Camden News: Rock ’n’ roll here to stay as Proud bar brings ‘cool’ back

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Camden News - By SIMON WROE
Published: 10 April 2008

Drew McConnell of the group Babyshambles playing at the Proud bar event

Rock ’n’ roll here to stay as Proud bar brings ‘cool’ back

IT opened with a rock ’n’ roll fanfare and a bevy of celebrity guests, but the owner of Camden’s relaunched Proud bar says his venue will not make Camden Town “whole” until the fire-ravaged Hawley Arms reopens.
Lily Allen, Adele, Pixie Geldof and Jaime Winstone mingled with rock stars The Klaxons, New Young Pony Club and Patrick Wolf at the launch of Proud Camden, now rehoused in the historic Horse Hospital in the Stables Market.
Hundreds more from London’s fashion and music sets queued around the block for entrance to the star-studded bar.
But the owner of the gallery, bar and music venue, Alex Proud, denied he alone was bringing “cool” back to Camden, saying his bar could never “take the title” held by the Hawley Arms in nearby Castlehaven Road.
Mr Proud said: “We are not whole without the Hawley Arms. We’d do anything to help them get up and running again. We can’t wait for them to be open.”
The Hawley, a favourite haunt of Amy Winehouse, Kate Moss and Kelly Osbourne, was decimated by the Camden fire in February this year.
It is due to reopen in five months’ time.
The Proud bar also suffered a seven-month hiatus, after its home at Gin House was destroyed in the ongoing redevelopment of the Stables Market. Mr Proud said the bar’s launch was an important way to tell people Camden was open for business in the aftermath of the fire.
He said: “As with any new bar there were all sorts of teething problems, but it came together just in time. The engine is in the bonnett and the car is working nicely. It just needs a polish.”
The gallery part of the bar is set to open in the coming weeks, with an exhibition of the film-maker Mike Figgis’s photographs.

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