A bad sign – kebab shop 95 Caledonian Road

Posted on April 7, 2010 by William Perrin

L1040337You might think that the area doesn't need another kebab shop but sadly the old Sunrise Cafe at 95 Caledonian Road is turninginto Sky Fried Chicken and Kebab.  (Declaration – i own a property a few doors away from here.) It isn't clear whether the new owners need planning permission for a change of use from a cafe to a takeaway restaurant. 

Whatever the use class issue, the shop sign is wrong for a conservation area.  95 Cally Road is at the end of a relatively intact C19th terrace that remains as laid out when the Cally Road was driven North in the 1820s.  The cheap and nasty signs are out of keeping.  Cllr Convery is on the case with planning officers.

This site cafe was the scene of a nasty accident in 2006 when a large lorry embedded itself in the shop front – mercifully no one was hurt.  You can see a remarkable picture on the Gazette site.

Posted in Planning, Licensing and Regulation | 6 Comments

Poor street sweeping on Rufford and Gifford Streets

Posted on April 7, 2010 by William Perrin

Rufford street detritus The standard of street sweeping on Rufford and some of Gifford Streets in the north of Kings Cross has slipped.  There seems to be a lot of detritus in the gutters and the odd bin bag scattered about.  Nearby Randell's Road isn't much better, where rubbish is collecting around workmen's stores.  There have been problems here in the past.  I reported it to the Council – let's see what happens.

Posted in Broken Stuff on the Street | 1 Comment

Voting in King’s Cross — South of Euston Road and Camden supplement

Posted on April 7, 2010 by Clare Hill

Swot up for 6 May, now that it's been announced.

King's Cross also takes in the parliamentary constituency of Holborn & St Pancras. It's famously (or infamously?) a Labour stronghold, but the stats show a reduction in Labour's lead over the past couple of elections. You can submit local issues for this constituency too at Democracy Club — but there's only a few days left to do this. All these wonderful web resources that probably weren't around last election, here too are citizen-submitted leaflets for Holborn & St Pancras from across the party spectrum at Straight Choice.

As for the local government elections, a large chunk of King's Cross is also in the London Borough of Camden, and the two relevant wards are King's Cross and St Pancras & Somers Town. All six incumbent councillors are Labour, but Camden is a Lib Dem/Conservative-controlled council. You can find current information and past election results on Camden's 2010 election pages.

Vote however you like, just make sure you vote!

Clare Hill

Posted in Democracy and Elections | Leave a comment

UK’s first vegan shop opens in King’s Cross

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Clare Hill

Shop That’s what that big mysterious 'V’ at 73 Caledonian Road is about. Vx (V-cross) sells groceries, clothes, hot and cold drinks and cakes of the animal-free and dairy-free persuasion. According to the proprietor, it’s the only vegan walk-in shop in the country, let alone London.

Owner Rudy opened a month ago and designed the distinctly anarchist theme of the shop and merchandise. The emblem of the shop’s parent organisation ‘The Secret Society of Vegans’ is a Zorro-masked character set off by black and red stripes, and tattoo motifs. Rudy said, “We want to show that being vegan is not all about sandals and sprouts, and this is not like a health food shop”. Indeed, dominating the modest range of biscuits, cakes, snacks and vegan dog food (!) are a proliferation of printed t-shirts, bags, button badges, mugs, screen-printed posters and vegan shoes and belts.


 I had a soy latte when I dropped by – it lacked strength but was nutty and smooth, and drinking it in the warm little conservatory downstairs with Coco the resident pup compensated somewhat.

This non-vegan local is pleased to see another interesting niche shop open up in the area. Vx, along with the stall at the post office, Itadaki Zen (vegan Japanese) on King’s Cross Rd, Matchless Gifts (Hare Krishna) on the Cally and the latent Tony’s Hemp Café add up to a veritable vegan/veggie hub. Rudy tells me that Tony’s might open temporarily near his store on the Cally. Meanwhile, I await news of visits from the likes of Morrissey and Natalie Portman when they’re in town. You never know.

Clare Hill

Posted in Food and Drink | 2 Comments

Voting and elections in Kings Cross 2010

Posted on April 5, 2010 by William Perrin

Ballotbox In a few weeks we shall be asked to vote for a local member of parliament and local councillors.  In Kings Cross this website provides local information week in week out to help people make choices about the neighbourhood, without taking sides in party politics.  We want to do the same with the elections.  Control of both Parliament and the Council are going to be tightly contested and every vote will count.  The parliamentary majority in Islington South is one of the smallest in the country at 484 votes and control of the council is finely balanced.

