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Creators Wanted for Open Studio

CREATORS WANTED for Open Studios - Alexandra Park & Muswell Hill

Are you an artist or maker looking to share your work with the community?

From established professionals to joyful hobbyists—we invite you to join our community open studio event where participants open their homes and workspaces to the public. This will be a wonderful weekend of sharing and connection with local art enthusiasts.

Who can participate? Artists, musicians, bakers, jewellers, photographers, and all other creative folk are invited!

When: October 11-12, 2025

Where: Alexandra Park & Muswell Hill

Don't live locally? You're still welcome—we can recommend local spaces. However, you'll need to arrange and share rental costs yourselves.

How to join: Email Jacqueline at OpenStudioMHAP@gmail.com (please include your phone number)

This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase your work and connect with local art enthusiasts. Whether you're a professional artist or make art for the joy of it, we'd love to have you join us!

Sign up today to secure your spot!

 
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life drawing, new dates for summer

This session is for all abilities,  and tends to be two Saturdays per month during term time at Rhodes Ave Primary School . There are some practicing artists and designers who join purely to work from the figure (and ignore me!), others who are novices or havn't drawn since school.  Each week I run through short poses with various exercises to widen your vocabulary of skills and techniques and then move onto a longer pose.  Drawing is like a muscle... just needs regular practice.  This class has been set up due to the popularity of the class that runs earlier in the day.

Please contact me with any queries. £96 early bird

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Walks for Each Season...New edition

2nd Edition 'Walks for Each Season: 26 great walks in the countryside near London'  Julia Smith (local Haringey resident) - just published! 
 
Seize the moment, escape the city and fully experience the beauty of each season. These 26 fabulous walks, all within easy reach of London by train, showcase each season’s highlights, leading you through bluebells in spring, among poppies and wildflower meadows in summer, into the glory of beechwoods in autumn and to the breathtaking display of a starling murmuration in winter.

RRP is £14.99. You can order from any bookshop and many London bookshops have stock - please support them! You can also order online from an ethical bookstore 'bookshop.org' or from Waterstones or Amazon.  Crouch End bookshops stock it.
If you bought the first edition, you can find updated directions on 'Walk4EachSeason.blogspot.com' the link is Julia's insta @jsmithwalks
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A team from Lotus descended on some garages behind Alexandra Park Road yesterday with a little modified Austin 7, which turned out to be a replica of the original Lotus Mark 1. They were celebrating 75 years since it was built by Colin Chapman in one of these same garages, owned by his girlfriend's parents. Their son and daughter are pictured, about to set off on a repeat of its maiden trip to Dunstable Downs in Bedfordshire. Quite a long way, given a maximum speed of 25-30mph! They got down the hill from the garages with no problem, hope the rest of the trip went ok ...

Below that is a photo of Colin's wife Hazel in the original Lotus Mark 1, in front of the same garages, in 1948. She apparently took over the building of Marks1 and 2 (also in these garages) when Colin was away at work in the Air Force, and was also a racing driver herself and an astute businesswoman.

Here is another APN post back in 2017 on the early history of Lotus in Haringey.

 

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 Credit: Classic Team Lotus

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Dunstable Downs

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Yesterday afternoon I went to the Estorick Collection in Canonbury Square, just a few minutes walk from Highbury and Islington station. It is a lovely place to visit and has six galleries over three floors plus a cafe with tables in a quiet garden area. The Estorick Collection is housed in a Grade II listed Georgian townhouse overlooking Canonbury Square, and it opened in 1998 with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. There is a permanent collection of Futurist works as well as figurative art and scupture dating from 1890 to the 1950s, plus an exhibition programme. On show at the moment are works by Luigi Pericle, an artist who had fallen into oblivion but whose paintings were rediscovered as recently as 2016. If you have an hour or two to spare, I highly recommend a visit. Even better if you can fit in a walk around this beautiful neighbourhood, which is full of interesting buildings, garden squares and the charming Compton Arms pub too.

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Wood Green Hopping Brew Day

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Hops ready to be picked for the Wood Green Hopping Brew Day at the Goodness Brewery, this afternoon, Sunday18 September.

Local growers contribute their hops, which are picked only shortly before brew day because the 'green hopped' pale ale is brewed while the hops are still fresh. Dried hops are used for most other ales, lagers and beers. The hop plant is supplied by the brewery, and anyone can join in!

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Harvesting the hop bines. This plant only produced 0.5 kg this year - last year the crop was four times the size!

 

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Picking the hop flowers off the bines in the sun. They smell glorious! (Supposed to be good for insomnia if you put them under your pillow).

 

 

 

 

The ale will be available to buy in cans later in the autumn, while stocks last! Owen's Food Store in Alexandra Park Road N10 stocks it (together with other beers from the Goodness Brewery) - anyone know of other stockists? Or you can of course go to the Goodness Brewery itself, Coburg Road, Wood Green, to try it with optional pizza. It may also be available on tap at the Goodness and at pubs such as The Prince on Bounds Green Road. We really like it!

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Friday nite at the ArtsFest - intriguing cabaret

Yesterday evening at the All Good Bookshop - artists making evocative sounds with strange instruments, film, poetry and story-telling. The idea - described by our MC and theremin (what?) player - came from the outrageous Cabaret Voltaire: Zurich 1916, where artists got together to work out what they should still say while the world burned in the First World War. The question remains relevant.

The acts used projections, music and words in various combinations which are not easy to describe! Dramatic visual effects in one, comic in another. The show finished with a lovely and pointed creation myth from South American mythology, with glances at most other world traditions thrown in. A fascinating and hugely enjoyable evening.

