Northern Line may Split

In the rush hour, only Bank trains run northbound to High Barnet and Mill Hill East. Passengers on the Charing Cross branch must change at Camden Town.

It seems that this allows London Underground to run trains more frequently because of reduced congestion on crossover tunnels.

This split may become permanent - giving us a North-eastern Line from High Barnet / Mill Hill East to Bank and a North-western Line from Edgware to Charing Cross. If this goes ahead, we will have to change at Camden Town for the most popular destinations.

New: 29 May 08

Gospel Oak line closure

Here are the updated rumours of temporary closure of the Overground at Gospel Oak this autumn:

• Gospel Oak to Willesden/Richmond/Clapham will close September 1st to November 16th for enlargement of Hampstead Tunnel
• Gospel Oak to Stratford will be temporarily reduced to two trains per hour
• Gospel Oak to Barking will close for all of September

Once all the work is complete and new trains are purchased, the service will be much improved (the numbers on the map are the no of trains per hour). The service from Gospel Oak will be:

• Every 10 minutes to Stratford
• Every 15 minutes to Richmond (via Willesden)
• Every 30 minutes to Clapham Junction (via Willesden)
• Every 15 minutes to Barking

From 2011 there should be access to the City via the new East London Line, but you will need to change at Highbury.

Thanks to U at londonconnections. for information and map.

Updated: 29 May 08

Highgate Post Office Update

The Post Office confirmed on Wednesday that four Camden branches, including the one in Highgate Village, would close.

Local residents and celebrities, co-ordinated by the Highgate Society, have been fighting hard over recent months to keep our Post Office open. Apparently their arguments have not been successful.

There are reports that Camden Council has suggested that it could take over the four branches, but no firm news has emerged.

Update: 10 May 08

Fire in Langbourne Flat

Camden New Journal reports that families were forced to flee their homes when a fire broke out in the early hours of Monday.

Dozens of residents from a Langbourne Avenue block were evacuated after a flat went up in flames at around 2am.

Lily Campbell described the night-time ordeal. She said: “The fire brigade woke us up, banging on the door. I grabbed my son and ran out in my dressing gown – I thought the whole block was going up. You couldn’t see anything because of the smoke.”

Another neighbour described how she had been woken by the apartment’s owner shortly after 2am, asking to use her telephone to phone the emergency services. She said: “When it was coming through the roof I thought it was coming into my flat.”

It is believed the flat’s occupant was looking after her sister’s three children as well as her son on the night of the fire. The alarm was sounded by a child in the flat who woke up smelling smoke. A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said the fire began in the kitchen, though the exact cause is still under investigation. Four fire engines and 20 firefighters battled the flames while residents waited outside in the cold.

New: 2 May 08

Mother fights off burglar

Camden New Journal reports that a single mother who fought off a burglar at her Highgate home has vowed to help the area’s youth from falling into a life of crime.

Shannon Francis, 36, was at her home in Langbourne Mansions on the Holly Lodge estate suffering from flu when the intruder struck. She said: “I heard a noise in the bathroom. When I went to investigate I found a guy sitting on the window sill. He’d climbed up the drainpipe. I freaked out and attacked him. I didn’t know if he had a knife or what. I was just thinking: ‘I’ve got to get him out of my house’.”

In the struggle, the intruder fell backwards out of the first-floor window, crashing to the concrete more than 20 feet below. After lying stunned for a few moments, the teenager picked himself up and ran off.

Fortunately, Ms Francis’s seven-year-old daughter Paris was at school at the time. Ms Francis, who goes to the gym three times a week and does Tae-kwon-do, a Korean martial art and combat sport, added: “My neighbours said they would have run away but until that situation happens you don’t know what you would do. I don’t think he’ll be coming back to this house again.”

New: 2 May 08

Secretary & Contracts Manager

The estate committee has decided to split the responsibilities of the current secretary’s position due to the increased workload. Dominique Florin has agreed to take over as Secretary, assuming responsibility for the day to day secretary’s activities, and Dharminder Kang has agreed to be Contracts Manager, responsible for third party contracts.

