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Fight for Fitzrovia
• NOHO vs Fitzrovia. Maybe I’m a bit slow on the uptake, but are Camden Council really that poor that they have to sell out all residents and businesses to the Candy brothers?
Do they have no morals, obligations or respect for the residents of Fitzrovia? Why did they give planning permission in the first place to such a monstrosity of a building, then allow themselves to be sucked in to the marketing ploy of the “rebranding” of Fitzrovia?
It raises another question. What level of respect do Camden Council and the Candy brothers have for us? Whatever level it is, it must be pretty low.
I give the Candy brothers credit for their sheer gaul at trying to drop the Fitzrovia name. Money doesn’t really impress us locals. We know Fitzrovia is now a trendy place to live, overtaking Islington on the property-value stakes. We know how developers are itching to get their hands on our properties. This is Fitzrovia, and Fitzrovia it will remain.
Fitzrovia to me means community, not money. Fitzrovia to me is best described in the book North Soho 999 by Paul Willetts. He writes of the Fitzroy Tavern: “Positioned on the far corner, it was a big, smoke-blackened, three storey building with Dutch gables and a miniature onion dome. The windows were almost opaque, their surfaces decorated by swirling, acid-etched patterns. From outside, it was hard to see much of what was going on inside. Entering the Fitzroy at lunchtime, customers were greeted by a soothing buzz of conversation from the incongruous array of people who drank there… On the wall above the counter was a large clock, its case made from half a beer barrel. It had stopped at 11am on Armistice Day 1918. Out of superstition, nobody had wound it since.’
This is how Fitzrovia should remain, in my opinion. Leave the clock as it is. Don’t wind the mechanism, just leave it alone. Fitzrovia will remain Fitzrovia to everyone who lives and works here.
CHRIS HOWARD
Chair of 25 Gresse Street Residents Association
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