The whole festival is budgetless and done for the love of it and deserves lots of support. You can still catch all sorts of quite different events today and tomorrow - see: https://haringeyartsfestival.com/arts-festival-events

10802497498?profile=RESIZE_400xThe Witch of Brussels performs Big Ass Strawberry

10802499271?profile=RESIZE_400xNewham Folk Archive start their history of highway robbery, cattle rustling and sewage in East London.

10802499656?profile=RESIZE_400xInterval drinks at the bookshop

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Twelfth Night by Three Inch Fools

On Tuesday evening the Friends of Broomfield Park hosted a marvellous performance of Shakespeare's 'Tweflth Night', with added songs and dances, by the Three Inch Fools theatre group. There were 5 of them (I think - wasn't easy to tell) playing far more parts than that, often with quick costume changes on stage, and lots of cross-dressing within the cross-dressing theme in the play - meaning the right clothes had to be in the right place around the 3 little stages they were using. Not just good comic acting, but good singing and playing - some not at all Shakespearean.

If you get a chance to catch them, they are great fun to watch, but they seem to travel half-way across the country from one day to the next for their gigs - always outdoors. In the winter they do cut-down Shakespeare in schools.

The nearest they'll come again this years looks like Knebworth on the 15th June.

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10505823459?profile=RESIZE_584xWe went on a lovely walk in Hertfordshire last Friday, and thought others might be interested in it. It was a very easy trip on the train - almost empty - from Ally Pally station to Welwyn (it takes ½ hour, and they generally run every ½ hour weekdays and weekends – though check for cancellations). At this time of year there is so much vegetation that you would think you were in the countryside all the way.10505786253?profile=RESIZE_180x180

 

Welwyn station is in the middle of the town, so we stopped for a cup of coffee before making off into Sherrardspark Wood (through the central rectangular gardens surrounded by shops, and onto Russellcroft Road, turning right into Handside Lane and crossing Bridge Road before entering a short footpath into the wood on the left).

The birdsong that greeted us in the wood was like a dawn chorus in Ally Park - our Birdnet app for identifying song, often so useful, was totally confused, and not helped by the background noise of the A1(M) on the other side of the wood! The route over the motorway (the old Great North Road) was via a small road which takes you immediately into the picturesque village of Ayot Green (first picture below). Once a Wesleyan centre (mostly artisans), it now looks like a wealthy neighbourhood.

 

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Taking the lower footpath up to Ayot St. Lawrence (see map above), we went through quite a few wooded areas, where the bluebells were almost over. The pictured  hedgerow is next to the old railway (the Ayot Greenway), which can if need be protect you from the weather (of any sort), but on that warm, sunny May day we took the path on the other, sunny, side (the Hertfordshire 'greenways' are mostly quite shaded). Then turned right under the bridge which carried the old railway (see map above). Next to the photo of the bridge is one of the old railway, and then a view from it.

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Walking on up the main footpath, we reached a short stretch of road leading to Ayot St. Lawrence, passing Shaw's Corner on the left. Once the home of Bernard Shaw, it now belongs to the National Trust, and has a lovely garden. The house has been left as it was when he last lived there. We didn't stop here since we had visited it before (on that trip we heard a cuckoo). We passed the old, ruined medieval church - it's not often you see a ruined medieval church in the UK, particularly one with a tomb monument with the remains of two reclining figures. And on to the Brocket Arms for lunch and a taste of Brocket ale (this area all used to be the Brocket estate).

10506860673?profile=RESIZE_400x10506867265?profile=RESIZE_400xIt took roughly 2-2½ hours to walk there, with stops along the way. The footpaths and bridlepaths are very well marked, but there are quite a few more than are shown on the Openstreetmap above, so it was helpful to have the OS Explorer map for St. Albans and Hatfield, which includes a mobile download.* There were occasional polite notices saying 'Sorry for any inconvenience ...', about 800 runners would be using this route for their annual 10k run on 22 May, Obviously a route well-used by walkers!

 

 

 

10506789294?profile=RESIZE_180x18010506790497?profile=RESIZE_400xReturning to Welwyn, we took the upper footpath shown on the map above, mostly through open fields. The larks soared above huge fields of broad beans (no beans in the field shown in the picture!), which seem to be a speciality of farmers in Hertfordshire. I gather almost the entire UK crop is exported to the Middle East, where they of course make much use of fava beans. Most greengrocers here don't sell them fresh any more - I remember as a child taking them out of their lovely furry pods - though allotmenteers of course still grow them!

We saw some splendid red kites (or maybe several sightings of the same one), and a small bright yellow bird with a narrow beak perched on a fencepost. Maybe a yellow wagtail, as the book suggests, not long arrived here from Africa? There was no water near, so not a grey wagtail. We didn't see it wag its tail, mind you!

10506814266?profile=RESIZE_180x18010506838468?profile=RESIZE_180x180At Ayot St. Peter's cemetery (see map), we turned off the small road that we had joined, and into the Ayot Montfichet estate, through a very splendid gate. Well, not quite - the footpath sign directed us through the little door shown in the photo, and round the other side of the gate. The centre of this estate is an old 15thc house (Ayot Place - see map), now let out to various organisations, but we couldn't see it from the footpath, which curves round to the left of it. 

10506857492?profile=RESIZE_180x18010506869085?profile=RESIZE_180x180We then retraced our steps through Ayot Green, since there is no other route nearby over the motorway, and back into Sherrardspark wood. The simplest route here is to go along the old railway, which carries on through the wood. Alternatively, there is a signpost in the middle of the wood (with some small sculptures) giving various alternatives.

In Welwyn, there was time for tea before getting the train back (only a few people on the train although it was rush hour - though we were going in the wrong direction for commuters from London). 

 * This OS map includes footpaths to the west of Hertford and Bayford too (on the other railway line from Ally Pally) - although both stations are themselves just off the map. It can be ordered online from the Ordnance Survey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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The Water Game film - a year on.

