Somers Town, the Movie August 26, 2008
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden, Reviews , add a commentSomers Town is not grey. It has trees, and parks and with the warm honey and red brick of its low rise apartment blocks is as attractive as any densely built inner city area. The worst of the experimental social housing architecture of the sixties and seventies never made it here, and most estates are small. Some of us even tend plants in front of our buildings. Its streets are clean, and safer than surrounding wards. Filming in black and white makes it all look grimmer than it really is, and I suppose that was the idea.
Shane Meadows’ Eurostar-sponsored sequel to the award-winning ‘This is England’ is set a few years after the first film when Thomas Turgoose leaves for London, and ends up at St Pancras. Sleeping rough, he is attacked by some yobs who steal his bag and his money. A local woman buys him breakfast and gives him £10, before he hooks up with a young Polish lad, Marieck, and they set about hanging out in Somers Town.
The sponsorship is only obvious if you know it’s there. Marieck’s father is working on St Pancras, and at one point spouts a paean to the wonders of getting to Paris in two hours. The final scenes, in Paris (ie. after a trip on Eurostar), are shot in grainy colour.
Familiar landmarks abound. Marieck’s Dad drinks at the Cock on Charlton St, the boys fall in love with a French waitress at the Golden Tulip, and she lives in Levita House. They steal Tommo some clothes from the Chalton St laundrette and meet a bloke who, somewhat unlikely, rents deck chairs in Purchese St Open Space. Marieck lives in what seems to be a combination of Oakshott Court and a couple of other buildings.
This is an endearing if rather slight film. Tommo reluctantly wears checkered trousers and a dress, as the best clothes in the stolen laundry bag. Marieck’s father is struggling to give his son a better life, while the son spends his days taking photos and not having much to do. The two boys become good friends, but nothing really goes anywhere, and not much happens.
Other reviewers have commented that as the film is only seventy minutes it is a bit of a ripoff for cinema-goers. The Renoir in the Brunswick Centre have rectified this by showing it with a short, ‘ A Dog Altogether’, also by Shane Meadows. If you live here, or are a Shane Meadows fan, it’s worth seeing. Otherwise, perhaps one for a wet Sunday DVD.
Somers Town needs Council Housing, not Scaremongering April 27, 2008
Posted by cathrynsymons in : Camden, Politics , add a commentPosters have gone up around Somers Town suggesting that the new British Library International Science Site (BLISS) medical research centre planned for the land behind the British Library would be an inner-city version of Porton Down, and an article in the Guardian Education supplement last week sent me off to the local Community Centre on Saturday morning, where staff from the medical institutions involved were available to talk to local people about their plans.
I firmly believe that the BLISS should not be built on that site, because this area desperately needs more affordable housing, and the government should stand up to its promise to build council homes. There’s a strong local campaign underway trying to make that happen. However, it hadn’t occurred to me that the likes of the Medical Research Council or Cancer Research UK would be dangerous neighbours. After all, they’re both already in the area anyway, and there are a lot of other medical research facilities around here. It’s a major local industry.
Talking for nearly an hour with Sir Leszek Boryziewicz, the CEO of the MRC, completely upheld that opinion. He is a tall, quietly spoken gentleman. He introduced himself, I thought, as ‘Les’, saying the s oddly so it must have been ‘Leszek’. He clearly, but without being patronising, explained the type of research they are likely to do, the sorts of security that would be in place and the risks involved.
A scientist rather than a PR person, he qualifies his statements unless he is absolutely 100% sure of something. I find that reassuring, though it may seem uncertain. So, because the committee working out what science would be done in the new centre has yet to report, he won’t guarantee that this will not be a category 4 lab as discussed in the Guardian article, though he thinks it unlikely. Diseases like Ebola and Lassi Fever are not even dealt with in civilian facilities in the UK - if there was any work with them, it would be in a military facility like Porton Down. There is no reason for Somers Town to be patrolled by armed police, as suggested in the posters which have appeared.