Dominique will manage the car disc system and all other communications with the residents. She will be the first port of call for all communications, though when she is on holiday Dharminder will be available to help.

Dharminder will be in charge of projects such as steps, trees gates, roads etc.

New: 21 Feb 08

Community Association Appeal

The Holly Lodge Community Association is appealing for help following the Camden Council decision to freeze their funds. Unless they can raise money to meet the shortfall in their finances the Association will be forced to curtail its activities or even shut down.

• The Family Centre in Holly Lodge Mansions organises play schemes in term time and school holidays.
• The Learning Centre provides a suite of computers with Internet access for people of all ages as well as having facilities such as laundrette equipment which mean a great deal to bedsit dwellers.
• The Luncheon Club provides meals and organises shipping trips for disabled people and over 60s.

Click here for information on how you can help or to make a donation.

New: 17 Feb 08

Battle over bedsit sell off

More than half the bedsit blocks in Holly Lodge Estate are lying empty ready to be sold off by the council.

On Wednesday night, housing chiefs were warned that they do not have tenant support for its plans to sell off council properties.

The Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition was told in no uncertain terms that cash for repairs and improvements to council estates should not be raised by hiving off empty homes.

Deputations at a meeting of the council’s cabinet made a mockery of the claims from the Town Hall that tenants supported the policy and that its own survey had uncovered support for the proposals.

Last week, Alan Walter, a tenants leader from Kentish Town and a driving force behind the pressure group Defend Council Housing (DCH), was summoned to give almost an hour’s worth of evidence before a parliamentary committee of MPs debating the upcoming Housing and Regeneration Bill. He told the committee that while Prime Minister Gordon Brown had made encouraging statements about building homes, his effort to make the issue a priority would be undermined if the government did not invest in its existing stock.

His invitation to speak in front of such an influential panel is a departure from the frosty relations that Mr Walter, other DCH campaigners and Camden council tenants have had with the government in recent years. It undermines the council’s claim that the government is not interested in listening to demands for direct funding.

The government has so far told Camden that it will only get investment is if it gives up the management of its homes - thus robbing tenants of the chance to get rid of under-performing landlords at elections.

Mr Walter said: “"Council tenants, despite being bribed with promises of new kitchens and bathrooms, have stuck it out because they believe in having a democratically accountable landlord.”

The council agreed to enter into estate regeneration deals with housing associations, which will effectively see the private sector get its hands on prime homes on the landmark Holly Lodge Estate in Highgate, and the award-winning Maiden Lane Estate in Camden Town. Empty properties owned by the council will not be refurbished and face being auctioned off to the highest bidder.

DCH intend to prove that the claim that tenants support the sell-off is skewed and have put together a petition likely to eclipse the council’s efforts at consultation. More than 70 senior tenants leaders have signed the protest, which clearly sets out an opposition to the council’s policy. Hundreds - possibly thousands - more are likely to add their names to the petition in the coming days after the campaign group took out a newspaper advert and invited every resident in Camden to show the Town Hall what the real mood of the borough is.

Kathleen O’Donoghue, from Camden Association of Street Properties, said: "Many of our street properties have provided homes to generations of families. “The present administration’s plans to sell even a limited number of street properties at a time when demand for council housing far exceeds supply will directly affect our communities and we ask: How can this be justified?”

Grace Livingstone, joint secretary of the Holly Lodge Residents Association, said: “It would be a crime to sell four blocks of council housing when there is such great housing need in Camden.”

The proposals were passed and officials have been ordered to prepare homes for sale.

Updated: 19 Dec 07

More trees uprooted

Heavy winds have blown down more trees in Highgate over the last few days. A tree landed on a car in North Road and another destroyed three cars in Highgate School car park.

On the estate, Langbourne West has been worst affected with four apparently healthy trees being uprooted, including two mature (25 ft) prunus specimens. Four more trees were lost: two on Makepeace West, one in the gardens and one by the garages.