Hi APN

First of all happy Xmas and New Year to you all. And wishing you all a better 2022. This too shall pass…

I am sure a lot of you will remember David Rennie of Crescent Road (now living with his daughter in Southend) who created the Water Game, which he ran for many years at the Palace Gates Summer Fete and Fins Feste (plus others).

About a year ago I completed a film about David and his invention. It was uploaded on to Youtube and a website for it was created (see links below). Anyway, I just wanted to give you all an update as to what has happened with the film because as you will see, it has been quite eventful.

Films by their very nature are big and loud, they are made to be seen by as many people as possible, and not hidden away in a cupboard somewhere. So, after it was shown in the community, the next challenge was to find a new audience to tap into the very positive messages behind the Water Game film.

I started by using David’s Green party background and contacting groups throughout the UK, asking them and their members to watch the film, discuss it and generally spread the word. That worked for a bit but it was a lot of effort for a small amount of new viewers.

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But then I started thinking about film festivals and the fact that the green, educational and quirky message within the Water Game film was truly international, especially once foreign language subtitles were added to it.

So that is what I did. Below is a map of the countries holding film festivals that the Water Game was submitted to. The beauty of the film festivals is that if it gets selected (which is a big IF as some festivals get around 3,000 plus entries) it get shown for a period either in a cinema or online.

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And we have had some success. Semi-finalist in Stockholm and California. And Finalist in a French and Turkish Film Festival. And in the months to come hopefully some more. 

It’s also been translated into several languages – French, Spanish and Turkish (thanks to the Istanbul International Architecture and Urban Films Festival).

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Finally, it also recently won an award. A Golden Copernicus at the 12th Educational Film Festival Edukino in Warsaw, Poland.

https://www.edukino.pl/index.php

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And as I said, it is still going around festivals and spreading the word.  In fact on Boxing day it’s going to be shown on Brighton’s local TV channel and soon hopefully on Sheffield’s local TV.

If you are intrigued by the film and have not yet seen it

You can watch it on YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUhDwlLCMEk&t=19s

If you like it and want to support it, please subscribe to the Youtube Water Game channel and maybe leave a comment – as this helps promote it on Youtube and attract new viewers.

There is also a supporting website: www.watergame.co.uk

Many thanks.

JM

 

 

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The Hornsey Enclosure Act, by David Frith

This slim, larger format book is very well produced, like all Hornsey Historical Society's books, and well illustrated with maps, portraits of the bigwigs involved, and landscape paintings. There is a list of all those receiving land allocations at the end, with an indication of the locations of the plots. The advert in the right column of this website gives a link to the HHS webpage, with more details.

Although many of us don't live in quite the area covered by Hornsey Historical Society's new book, the historic parish of Hornsey, we are familiar enough with most of it, and it tells us quite a lot about the development of the district. The book gives a very detailed account of the terms and effects of the enclosure act requested from Parliament by the Hornsey Parish Vestry in 1813, to privatise the commons in the parish, and also the areas of 'waste' along the edges of roads and other public ways: any spaces not in the ownership of an individual or public body, but where some sort of right of ownership could be claimed by property owners or their tenants.

In those days what is now Alexandra Ward was in the parish of Tottenham. A quick glance at the catalogue of the Metropolitan Archives suggests that Tottenham never had a general enclosure act, since the parish vestry went on authorising individual claims for enclosures through most of the nineteenth century.

An enclosure act involved a survey of the commons and of the property of people who claimed to have rights to its use. Not everyone did, and the rights were usually attached to a piece of local land, or a tenancy. David Frith starts the book with something of a mystery: why did they bother with this act? The amount of common and waste land in the parish was very small by comparison with most places which imposed comprehensive enclosures. Creating a Private Bill wasn't a free service and in this case it was much more expensive than most, which reduced the profit to the recipients of enclosed land, since costs were covered by sales of some of the land rather than simply giving it away. In the Hornsey case, the local survey covered not just the property of those with a claim to the land being enclosed, but all property holders in the parish. This made it more expensive to do, but also gives an excellent record of the state of property ownership throughout the parish at that time in the large map that was made by the surveyors. It's scale is 26 inches to 1 mile, making it 11 feet (nearly 3.5m) long.

8999434085?profile=RESIZE_710xThe areas of common and woodland in Hornsey parish, 1813

(adapted from 'The Hornsey Enclosure Act')

 

The book includes some picturesque colour extracts from the original map showing the main built areas in Hornsey High Street, Crouch End, Muswell Hill and Highgate. The amount of building at the time was small, but the map shows what contemporary paintings don't, which is how many small plots of land were owned by individuals even in the absence of a house nearby. All sorts of small pieces of land were also distributed by the enclosure act, especially along roadsides where the land was not yet private, making the patchwork of ownership even more intricate.

The commissioners who implemented the act also defined some new roads, such as Saint James's Lane, whose main purpose seems to have been to give access to out-of-the way plots created by the enclosure. The main roads were either already there, or being built at the time - like the Archway Road: one map shows a considerable area of land belonging to the Archway Road Company just north of the Archway bridge, presumably acquired for something other than road building.

While most of the roadside land was enclosed by the act and given to nearby properties - the right to graze cattle on the roadside was abolished by this - the act specifically forbids enclosing of the roadside land along Hornsey High Street and Priory Road, which is why they remain as wide as they are. This was done "at the request of several respectable inhabitants ...conceiving that, if those pieces of waste were enclosed, the beauty of the village would be entirely destroyed".

