On hold for a while…

Hi,

I’m afraid that this blog will be on hold for a while.

My life got too busy in recent time and the lack of help doesn’t allow me to keep up with blog updates.

RSS feeds are always active so you can read the latest about Finsbury Park area from some friend site.

Regards,

“A blog for Finsbury Park” admin

Gillespie Park Festival – 13 September 2009

Event Details Title Gillespie Park Festival
Date 13 September 2009
Times 1pm – 6pm
Availability Available

Description This will be the 23rd Gillespie Park festival, consisting of a wide range of music and dancing, including rap, line dancing and Morris dancing, plus childrens activities such as storytelling, drumming and football.

Costs Free

Notes Places: No maximum. Booking not required.

Contact Details

Title Friends of Gillespie Park

Contact Contact Friends of Gillespie Park

Telephone 020 7527 6726

Venue Details

Title Gillespie Park
Address Drayton Park, Islington, London United Kingdom
Postcode N5

View on Map

Notes Tube: Arsenal (Picadilly line), Finsbury Park (Victoria line). Rail: Drayton Park. Bus: 4, 19, 236.

Access to Finsbury Park tube – Online Petition

Give us access to Finsbury Park

In a City the size of London, the Underground system is the quickest way to get around and we are disappointed with the Mayor’s decision to shelve 22 of the 45 planned step free access projects across London only committing himself to providing step-free access at 29 per cent of all stations by 2017. This is a major step back from previous plans to provide step-free access on a third of the network by 2013. As a result, many disabled passengers, older people and parents with young children are being denied access to this mode of transport. This is particularly concerning in the run up to the 2012 Paralympics and makes us wonder how the Mayor is planning to keep his post-Beijing pledge to make London’s Games the most accessible ever.

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/give-us-access-to-finsbury-park.html

Finsbury to feature in moody love story

[news link]

Islington Tribune – by PETER GRUNER Published: 4 September 2009

Hugh Grant Finsbury to feature in moody love story A NEW £1.5million feature film could do for Finsbury Park what the movie Notting Hill, starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, did for Notting Hill. Broken Lines, due to be premiered in the UK next year, is described as a tense love story set in the moody cosmopolitan setting of Finsbury Park. It is co-written by actors Dan Fredenburgh and Doraly Rosa, who both star in the film alongside veteran actress Rita Tushingham and Paul Bettany. Dan Fredenburgh, 39, a former Highbury Grove pupil from Milner Square, said he was fulfilling a long held dream to make a film around Finsbury Park. “The area has a great atmosphere,” said Dan. “You have the wonderful array of North African and Middle Eastern cafés and restaurants along Blackstock Road. “There are poor neighbourhoods as well as up-and-coming ones.” The story involves Jake, a young Jewish property developer played by Dan, being drawn back to the inner-city Finsbury Park of his youth, where his father owned a tailoring business. He meets and is drawn to B (Doraly Rosa), who is waitressing at a café he frequents. B is also in a relationship, with Chester (Paul Bettany), an ex-boxer crippled after suffering a stroke in a fight, who is becoming increasingly dependent on her. The two hour film was shown in Venice last year.

Burglary rates are falling, insist police

[news link]

nlnews@archant.co.uk
26 August 2009

POLICE insist soaring rates of burglary insurance claims are at odds with the borough’s falling break-in rates in crime-hit streets.

Hornsey and Crouch End were named and shamed as the second most risky areas to live in the capital according to the number of insurance claims filed last year.

But Haringey’s borough commander said the most recent burglary rates in the N8 postcode are actually dropping.

Chief superintendent Dave Grant, said: “In terms of wards covered by the N8 postcode, early unconfirmed figures that we are working to show that Hornsey, Crouch End, Muswell Hill, Stroud Green and Harringay wards have all experienced good reductions in residential burglary this financial year to date and we are working to replicate these results across the borough.”

He added the Safer Neighbourhood Teams in Harringay and Stroud Green are carrying out patrols and home security checks which have resulted in a drop in offences since April this year.

The survey by price comparison website moneysupermarket.co.uk also revealed N8 was the eighth most risky postcode for burglaries in Britain.

BLAZE at derelict Stoke Newington library sparks fears of explosion

[news link]

hg.editorial@archant.co.uk
26 August 2009

A mystery blaze at a derelict library sparked fears of an explosion after gas cylinders were discovered inside this morning .

Flames engulfed the former council-run Brownswood Library on the corner of Brownswood Road and Seven Sisters Road, Stoke Newington, which closed 13 years ago and has been occupied in recent times by squatters.

The Fire Brigade received numerous calls from passerby and nearby residents after the blaze broke out at 7.15am.

Fire crew manager Paul Dykes, from Stoke Newington Fire Station said firefighters had to be extra careful to prevent the gas cylinders exploding.

The one-storey building had been earmarked for development by the Genesis Housing association into a five-storey block of 17 residential flats.

