West Hampstead Life

Mark Carney, new governor of the Bank of England, will be living in West Hampstead – but he’ll struggle to spend his housing allowance here… even if you call this West Hampstead.

Fancy some guerilla gardening? It’s all the rage in Fordwych Road and there’s a talk about it on July 11th.

Floral Fordwych Road treepit

The Jester Festival was a big hit with large crowds in the blazing Saturday sunshine and a very healthy turnout on a Murray-affected Sunday. Hello to all of you who came to see us on the West Hampstead Life stall, was great to meet you.

Wired is back. The popular pop-up coffee shop that lived on the now-demolished parade of shops opposite the tube has reopened on Broadhurst Gardens next to Rock Men’s Salon. It’s still in soft launch phase I believe.

At Tuesday’s Area Action Group meeting we heard from Thames Water that there’s a very long-term plan for replacing the pipes. Half of the remaining old pipes will be replaced between 2015 and 2020, the other half between 2020 and 2025. In reality, one imagines they’ll largely be replaced as and when they fail over the next few years.

The Travis Perkins building (aka 156 West End Lane) is officially on the market, but all that office space could be empty for three years.

A 29-unit development is on the cards on Iverson Road, or could it be merged with the proposed development for the old garden centre site?

Property News returned: could West Hampstead become a ghost town?

Twitter: is there nothing it can’t do? One local saw my tweet of the news that Kirstie & Phil were coming to West Hampstead, followed up with the Location Location Location team, and promptly sold his house via the programme.

A campaign for a new secondary school in West Hampstead is now up and running.

James Corden was in West Hampstead on Wednesday morning giving a pep talk to Greene & Co. in the guise of Smithy.

The Jewish Cultural Centre officially moved into its swish new “JW3” premises on Finchley Road. The centre doesn’t actually open for another couple of months but the celebrity guests are already lining up.

A motorcyclist sustained “life changing injuries” in Kilburn on Tuesday. There was what seemed to be a far less serious incident on Sunday evening on West End Lane/Dennington Park Road apparently involving a car and a pizza delivery bike.

The Bling Ring is @NxNW6‘s Film of the Week, and is also the next NW6 Film Club screening on the 14th. Full cinema listings here.

GBK made headlines for all the wrong reasons when a local sanpped a picture of mould on his burger bun.

Kilburn ward councillor Mike Katz was controversially deselected by Labour, meaning he won’t be standing for the position again next year. Meanwhile local MP Glenda Jackson, often accused of being invisible both locally and nationally, asked a question in PMQs this week.

#whampreview is becoming #whampdinner (and mailing list subscribers get priority now).

The Fortune Green & West Hampstead Safer Neighbourhood police teams opened a Twitter account: @FGWHlocalpolice.

Tom’s Diner embraced the halloumi at David’s Deli.

The Kilburn history blog had two sad stories of post-natal depression in 19th Century NW6 and an investigation into the local connection to Foyle’s bookshop.

The short-lived Londis on Fortune Green Road went down in a blaze of glory with a buy-1-get-2-free sale on absolutely everything.

At this Sunday’s Kilburn Festival, you can make a wish on a bubble to support speech & language therapy.

It might frustrate local drivers, but there’s still something undeniably charming about the Abbey Road zebra crossing.

The controversial Willesden Green library development is being marketed abroad with the lack of affordable housing as a selling point. Local campaigners aren’t happy.

Tweet of the Week
Congratulations to Sam who has achieved the first consecutive Tweet of the Week wins. Take that, Andy Murray.