David Frith asks what interests were really served by the enclosure act. The parish contained two manors: Hornsey Manor and Brownswood Manor. The lords of these manors were both senior clergymen: the Bishop of London (Hornsey), and an official of Saint Paul's Cathedral (Brownswood), but the land was mainly leased to tenants, the largest of which was Lord Mansfield of Kenwood, whose leases included Coldfall Wood, Dirthouse (Cherry Tree) Wood, Brewhouse/Gravel Pit (Highgate) Wood, and Churchyard Bottom (Queen's) Wood. The enclosed land was allotted according to the size of a landowner's or tenant's existing holding, so those with most got most (on the grounds that they would have been making greater use of the commons). The weight of wealth was also felt in the passage of the act. Approval or objection to its terms was measured not by the number of people who supported or opposed them, but by the total value of the property each side represented. In the end £181 12s 10d objected, £923 16s 7d approved. There were £85 16s 10d worth of abstentions.

Large landholders might benefit from increased rentals, or increased agricultural production (most people in the parish still worked in agriculture, and the main crop was fodder for the horses which provided London's transport). But the many small parcels of land handed out would not be very efficient in these terms, and one would guess smaller owners would have had a fairly large say in the workings of the parish vestry. Housing development was not at that time really on the horizon, arriving only 30 or so years later. The author thinks the most likely explanation is the property interests of the Church, who wanted to get their holdings tidied up in preparation for the expected loss of income from tithes (the local tax which supported the Anglican churches and their clergy) which had become extremely contentious by this time. They were abolished 20 years later, but the issue was already live.

There are two questions it would be nice to have much more on. One is the composition of the Hornsey Vestry committee at this time - and who might have had influence on it. The other is what the state of the land market was at this time, whether for housing development or anything else. There was a massive European war on in 1813, and parts of the economy were booming. Asa Briggs says "Landlords benefitted from high rents and tenant farmers from wartime prices." It would be interesting to know whether this prosperity was encouraging speculation by those who had the resources - those who did not were hit by high prices and increased duties on everyday goods which paid the costs of the war.

The enclosure act did not completely neglect the poor: land was put aside for use by the poor law guardians for relief benefits (some even for cottages which did not get built), but exchanging the ability to gather free fuel on the common, or graze an animal, for hand-outs administered through poor relief would only increase poor people's dependency and bring them under greater control. All David Frith's judgements in the book are very measured and cautious, but he concludes with a nod towards (he says) "E.P.Thompson's obloquy, 'Enclosure (when all the sophistications are allowed for) was a plain enough case of class robbery...'." I expect there are many more insights and issues that will be suggested by this interesting piece of research for those with local knowledge.

For a wider background of the history of enclosure, try this article - interesting and amusing (and not unbiased).

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The prospect of going back to work on public transport – used in normal circumstances by most working people in AP, I believe – must be daunting  for many as we come out of lockdown, and not only for those who are in some respects vulnerable, or who have vulnerable relatives at home. With TfL limiting passenger numbers to 15% of the usual volume, how are all these people going to travel? And there'll be more parents joining the commuters in a couple of weeks time as primary schools re-open.

Reclaiming Crescent Road during the lockdown (see also video of partying at the bottom of this post):5412410676?profile=RESIZE_400x

Driving would seem to be the safest option with regard to Covid-19 for those who own a car (so not an option for over half of Haringey residents). Cycling is another option – for the intrepid – but the lack of 'whole route' cycling infrastructure in Haringey, and the volume of traffic, are major deterrents to potential cyclists (count me among that number). Thus a massive shift to driving seems likely, resulting in traffic gridlock and more air pollution which, apart from other evils, helps spread C19. We need other means of safe travel, as well as trying not to lose the healthy streets that we have enjoyed for the past few weeks

 

 

Photos of Crescent Road pre-lockdown: two lines of traffic confront each other, an altercation between drivers, motor vehicles claiming the pavement

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Government proposals and statutory obligations

The Government and Mayor of London are only too aware of the dangers of increasing the rate of infection via public transport, as also of creating gridlock – witness the extraordinary announcement on May 9th by Grant Shapps that local authorities in areas with high levels of public transport use (Haringey is the third highest in the country) would be required to take measures to reallocate road space to people walking and cycling … as swiftly as possible, and in any event within weeks (statutory guidelines), and that some funding would be available. The Mayor also issued guidelines and promises of funding with his Streetspace scheme, and has been closing roads in the City. The proposed measures, apart from pavement-widening, focus on the introduction of temporary cycle lanes on main roads, and low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) in residential areas, to create both alternative means of transport, as well as street space for walking and exercising while maintaining physical distancing.

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods

So what are LTNs? These block through-traffic by such measures as the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition Cameras, which allow certain categories of motor vehicles through -  e.g. buses, emergency vehicles, Veolia trucks, disabled drivers, the milkman – and not others, including motorcycles. Residents' vehicles may be included amongst those that are exempt, but if they are not, they will sometimes have to drive a little bit further to get to their houses than in un-filtered roads. The ANPR camera on the street lamp in the picture (below) of a 'filtered' road (Orford) in Walthamstow will record the registration number of any vehicle which is forbidden from driving through, and fines will be collected by the local authority (unlike fines from speed cameras, which go to the police).5411667279?profile=RESIZE_400x

The design of the LTN has to ensure that traffic is not simply rechannelled from one residential road to another in the neighbourhood. If this is achieved, then some of the traffic is expected to evaporate. It is not like water in a pipe, which has find a way out - people make choices, and some of these choices - at least for the 40% of urban car journeys that are less than 2 miles - will be to walk or cycle instead of driving. And the more some people do this, the more others will too - it may be slow, but is cumulative.

An LTN benefits both pedestrians and cyclists, making the neighbourhood an altogether pleasanter and healthier place to live in. Shops also benefit from increased footfall, although shopowners often assume (as did those in Orford road) that the lack of motor traffic will be detrimental to their businesses.

