The Art of News: Family Workshop @ Kings Place

Posted on January 23, 2009 by William Perrin

Artofnews_sm_1 Apologies for the late notice – I only just found out about this. Should be a nice way to spend a Saturday:

The Art of News

News, Poetry and Music: Family Workshop

Saturday 24 January
10.00am
 Family Workshop 1
 A chance for families to make their own soundscapes from the morning’s newspaper cuttings
 
12.00pm
 Family Workshop 2
Join the London Sinfonietta and create soundscapes with the morning’s news!

Here is a chance for families to create something a little different. Begin by making poems from newspaper articles before working with players from the London Sinfonietta, combining voices and instruments to create your own songs.

For more information about The Art of News, visit http://www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk/event/news-poetry-and-music-family-workshop

Booking Information

Telephone booking | Ticket Price £4.50 | 020 7520 1490

Online and in person | Ticket Price £2.50 | kingsplace.co.uk

 Best suited for families with children over 7. Children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult

 

Posted in Arts and Entertainment, Young People | Leave a comment

Your Tolpuddle festival needs you!!!

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Sophie Talbot
Help mark the 175th anniversary of the great march in support of the Tolpuddle Martyrs

Martyrs

It was 1834 and 100,000 people gathered in what was Copenhagen Fields and has become the area just north east of King’s Cross station to demand freedom for the Tolpuddle Martyrs; it is now 175 years later and residents in King’s Cross together with trades unions from all over the country are preparing to commemorate that momentous day with a march on 25 April from the Caledonian Park to Edward Square where an acoustic music festival and lots of activities will end a week of events.

The credit crunch is hitting us all hard in 2009, but back in 1834 things were very much tougher for ordinary working people. Average family outgoings for the basics was 13 shillings and ninepence; six farm labourers from the Dorset Village of Tolpuddle soon to become ‘martyrs’, decided that local pay of 9 shillings a week was tantamount to starvation wages. So George Loveless together with his brother James and brother-in-law Thomas Stanfield, Thomas’s son John, James Hammett and James Brine decided to set up a trade union to fight for better wages from the rich landowners including James Frampton. Frampton complained to the Prime Minister who agreed that development of unions must be stopped. The six were framed on charges of ‘swearing an oath’ under laws created to stop seditious meetings and assemblies and in March were sentenced to seven years transportation to the penal colonies of Australia where they could reasonably be expected to starve or die.

But… on April 21, 1834 a month after the Trial a mass procession of 35 unions, organised in Copenhagen Fields by the Metropolitan Trades Unions, marched to Whitehall to present a massive 200,000 signature petition which the Prime Minister refused to accept. Protests continued and after some years the Martyrs were freed. They are now world famous as six heroes.

In King’s Cross a street has been named after the Martyrs and a mural on Copenhagen Street celebrates the original march. The commemoration march will begin at what would have been the north end of Copenhagen Fields, now called Caledonian Park, and end towards the southern boundary at Edward Square.

The 2009 festival in King’s Cross will culminate on 25 April with a recreation of the Martyrs’ oath, the march itself, banner making, music and comedy. The week of activities will include making links with local schools to teach students about the history of their area and a key episode in the advancement of democracy and workers’ rights as debates and discussions with community groups to tell the story and consider the relevance today. 

What we need

We have lots of ideas and enthusiasm, now we need hard cash.  Our budget runs to nearly £10,000. This amount would enable us to mount a truly spectacular series of events. Without your financial help the festival will not be a success. A group of local people are donating a considerable amount of time and expertise, all administrative costs, meeting rooms in the run up to the festival and much, much more. Festival costs are being kept to the absolute minimum – see the budget attached – but there are outgoings that we cannot cover. It is for these costs we are appealing to you. 

Please give generously. Whilst enthusiastic, the festival organisers need every penny you can spare.

Cheques should be made payable to ‘Tolpuddle in Islington’, we are setting up a dedicated bank account for the festival in that name and are now waiting on the Co-op bank for our sort code and account number. As soon as we have these they will appear on our website.

Very best wishes,

On behalf of all the TolpuddleKX 2009 festival organisers
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Free wifi for all in St Pancras station

Posted on January 18, 2009 by William Perrin

Wifi stp At last – a public space in the Kings Cross area to sit in the dry and surf away.  Martyn Saunders mailed in to report that free wifi is running in St Pancras – there is a page about it here.  The SSID is 'St Pancras Wi-Fi' and it is an open network with no encryption.  Apols if this isn't new news, but i have only just heard about it.

Posted in How to get things done locally | Leave a comment

Burns Night Supper – Saturday 24 Jan

Posted on January 17, 2009 by Stephan Schulte

Burns

James T. of Wharfdale Road, a member of the North London Burns Club, wrote to the Bulletin Board to promote their upcoming BURNS SUPPER which will take place this coming Saturday evening at the Imperial Hotel in Russell Square.

The event will begin at 18:30 and run until 01:00.  The details are as follows:

THE NICHT’S ONGAUNS                            

The haggis is piped in and addressed

Supper with traditional Burns Supper menu
(Vegetarian alternative available if ordered in advance)

A selection of Burns’ songs as set to music by Beethoven will be performed by
Musicians from the Royal Academy of Music

The Immortal Memory
The Toast To The Lasses
The Lasses’ Response

Tam O’Shanter

A CEILIDH WITH THE ADAMSON CEILIDH BAND

Auld Lang Syne

TICKETS to the event are £50 per person and can be arranged through the North London Burns Club's website: WWW.NORTHLONDONBURNSCLUB.ORG by calling James on 020 7278 2649.