We shall keep you updated with factual information as it appears – for instance basic stuff like who is running for the Council and Parliament from the area. It’s often hard to work out what your vote will mean for neighbourhood issues.  We want to help you with local information about what candidates will offer for Kings Cross.  To do this we don’t intend to editorialise but to ask candidates for election from each of the parties that came in the top four at the last election to submit a short article and/or a video clip where they describe how voting for them will affect local issues in Kings Cross.  I shall ask likely candidates for statements on local issues in the next day or so and hope to start posting some up soon – you will be able to find them all in the Democracy and Elections category we have created for this purpose.  If you want any particular questions asking of the candidates let me know.

There are already some non-partisan information sources out there for Islington South and Caledonian Ward.  Scanned-in election leaflets for Islington South are already appearing on the Straight Choice website.  The Wikipedia entry for the constituency gives you the general election results from 2005 and 2001. If you aren’t registered or are uncertain about how to vote or which constituency you are in then visit the easy to understand Electoral Commission website. Council election results for Caledonian Ward in 2006 are in this pdf on the council site.  Likely candidates for the upcoming general election are here on the Your Next MP site.  It's also worth keeping an eye on the new non-partisan Democracy Club site which is trying to pull together local issues and information about candidates – if you find any mistakes there sign up as a volunteer and correct them (for instance some of the local issues they list).

If there is anything else you'd like us to cover please let me know in the comments.

Posted in Democracy and Elections | 1 Comment

Springwatch Kings Cross

Posted on April 4, 2010 by William Perrin

Some wonderful signs of Spring in Kings Cross – Tony Rees sent in these lovely pictures.  If you have any pics of spring flowers or wildlife in Kings Cross please send them to me environment@cankfarm.com and we'll feature them on the site.  Alternate images of Spring are also welcome – I'll leave that up to you…

First a Great Spotted Woodpecker – Tony said 'I was in the garden yesterday afternoon and heard a hollow knocking and there was a woodpecker tapping away at the old cherry tree at the bottom of next door's garden. He stuck at it for about ten minutes and then gave up'

Woodpeckertonyrees

And a Birch Shield Bug.

Birchshieldbeetletonyrees

Posted in Wildlife and Nature | 1 Comment

Crimestoppers Bulletin from Islington Police

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Stephan Schulte

Do you know this person?

GBH-Caledonian-road-Suspect

Police in Islington have released CCTV images  of a man they want to speak to in connection with an assault in Caledonian Road, N1 , that left a 41 year old man with serious facial injuries.

On 24 February 2010, between 13:15 and 13:30, the victim was walking along Caledonian Road when he became involved in an argument with the suspect.  The suspect pushed the victim to the ground and began to kick and punch him repeatedly.  The suspect stopped and walked off but returned shortly after and continued his attack on the victim.

The victim was taken to the Whittington hospital with severe facial injuries and will require extensive surgery to repair the damage.

The suspect is described as a black man, 6’02” tall, aged in his mid 20s. He was wearing a beige three quarter length coat, blue jeans and trainers and carrying a black rucksack.  

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Constable James Howarth, Islington CID on 020 7421 0185 or  Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Posted in Anti Social Behaviour, Crime etc | Leave a comment

KEYS, SUITS AND BOOTS – new business in our area

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Stephan Schulte

Dsc00989 Located just opposite Tesco's on the Caledonian Road this shop is just what the neighbourhood needed.  I dropped in last week to have my shoes repaired and spoke to the new owner John, who was very chatty and was excited about coming to the neighbourhood.

My shoes got some top-notch attention, so I thought it would be worthwhile to alert our readers of my satisfaction and encourage you all to drop by the shop and tell John, you read about the place on the Bulletin Board.  To tell you more about all the services they provide here is the blurb from their website: 

Here at KEYS SUITS AND BOOTS, we are a second generation with over 50 years of experience.  We specialise in traditional shoe repairs, leather repairs etc and we take great pride in our work.  So much so we guarantee your satisfaction.  That is why we have loyal customers that come back time and time again and continue to reconmend us.

So why not try us for yourself and put us to the test. We guarantee to be the best.

We lookforward to seeing you and we value your custom.  There's no job too big or too small, we undertake them all AND we have prices to suit all.  Please drop in…

Dsc00991

For more info and prices, check out their website: www.keyssuitsandboots.co.uk – and check out my shoes which should be good for another 50,000 miles!!!!

Shoes

Posted in Local businesses | Leave a comment