Cycle lanes and LTNs make good combinations because research has shown that providing cycling infrastructure on its own will not be successful in persuading most people to take up cycling.[i]

LTNs make an area slightly less attractive to drivers and more attractive to cyclists, nudging the former towards alternative means of travel. Cycle routes could then consist of temporary cycle lanes on main roads, interspersed with temporary LTNs ('temporary' meaning up to 18 months) in residential neighbourhoods.

In the current emergency, more temporary measures may be used than ANPR cameras, such as planters and gates to block roads. It will, however, provide an unprecedented opportunity to try out new approaches to traffic management, and hopefully may lead to more permanent measures.

Proposals by Haringey Council

The plans being developed by the Council are not public as yet, though an article in the Ham&High indicates that they are creating east to west and north to south cycling routes, and that LTNs are lower on the agenda. Contrast this with the much more advanced programme in Lambeth, who are seeking to appoint an LTN Programme Lead who will co-ordinate the introduction of LTNs in different neighbourhoods.

Our MP has been talking to the CEO of Haringey Council about implementing an Emergency Transport Action Plan, asking for an unprecedented level of action on our streets without delay.

Working with other neighbourhoods

As our roads gradually fill up again, more commuters who would normally come into London by rail from beyond the north circular may also choose to drive – many coming through our neighbourhood – rather than run the gauntlet of public transport.

This through traffic does not just affect our own neighbourhood (here I am referring to the Palace Gates neighbourhood, which I am familiar with - Dukes Avenue, Alexandra Park Road N10 and Muswell Hill less so, but contributions from residents of this area would be very welcome!). Much of it is the same as that taking a short cut down Winton Avenue before crossing Durnsford into Crescent Rise and Crescent Road, then exiting from our neighbourhood over the Buckingham road railway bridge, it carries on to add to congestion on Hornsey Park Road, Wightman and the Ladder roads, and on into Islington and Hackney. Many of these neighbourhoods have their own campaign groups (often under the umbrella of Haringey Living Streets) to try and reduce rat-running and increase safety for cyclists and pedestrians. Should we start our own, and work with these other groups to pressure the Council to do more to restrict through traffic, making cycling a more viable option for local people, and our neighbourhoods healthier, safer and more attractive places to walk?

The introduction of 'Low Traffic Neighbourhoods' in some areas would thus benefit some other neighbourhoods nearer central London, while possibly causing problems in others. So it is essential that we work with other groups to suggest measures to the Council that will increase benefits and reduce negative impacts for all. We are not traffic experts, but residents are likely to be the most knowledgeable about local conditions in their neighbourhood.

Reducing the number of motor vehicles is of course a key climate issue, with transport now accounting for more emissions in the UK than the entire energy sector - a quarter of the total - and cars being the worst offender.

[i] S. Melia, Urban Transport without the Hot Air (2015), pp. 224-6 and chap 7.

 photos and video courtesy of Tom Pigott-Smith and Gudrun Parasie

Celebrating lack of traffic on Crescent Road during Lockdown:

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Here's a useful update I received via my street WhatsApp group:

 

Home Delivery

Independent Shops - North London Edition

Alexandra Park, Bounds Green, Crouch End, Highgate, Muswell Hill

Last updated on the April 4, 2020

Dear Friends & Neighbours - Here’s a list of delivery alternatives to the supermarkets if you are struggling to get online slots. Compiled from friend recommendations (we haven’t tried many yet). Many are hospitality businesses pivoting from restaurant / wholesale to online deliveries in the light of COVID-19.

***Local independent businesses, restaurants, shops near us*** please support

Keep this list growing - If you have any suggestions (especially local restaurants offering delivery services), please email me here and I will add them. Many thanks for everyone's contributions.

Dairy

***Doorstep Dairy - doorstepdairyltd@gmail.com07802481535 0208 346 9774 15 Cadogan Gardens, N3 2HN - Milk deliveries in glass bottles
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Pensworth Dairy- deliver to your door Tues and Fri - Milk in glass bottle, Fruit Juice, eggs, cheese, yoghurt, cream, bacon

London Dairies- Milk, cheese, eggs - catering suppliers
***Cheeses- (Fortis Green) - Order via Uber Eats - Wednesdays only Uber Eats - Cheese of Muswell Hill
***The Cheese Bar​ ​- (Camden) Cheese Truck deliveries - British Cheese - Bread (48 hours notice) Haringey deliveries on Monday - order before 8pm on Sunday night ***Opera Ice Cream- Freshly made lemonade and homemade ice cream. A husband and wife team, trading in Alexandra Palace every Sunday. They are now doing delivery for their lemonade, ice cream and brownies. Check out their Instagram and message direct for order info. Delivery is on Fridays only.

Fruit & Veg

***Broadway Fruiterers 020 8340 8593 will deliver locally if you ask nicely

Massive range of fresh fruit and veg, including stuff like curry leaves and lime leaves. Masses of tinned

goods, pasta, spices etc. Currently shut Sunday and Monday

 

***Greens of Highgate​ ​- (Highgate) Fruit and Veg delivery delivering N2, N4, N6, N8,

N10, N19, N22 call for other areas.

***Crop Drop- Fruit and Veg Grown and Harvested as close to Haringey as possible.

New Covent Garden Market- Veg, Fruit, Bread.
The new Covent Garden market is 75% down in sales. Fresh fruit and veg need to be sold so they’re going to start selling boxes to people rather than companies.