Posted in Food and Drink | Leave a comment

New Cally Road Eaterie – The Spotted Dick

Posted on January 17, 2009 by Stephan Schulte

Sdoutside Aron C. Of Thornhill Bridge Square has just written to The Bulletin Board to recommend a café-bar-restaurant that opened on the Caledonian Road.

The Spotted Dick has been open on the Cally Road since the autumn. It describes itself as a café-bar-restaurant – I would say more unpretentious bistro style – with really good home cooked food at genuinely reasonable prices. There is always a daily special at £5. It is open 7 days a week. The Aussie proprietor and chef Cameron Yorke is keen to make his contribution to improving the Cally Road environment which none of us can be against.

It is opposite Iceland at number 292, tel 7607 5577. Check out their site at: www.spotted-dick.co.uk. I recommended it.

If any of our readers have sampled the fare at The Spotted Dick and wish to add their comment, please use the "comment" section below.

Posted in Food and Drink | 4 Comments

Kings Cross around the world

Posted on January 17, 2009 by William Perrin

Kings cross point We are not alone in North London living under the Kings Cross banner. Around the world there are several other Kings Crosses, each quite different.  Every day Google sends me an email of new stuff on the web that mentions Kings Cross which turns up some unusual places:





Kings Cross in Sydney is the best known other Kings Cross. 

'King's Cross has for a long time been known to most Australians as the drugs and red light capital of Australia.'

The steady stream of sex and violence news stories I pick up suggests it may even be worse than our KX was in the 1980s.  The Kings Cross Times covers events down under.

Kings Cross in Arran (pictured) is about as far removed from urban Kings Cross as it is to get.  A beautiful penninsula rich on Whiting Bay, with history.

'Whiting Bay is comprised of several districts- Kings Cross, Sandbraes, Auchencairn, Knockankelly, North, mid and South Kiscadale, Largiemhor, Largiemeanoch and Largiebeg. There is a lot of evidence of pre-historic habitation in the area; the Giants Graves are the best known. The Vikings left their dead in the burial mound at Kings Cross and an early visitor was Robert the Bruce who sailed from the Kings Cross to the mainland and to victory proving that there is nothing like a holiday on Arran to prepare you for the battles ahead.'

You can pick up a three bed house there for about £360,000, you can barely get a two bed flat for that here.

Kings Cross Lane in Nutfield Surrey seems very genteel, with loads of detached houses, but it recently appeared online due to the 'slowest police chase ever' where a policeman pursued on foot a stolen JCB digger down the Lane. The suspect was apprehended.

Kings Cross Apartments in Fayetteville North Carolina (map) are a charming American development with a gym, pool, tennis and volleyball courts.  Their marketing says 'Expect the royal treatment'.  I wonder how they are getting on in the property crash  i see you only need a $300 deposit.

In Dundee there is a Kings Cross Hospital, the old fever hospital – great old photo here.

Although not quite a place, Kings Cross Greeting Cards in Orem Utah has some lovely products.

And the Kings Cross bar in Cardif has been voted the best gay bar in Wales 2009

Does anyone have any other Kings Crosses they would like to share? Let us know through the comments.

Photo of Kings Cross Point, Arran copyright LJ Cunningham

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Let’s move to the Cally Road……

Posted on January 17, 2009 by William Perrin

Caledonian road sign Amusing piece in the Guardian today as our new neighbours leave their cappucinos on their desks and explore the North bit of Cally Road in the usual acerbic style of Let's move to…..

'Caledonian Road has always been the scrag end of north London, cobbled together from the bits Islington and Camden Town don't want. Sandwiched between two of Her Majesty's less salubrious establishments, Holloway and Pentonville, and sliced apart by railways, the area's less a neighbourhood, more a salon des refusés. You come here if you're a student, an Ethiopian immigrant or if you have the pretension but not the income for Barnsbury. But what Cally lacks in beauty, it makes up for in location.'

Good to see that the excellent Yasar Food Market gets a mention in the full article. One Guardianista asked ahead of the move 'Will there be somewhere in Kings Cross where I can buy nice garliky, olivey nibbly things for lunch?' well sweetheart, Yasar is the place.  You could also try the great Tocca cafe – easily the best decor and arguably coffee on the Cally or Primavera for possibly the friendliest service.  Neighbour Aron has recently tipped the Spotted Dick oposite Iceland, which claims to have carefully farmsourced produce and a wine list – haven't tried it myself yet.

TheGuardian piece misses the curious Logman Watermelon Importers though (does anyone know what goes on there?), the wonderful RIGPA Buddhist centre and the Dallas Burger Bar.  Do any readers have tips for Guardian types on the Cally ?

Posted in Noticeboard | 2 Comments

Nations of the Cross

Posted on January 16, 2009 by Sophie Talbot

Bbc Starting this Saturday on Radio 4 at 8pm is Nations of the Cross, stories from those who live around London's King's Cross station. Part one: Arrivals and Departures – the area was already changing before the bulldozers arrived. The programme will be repeated on Monday and will be available on BBC iPlayer for a week after broadcast.

Posted in Kings Cross local history | Leave a comment