Wales.

Soup Kitchen London Winter 2023 Donation Drive.

https://fitzrovianews.com/2023/12/05/soup-kitchen-makes-appeal-after-serving-record-number-of-homeless-and-in-need/

#charity #foodPoverty #homeless #homelessness #WhitfieldStreet

Culinary Lab Limited has made an application to Camden Council to vary the premises licence at Officina 00, 67 Whitfield Street, on the corner with Chitty Street, Fitzrovia.

The application is a “major variation” of the existing licence and seeks to change the hours for the sale of alcohol for consumption on the premises at the restaurant.

The existing licence allows for alcohol to be served during lunchtime and evening from Monday to Saturday, and for sales of alcohol to cease at 5pm on Sundays

The proposed change is to extend the current hours so that alcohol can be sold all day from 12noon to 10pm from Monday to Friday; 11.30am to 11pm on Saturday, and from 11.30am until 10pm on Sunday.

To view the details of the application and make a comment, search Camden’s public licensing register for the following reference:

APP\PREMISES-VARY\117192, 67 Whitfield Street, London W1T 4DE.

The last date for making a representation is 6 November 2023.

Residents in Camden may also contact the Charlotte Street Association for help and advice in responding to planning and licensing applications.

Update, 14 January 2024. This application is due to be heard at Licensing Panel E – Thursday, 18 January 2024 at 10.00 am.

https://fitzrovianews.com/2023/10/11/licensing-application-officina-00-67-whitfield-street/

#CamdenCouncil #ChittyStreet #licensing #publicConsultations #WhitfieldStreet