Ordering tips:
Go ontheir website and sign up for home delivery veg and fruit boxes.
They can deliver milk, bread etc. too
Paul The Vegan Man​ ​- Fruit and Veg - Borough Market
Natoora- vegetable home delivery
A previous chef-only app, now opening for everyone to use. They currently deliver to London Zones 1-4, The delivery charge is £6 flat rate. There is no minimum spend. “This time last week, we had virtually zero restaurant trade, hanging on the hope that you would want to buy from us for your homes. Today in London we had such an uptake in orders that we can no longer do next day delivery.”
Ordering tips:
Download Natoora App. Use this
linkto register an account. I waited for about 24 hours before I could order with the App. Since the app is initially designed for restaurants and chefs, it has a live basket and no check-out process like most of the other online shopping websites. This means anything you add to your shopping basket in the day will be automatically delivered the next day. The cut-off point is midnight.
Primeur- seasonal veg and fruits
Ordering tips:
No online shop yet. For fruit and veg boxes delivery, text 07768231931
Andreas Veg - fruit, veg, groceries, cheese, charcuterie
Loved by Nigella Lawson, Andreas Veg is based in 4 Cale Street, Chelsea.
Ordering tips:
Local delivery Monday, Wednesday, Friday by email only by 2pm the day before.
Free for local customers and all purchases over £100.

Bakers

***Margot Bakery- N2 Artisan Bakery, Sourdough, Challan - Pre order bread for 3 days time collection only - limited to 2 loaves per order

***Intrepid Bakers- (Crouch End) Bakers Fresh Bread and Cakes - order via Uber Eats Uber Eats - Intrepid Bakers

 

Riverford Organic Veg- Veggie boxes from 14.95 - waiting list only now for new customers

Seafood

***http://lyons-restaurant.com/​ ​(Crouch End) Seafood restaurant & WineBar - now offering take away or delivery - BBQ Fish, wine and beer
Henderson Seafood - home delivery
Fresh seafood in a small or large box for 2 or 4 people. Prices range from £30 to £100. Fresh seafood, ethically sourced, straight from fishermen and day boats in Brixham, Devon.

For an extra £12.50, you can get a week’s worth of organic vegetable box from their partner Pale Green Dot. It will come with your fish box!
Ordering tips:
Use their website to keep an eye on weekly fish box and place your order directly.
The Fish Society- Luxury online fishmongers

Mourne Fishbox - Fresh, portioned, vacuum packed fish. Deliver through the UK and Ireland.
Pesky- buy fish directly from British fishermen
Sign up on their website now, they’re working on it to start from next week.

Meat & Poultry

***Hampstead Butchers(Muswell Hill Broadway) Shop Online
Presently, we can only deliver to the following postcodes:NW2 (east of the A5 only), NW3, NW5, NW6,

NW8, NW11, N2, N6, N10 You can still order for collection if you are outside of these postcodes. We have a limited capacity each day for orders, dictated by availability of our butchers and driver. So we ask that customers order with a view to minimising the number of future trips our driver has to make to the same address. Each delivery made reduces our capacity to serve an additional person who may be in need. To this end we now have a minimum £50 orderand we have waived all delivery charges.

Organic Halal- London delivery £5
Ethical Butcher​ ​- Organic reared meat - See the farms you are buying from

HG Walter​ ​- online butcher
Home delivery within London and the M25. Order before 4 pm for next day delivery. This independent family-run butcher sources their meat from small farms rearing free-range native breeds.

“Sustainability is a priority among our farmers – livestock on these farms contribute to a biodiverse landscape contrary to the destructive nature associated with much larger scale farms.”
Ordering tips:

Use their online shop to order directly.
Fosse Meadows- amazing chicken and cockerels supplier Ordering tips:
Use their online shop to order directly.
Eat Great meat
“For anyone struggling to get food from the shops, my brother (8th generation) is providing meat directly from the farm to your doorstep, from local farms in Yorkshire.” Ordering tips:
Use their online shop to order directly.
Farmdrop- organic veg, fruit, meat directly from local farmers.
Very farmer and producer friendly as they take less cut from people who produce the food.
Ordering tips:
They are very busy now. Currently operating an online queuing system.

Wine & Beer

***The Goodness Brewery​ ​- (Wood Green near The Chocolate Factory) - Craft Beer - IPA and home made pizza
***
The Crouch End Cellars(Crouch End) - Italian wine, cheese, deli delivery locally ***Muswell Hillbilly Brewers- (Muswell Hill) Local Micro Brewery - Beer - free delivery for orders over £25

Low Intervention- online wine shop
Over five hundred wines available online and monthly subscriptions at various price points. Any orders placed before 2pm will be delivered next day in the UK and the delivery is free for all orders over £30 within the UK.
Noble Find Liquor(Hackney) - online shop for wine, beer, spirits
Provisions(Highbury) - Wine, deli goods across London
The shop is open every day until 8 pm for retail. From Thursday they’ll be delivering hampers of wine and deli goods across London. They will also be taking orders over the phone (020 7700 0476) or via email (info@provisionslondon.co.uk) for those that don’t want to spend time in the shop but are happy to collect.

 
 

Pantry

***Harmless Store- Local Vegan Zero Waste store NOW ONLINE - Click & Collect
***
Crescent Rd Supermarket- Local everything - including refills for washing liquid etc - no delivery but around the corner - Open 7-11pm
***
Green Guru- (Alexander Park Rd) Green grocers / organic goods - not delivering but walking distance - taking a break wc Apr 6 but will open limited hours after this - see sign on door for details
***https://www.owensfoodstore.com-Much loved local cafe / deli

IMPORTANT UPDATE- We have decided to further shorten our opening hours. This is to reduce the strain on our staff and ensure their welfare. These will be in place for the foreseeable future. From Monday 30/03 the opening hours will be 8.30am - 2.30pm daily.
We are continuing to limit the number of people allowed in the store to twoat any one time. This is to help ensure safe levels of social distance and contact for customers and staff alike.Please remain patient and keep at a safe distance while waiting.

We value your custom at this difficult time - but we also value your safety. We ask that customers shop as infrequently and swiftly as possible. We are encouraging everybody to shop solo - please try to visit the store alone (without partners/children) - this helps reduce the risk for everybody.