One year on… and gallery lies empty

[news link]

Islington Tribune – by PETER GRUNER Published: 21 August 2009

Shiri Shalmy One year on… and gallery lies empty A YEAR after arts exhibitions were kicked out of a converted public toilet in 115-acre Finsbury Park, the building remains empty. And this week a row blew up over the eviction of arts promoter Shiri Shalmy from the gallery she had lovingly created with thousands of pounds of her own money. Haringey Council, which runs the park, ordered her out in July 2008 because the building was needed urgently for a new information centre. Paul Morris, chairman of independent enterprise board FinFuture, said: “Obviously, they may well have a practical and sensible use for the building in the future. Although they may have a more viable use for the building, until they are ready to start they could have put her on a month’s licence.” He added: “I thought the gallery was a nice local effort.” Islington Green councillor Katie Dawson said: “It’s a wasted resource and needs to be used for the community.” Ms Shalmy has since become the contemporary curator at the £10million Jewish Museum in Camden Town, due to open early next year. She has indicated she would be unlikely to return to Finsbury Park even if she was offered her old gallery back. Ms Shalmy said: “Despite all my efforts I was treated pretty poorly at Finsbury Park and I have a new direction to my life now. “But it is sad that the building is still empty because someone could make a go of a gallery if not me.” The gallery, opposite the lake, boasted hundreds of visitors each week, including peace campaigner Bruce Kent. It received a £3,000 grant from Islington Council. Artist Graham Carrick, who exhibited regularly at the space, said: “I’ll never understand why they closed her down.” Ann Barwick, chairwoman of the Friends of Finsbury Park, said the building was always intended to be used an information centre. She added: “The building is occasionally used for children’s art classes and by the Play Association. “But we are still encouraging Haringey to completely fulfil its promises to turn it into an information centre. “It was never meant to be exclusively used just as an art centre.”

Please your palate at Harringay Food Festival

[news link]

7:00am Friday 14th August 2009

By Elizabeth Pears »

FESTIVAL organisers are searching for residents who are a dab hand in the kitchen to get involved with the Harringay Food Festival.

The first Harringay Food Festival, to be held in Green Lanes on September 20, promises to be a celebration of the cuisine, culture and history of the area.

Organisers are anticipating hundreds of people to flock to the one-day party and Haringey Council has pledged to close one of the roads so the street festival can really kick off.

Stalls are available for hire for food, information or arts and crafts.

Rob Chau, of Harringay Traders Association, said: “We want to celebrate all of the fantastic things Green Lanes has to offer with a tremendous variety of food and a range of interesting stalls.

“There will be hundreds of residents and visitors enjoying the fun on the day. Taking out a stall – whether to sell food, crafts and other goods, or to hand out information – will be the perfect opportunity to reach a captive audience for a very reasonable price.”

Councillor Nilgun Canver, chair of the Green Lanes Strategy Group, said: “The festival will be a fantastic event and I’m confident that we will see a great range of stalls reflecting the wonderful diversity of this area.

“We are looking forward to welcoming a variety of different hot and cold, sweet and savoury, international and local food stalls to help make the festival a success.”

For more information on stall hire contact Rob Chau on 0871 230 2388 or Marcia Connell on 020 8489 4543 for non-food stalls or visit www.harringayfoodfestival.com

New cyclists come out for London’s Cycle Friday

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By Kevin Emery – Posted on 14 August 2009

The first Cycle Friday has made its mark on London, and the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) is pleased with how today’s rides have gone. The Cycle Fridays in the city have been launched to encourage novice cyclists to commute to work in the hoe that they tempt new cyclists into the saddle.

Run by the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) in partnership with Transport for London, the rides will run for the next eight weeks until October 2. By then it’s hoped the novice cyclists will have improved in confidence enough to follow routes alone.

There will be eight rides per week and today saw six routes running from the suburbs into Central London – Brixton to Russell Square, Finsbury Park to St Pauls, Mile End to St Pauls, Ravenscourt to Trafalgar Square, Swiss Cottage to Holborn and Greenwich to St Pauls. Our London correspondent, TR was a marshall on the ride from Finsbury Park you can find out how he got on on his blog.

Charlie Lloyd, a back up marshal from the LCC, said: “The first cycle Friday has gone really well. We were targeting around 25 new riders per ride and we were pleased with the support. There were two rides of 24 people from Brixton, and the Greenwich ride saw a similar turnout. I was on the Finsbury Park one and it was a nice ride in and we hope to see everyone again next week and some more new riders.

The LCC provide qualified and experienced marshals to guide each ride, which make full use of cycle lanes, start at 8am, and hope to show cyclists the safest routes into the city centre.

Transport for London will be publicising the led rides through the cycling pages of the TfL website.

The Cycle Fridays come on the back of a series of successful BikeTubes events run by the LCC in June.

Friday bike convoys converging on City of London

[news link]

12 August 2009

By Mike Brooke

A SERIES of bike ‘convoys’ led by experienced riders begins on Friday (August 14) to guide novice commuter cyclists into central London.

The ‘Cycle Fridays’ are departing at 8am from six locations in all directions for riders who need a little extra support to start cycling to work.

The East London convoy to St Paul’s in the City begins at the Mile End Green Bridge in Mile End Road.

EAST LONDON ROUTE

Cyclists are being accompanied through Mile End Park alongside the Regent’s Canal, over the canal bridge at Solebay Street, along Harford Street past Shandy Park, turning right into Ben Jonson Road, left into Stepney High Street past St Dunstan’s, right along Stepney Way, left into Jubilee Street, crossing over Commercial Road into Sutton Street down to Shadwell, then right into Cable Street, all the way to Tower Hill, then Monument and onto St Paul’s.

Other starting points across town are from Cutty Sark Gardens in Greenwich, Finsbury Park in north London, Brixton’s Coldharbour Lane in south London, Swiss Cottage in north-west London and Ravenscourt Park in west London.

The Friday convoys were inspired by the London Underground strike in June.