What have you missed since January 8th?

West Hampstead tube station is still not on the shortlist to get a lift.

The student housing block on Blackburn Road has applied to add 41 extra rooms – which means a new storey, or two. We got the full story…

The new restaurant replacing Brioche is going to be Hām. Like the Wet Fish next door, the name isn’t a particularly good indication of the cuisine. Hām is the Old English word for home, and the origin of the ham in West Hampstead. It launched on social media, and posted this photo of the interior. It’s due to open in February.

A sneak preview of West ‘Hām’pstead’s new restaurant

West Hampstead is ‘slightly’ polluted. Cough, cough.

Minkies got renamed “8oz”. The owner has moved back to the US and sold the original Kensal Rise business but not the West Hampstead stall; instead he changed the name and went into partnership with a former employee. (Minkie, by the way, is the name of his wife)!

Sirous is getting a serious (a ‘Sirious’…) refurbishment and will reopen as a steakhouse apparently.

Local food hygiene ratings were in the news once again, with a few West Hampstead venues scoring zero or one.

You’ve been asking what happened to the new Sunday food market in the O2 car park… it went into hibernation over Christmas but will be back at the end of January. Perhaps on the 21st even.

Over at the Saturday West Hampstead farmer’s market it’s time to choose your favourite stall again! Last year’s winner was Brinkworth Dairy. (and the year before that)

Neave Brown, renowned architect of the brutalist Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate, died.

Camden is consulting on a vision for Camden in 2025. There is a drop in session on Tuesday afternoon at the Kingsgate centre to get locals’ views. Is anything meaningful going to come from it, or is it a sop to community engagement?

The Minster Road Nature reserve was renamed the Jane Evans reserve, in recognition of her work setting it up.

DCS Catherine Roper, head of the recently merged Camden and Islington police forces, is leaving. She will be replaced temporarily by Superintendent Nick Davies and permanently in April by DCS Iain Raphael. He will be the fourth head of the Camden force since December 2015.

Coming up

Mon 15th – Locally Sourced at the Alliance; 7:30pm with Richard Prince and Nicola Burnett Smith
Tues 16th – Drop in at Kingsgate Centre 2:30 to 5pm for Camden 2025.
Tues 16th – Fortune choir restarts 7pm at Emmanuel Church
Thurs 18th – It’s the Community Associations AGM 7pm Emmanuel Church