We would also like to encourage contactless payment where possible.
The café is now closed. Regrettably this means no more takeaway coffee.
We are currently accepting orders for groceries from local customers who are in self-isolation. This has been hastily arranged in order to support our elderly and vulnerable customers. If you don't fall into these categories, we are still here to help but we'd appreciate that you only enquire should you have no one else to call upon.
Please direct orders to - orders@owensfoodstore.co.uk
Thanks for your continued support. Stay safe and look out for one another.
Odysea- Greek and Mediterranean produce including cheese, olives, olive oil,

Greek yogurt.
Sous Chef - Pantry ingredient from all over the world. Books, tools and gluten-free section.
Cheezelo - all sorts of cheese and deli!
Most of the products are available on Ubereats and Deliveroo.
The Owner (Eleonore) can deliver after the shop opening hours in her car in London Zone 1&2 (delivery at £5.00), min £30.00 purchase. The good exchange will happen outside your place, gloves and masks will be worn, payment is done by mobile payment system at time of delivery. No cash accepted.
Free Delivery in Euston and Camden Area
Ombra(Hackney) - fresh pasta kits to cook at home and discounted wine
Leila’s shop(Shoreditch) - veg, stews
The shop will be operating a one in, one out policy all week – for safety reasons customers won’t be allowed to touch anything. Sam will be cooking batches of soups

and stews for takeaway while cargo bike deliveries will be available locally. Orders and payments will be taken over the phone – 020 7729 9789 – to maintain human contact. Peg(Hackney) - take-away food and veg box
Thursday-Sunday from 4-9 pm they’ll be offering a food (think chickpea tofu with mushroom XO, fried chicken, pumpkin and winter tomato curry) and plenty of wine to take away. They also act as a pickup point for vegetable boxes from Flourish which can be pre-ordered online.

Recipe + Ingredients Boxes

HelloFresh: Ingredients and recipes - great for people who want to learn new dishes. Gousto: Similar to Hello Fresh
Balance Box- Ready Meals
Mindful Chef- Recipe Boxes

Simply Cook- Recipe Boxes

FREE Online Cooking Tutorials

Breadahead Bakery - One of the best bakery schools in London is offering FREE online tutorials via INSTAGRAMonly, everyday at 2pm. Click on the link to see the schedule and ingredients list. It will only be LIVE for 24hrs.
I am Spice Monkey- Free (open to donations) cook along Instagram tutorial

Take Away Delivery

***Hot Milk(Bounds Green) now offering delivery (Lasagna, Vegi Lasagna, Mac n Cheese, Wine, Fresh Ground Coffee) + donate meals to NHS staff at North Mids. Hospital
***
The Goodness Brewery- (Wood Green - The Chocolate Factory) Local Brewery / Pizza Venue

***Fasta Pasta- Local pasta takeaway from Muswell Hill. Online ordering might be off so call the restaurant direct.
***Fooska​ ​-(Archway) Amazing Zero Waste Vegan Bangladeshi cuisine delivered in a Tiffin Tin

***Salvation in Noodles- via Deliveroo. Based in Finsbury Park and they’ve just expanded their delivery zones to us in North London! Fantastic Vietnamese food, awesome chicken wings.
***
Sacro Cuore- via Deliveroo, best pizzas in North London, based in Crouch End.

***Opera Ice Cream- Freshly made lemonade and homemade ice cream. A husband and wife team, trading in Alexandra Palace every Sunday. They are now doing delivery for their lemonade, ice cream and brownies. Check out their Instagram and message direct for order info. Delivery is on Fridays only.

Deliveroo (Also donate meals for NHS workers across the capital) Deliveroo Lots of local deals - off license deliveries even corner shop groceries locally
Uber EatsLocal take aways + Off Licenses

Flowers and Plants

Bloom And Wild-great cut fresh flowers through your letterbox - highly recommended ***Sunshine Garden Centre- Now open for delivery only to loyalty card holders - call 0208 889 4224
**
*The Gardening Club- (Crews Hill) Delivery to member - join for £5 (1st year, £2.50 after that)

Books

***The Children's Book Shop- (Muswell Hill Broadway) - now online and delivering locally
***Pickled Pepper Voice​ ​- (Crouch End) -Childrens book shop offering Book fairy service - free delivery for orders over £20

Gifts♫☺

***Tash & Tanya (T&T)- (Alexander Park Rd) Lovely things, cards and art.
‘We are offering FREE LOCAL DELIVERY of any purchase of £5 or more. We will try to deliver the same

day on any orders before 2pm. Postcodes included are N10, N22, N11, N2, N6, N8, N12, N13, N14, N21 and N3.
We can arrange postage of a gift for you. Send us the details of your lucky recipient and we will pack and send it. There is an extra charge for the postage, which we will calculate and send to you for approval before processing.’

***Slip n Stitch- (Alexander Park Rd) Needlework, knitting - now online and delivering ***Cachao Toys​ ​(Muswell Hill Broadway) - Toys - working on postal service - check website for more details
***Blue House Yard- Various Independent Business now online

 
 

IT & Tech Support

Richard Darsa- (Muswell Hill) Local IT / Tech Support, offering remote help for all tech

issues - I live in Muswell Hill and have been serving the local area for computer and technology support for 20 years now. I can now help people remotely on pretty much any technical issue, so I thought the community would

benefit from having my number. I charge in half hour increments at £40 per half hour, no VAT & can invoice and happy to be paid by BACS. My contact details are richard@darsa.net & 07768200551

Online Supermarket

Waitrose Ocado
Tesco Sainsbury's ASDA
Iceland
M&S Morrisons Amazon Fresh
:

Online Asian Supermarkets

UKCN Shop
UK Snacks Box
Japan Centre
H Mart
Oseyo
Hello Oriental
- Based in Manchester but delivers all over the UK. Prices are very good and they sell frozen meat (pork, chicken, beef, lamb) and all the Asian goods. They also do next day delivery for £9.99.
Hoo Hing- It’s decent but the site is hard to navigate unless you know exactly the brand(s) you are looking for. I’d choose the above over this one unless there is something very specific that you’d like.