It is unlikely that the level of hazard here will be any higher than it is in many labs and hospitals around Bloomsbury and Holburn. The MRC does research on HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and flu, and it is likely that would continue in the new lab. Given that Somers Town has a very high incidence of tuberculosis that is perhaps something we should support.
Sir Leszek is a man who was knighted for inventing a vaccine against cervical cancer, and likes Ben Goldacre. If it turns out that we can’t make council housing happen, then I’ll be very pleased indeed to welcome him to the area.
Embedding a Youtube video March 12, 2008
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Blogging, Camden , add a commentThis should be really simple. Just take the embedding code from the video and paste it in.
and indeed it is. The only catch is to make sure you’ve turned off the use of the visual editor for the user so that Wordpress doesn’t rearrange the
By the way, this video is a trailer for the new Shane Meadow’s movie Somers Town, you might remember that I was interviewed for a documentary that is supposed to be on the DVD when that comes out. It was shown at the Berlin Film Festival in February, but there’s no word about when or how it will be released in the UK.
Somers Town needs housing, not a medical centre December 5, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden , 2 commentsVacant land behind the British Library will become a medical research centre, despite Government pledges to build social housing on government land, and the wishes of people in Somers Town. There’s a report from the BBC here (Site Found for Medical Centre), and you can see this blogger at the end.
Somers Town has lost about 30% of its social housing over the last 20 years, and has some of the worst health of any area in London. Over-crowding, and a lack of housing for those who need it are serious problems here.
This centre has been approved despite local needs, and despite the planning brief for the area stipulating that at least half of the site must be used for housing. The medical research centre project has already gone awry once, when they bought the site of the National Temperance Hospital on Hampsted Rd and then realised it wasn’t big enough. I’ve little faith in the planning process, but this will be fought.
St Pancras Opens November 14, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden , add a commentFor all the years I’ve known this part of Camden, there’s been a huge eyesore of a building site in the south-east corner of Somers Town. Roads have been blocked and the most exquisite architecture in the area has been under varying degrees of cover and scaffolding. Finally, it has started opening and today the first bookable Eurostar left St Pancras.
Paris is now only 2hrs 15 minutes away and, more importantly for me, the walk to the station is 10 minutes shorter. Brill Place, signposted ‘formerly Phoenix Rd’, was unblockd last week for the first time in years, opening up a quick shortcut into St Pancras, and through to the side platforms of Kings Cross. Door to Gare du Nord in less than three hours, and no need to allow for tube delays.
This morning, those details were unimportant as the first train pulled away. The refurbished train hall is magnificient. Classic Victorian brickwork and steel girders are topped by the lightest transparent roof. The best of the Victorian era meets the best of ours in a place which will uplift and delight for years.
Hundreds of passengers, media people and sightseers thronged to see it leave, and admire it all. The announcer repeated that flash photography was not permitted on the platform. No chance.
Cycling protesters did a great job of getting in every shot and made their point about the sad lack of bicycle parking on the station well.
The statue of the kiss is as tacky as reported, but that of John Betjeman, poet saviour of the station is set to become a favourite. The old clock, with hands and brass numerals, presides over it all, reminding everyone in the champagne bar which runs the length of a platform not to miss their train.
The shops aren’t open yet, and the lack cycle parking is scandalous, but they’ve done very, very well here. The place is beautiful.
Swap stuff with your neighbours October 22, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden , 2 commentsIt’s probably not entirely legal, but when I’m feeling lazy and want to get rid of something big, I put it outside by the garage across the road which the council use for storing rubbish, with a note on it saying ‘Please take me’. Things always go quickly. I also use freecycle, and give books and clothes to charity stores.
And now Camden Council are getting into the act, organising a ‘swapshop‘ at the Somers Town Community Centre this weekend. Take your unwanted stuff along between 11.00 and 12.30, then pick up your new wanted stuff before 2pm. Sadly my biggest need at the moment is a dining chairs after one broke recently, and furniture isn’t accepted. They will have someone checking electrical goods, which charity shops refuse to take, so I think I’ll give away an old laptop if I have the time to reformat its disk.
These innovative ways of reducing waste and promoting community spirit need a little organisation, and its good to see the Council being prepared to help in this area.