🛒󾓪 🖥💻

󾓮󾓥󾓭

Finally a nod to some pretty amazing local initiative... Local Awesomeness

***The Green Rooms Hotel - (Station Rd) Our local community arts hotel is currently offering free accommodation to NHS Staff, local homeless and vulnerable people- can we help them provide a meal for everyone? - you can support Here
***Hot Milk(Bounds Green next to the tube) providing meals to NHS staff at North Mids. Hospital - you can support Here

***Cakes and Ladders​ ​- The Big Red Bus Cafe, Board Game hang out and comedy venue is looking for support to stay open

Take care Everyone
#WeAreInThisTogether #LoveWereYouLive #stayhome

🌈🌈🌈 🌈🌈🌈

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Join our online courses and get writing! Collage Writing Room’s Summer 2020 programme is set to run online and our tutors are ready to deliver courses via Zoom video link up. We will give you lots of help setting this up. Your course is only a few clicks away!
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The Council is consulting on proposals to introduce pedal cycle parking sheds in our local roads.  The impact on parking is low but nevertheless there will be a loss of parking places which is unnecessary.  There are some times of day (and some days of the week) when parking is very difficult and any unnecessary loss of spaces should be challenged.  The cycle parking can be located on the kerb build-outs at junctions or where the footway is sufficiently wide that they would not cause obstruction.

Please consider objecting to the Council's proposals at traffic.orders@haringey.gov.uk.  All you need is set out in the following draft email, and you can get more details from the street notices that are still in place next to the proposed sites.

"Proposed Pedal Cycle Parking  Places (Amendment) Order

The Council gave notice of the above mentioned proposed Traffic  Management Order on 31 January 2020.  I wish to object to the following provisions on the grounds that they will result in the unnecessary loss of scarce on-street parking in an area of the Borough which experiences high levels of parking demand outside normal hours of control:

o/s 64 Victoria Road N22

o/s  8 Clifton Road N22

o/s  143 Albert Road N22

o/s 227 Alexandra Park Road N22. 

All these proposed cycle parking places can be located on the wider parts of the footway or on one of the many kerb build-out at junctions.  There is no need for any of the above proposals to result in the loss of on-street parking.

It relation to the Council's obligations to publicise these proposals and invite objections  I am extremely concerned that the Council,  having given notice on 31 January 2020, didn't publish the draft Order on its website until 27 February 2020; 6 days after the period of 21 days set aside for the receipt of objections had closed.  I understand that as a result the Council has undertaken to extend the period for the submission of objections,  but has not set a new end date.  Please confirm that my objection has been received within the new (unspecified) deadline."

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Coming up later this month are FOUR work in progress performances of DR FAUSTESS, with songs written by Alexandra Park composer Jamie Masters.

January 22nd to 24th, 2020

at the Cockpit Theatre, Gateforth Street, London NW8 8EH

TICKETS £10

Performances:

Wednesday 22nd January:           7.30pm

Thursday 23rd January:                2.30pm and 7.30pm

Friday 24th January:                     7.30pm

Running Time: 2.5 hours including interval

https://tickets.thecockpit.org.uk/sales/shows/dr-faustess

Synopsis

666 - this is an emergency!!  Burnt out Dr Madeleine Faustess turns to satanic aid in this modern musical twist on the Faustus story.  Faustess summons a demon to win the glittering prizes life has failed to deliver and maybe triage a few patients along the way. But instead of the great Satan she gets Hal - a hapless junior semi-demon, who causes chaos in her rundown hospital - and her life.

Over the course of one crazy year, Doctor, Demon, and the whole blasted institution discover that damnation has its plus points when there’s more of you.

A sparkling black comedy, with songs, social workers, love, death and zombies, presented as a work in progress. 

 https://tickets.thecockpit.org.uk/sales/shows/dr-faustess

Biographies

Writer - D R Hood

Dictynna’s first feature film as writer/director 'Wreckers' is a cult hit starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy.  She has just completed her second feature 'Us Among the Stones' with Laurence Fox and Anna Calder-Marshall.  Dictynna and Jamie Masters (composer) have wanted to work together for a while, and 'Dr Faustess' is providing one hell of an opportunity.

Composer - Jamie Masters

Jamie has for fifteen years sold his soul to the devil in the world of advertising, winning many major awards in doing so.  In a cultural leap of faith he has also written music for several ancient Greek plays. Jamie is a multi-instrumentalist, playing piano, clarinet, recorder, violin, viola, guitar, mandolin, ukulele and banjo. In what time he has left, he invents boardgames and cranky electronic gadgets.

Director - Kolja Schallenberg

Hailing from Germany, the land of the original Faustus, Kolja trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts London.  In Germany, Kolja's prolific work as a director ranges from 'Bacchae' for Theatre League Hamburg through to stadium tour 'Massachusetts - the Bee Gees Musical', featuring original Bee Gees.  Kolja has also recently founded a new theatre in Sweden dedicated to putting on new musicals.

Music Director - Anthony Ingle

Anthony Ingle has over four decades of experience in music and theatre. He is Musical Director and pianist of Impropera, the world’s first improvising opera company. Anthony was the Musical Director of Tête à Tête’s acclaimed revival of 'Salad Days' at the Riverside.   Anthony also teaches at LAMDA where he has MD'd innumerable musicals with the talent of tomorrow including 'Tommy', 'Cabaret' and 'Hair'. We look forward to Anthony's onstage presence in 'Dr Faustess'.  

  

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