The grounds team did an excellent job of quickly making the sites safe and later removing the debris.

The decisions to remove the Langbourne Chestnut and the Gardens Cedar of Lebanon appear to have been timed well! The Committee will continue to survey the condition of trees on the Estate regularly and unfortunately must remove any that are advised to be a risk.

The Real Crime Stats

I am sure most of us have been worried by the incessant reporting of teenage stabbings in the press...so I thought I should check with the Office of National Statistics for the real figures.

I chose “Wounding or Other Act Endangering Life” as the closest offence to the newspaper reports - and a category of offence with a reliable trend as it is serious enough to be likely to be reported to police.

As you can see from the chart below, the number of offences in Camden in the year to March 2007 was 68. This is bad enough but it is LOWER than any of the previous five years.

So, should you worry about you or your children being attacked in Camden? It seems that the danger is real, but that it is no worse than it was years ago. And, looking at the British Crime Survey, the incidence of violent crime nationally is almost identical to the level in 1981.

New: 29 May 08

Holly Lodge Legacy

A long-standing resident of the Estate has left a legacy of £5,000 in appreciation of Holly Lodge and of his next door neighbour.

The Committee is discussing how the money can best be spent, to the long-term benefit of all on the Estate, for improvements that would not otherwise be currently affordable.

A popular suggestion is to use the legacy for developing our Swains Lane entrance - several residents have commented positively on the improvements to the upper entrance and how they would like to see a similar upgrading of the lower entrance.

The Committee would like to thank our benefactor for this generous donation.

(Next time you are updating your will, you might consider a similar gift!)

New: 10 May 08

Highgate Ward goes Green

Highgate voters elected a Green candidate in the by-election for a Camden Councillor - bucking the major swing to the Conservatives in other votes on the same day. The results were:

• Alex Goodman (Green): 1,482
• Michael Nicolaides (Labour): 1,185
• Richard Merrin (Conservative): 1,180
• Henry Potts (Lib Dem): 633
• Spoilt ballots: 23
• Turnout: 56%

The results mean that our three councillors are all Green. Just click on the links below to contact them:

• Maya de Souza 020 7974 2792
• Alex Goodman 020 7974 1986
• Adrian Oliver 020 7974 2792

Highgate Ward covers Holly Lodge Estate, Highgate Newtown, Dartmouth Park and a huge amount of green space including much of Hampstead Heath and Kenwood.

New: 10 May 08

Do you want GP night calls?

Camden PCT has put out a low-profile short term public consultation on deciding who should run the GP Out of Hours Service in North London.

This follows a recent decision to hand over three Camden practices to be run by a private USA Health Company instead of local GPs. The consultation prior to this controversial decision was also criticised.

Because of Easter the “four-week” consultation process effectively closes this Thursday 20th March.

So, if you want to continue to have an out of hours service run by a group of local GPs, please make your views known this week.

New: 18 Mar 08

Highgate prices top Kensington

Bloomberg reports a street in Highgate took the top spot from Kensington & Chelsea for the first time on Mouseprice’s annual list of the most expensive U.K. addresses. Courtenay Avenue, with average property values of £6.8 million, is the priciest place to live in Britain.

Another study, carried out by estate agents Savills, is based on the proportion of properties in each area selling for at least £1 million. At the top of the list are traditionally popular areas within zones three and four such as Hampstead - where one in three homes sells for a seven figure sum - and Highgate, where a quarter of properties cost at least £1 million.

Savills head of research Lucian Cook said the areas were enjoying an unprecedented boom. “We believe that this is happening because the prime suburbs combine the attributes most valued by home-buyers,” he said. “These are safety and security of neighbourhood, access to good schools, quality of the environment and proximity to amenities. Homes in the super-suburbs are mainly being sold to British buyers, while wealthy foreign investors dominate sales in zone one.”

Realtors Hamptons International said prime home prices in London are virtually double those in Manhattan. The most expensive properties in London cost £4,000 a square foot, compared with £2,075 a square foot in Manhattan and 1,900 pounds in Hong Kong.

The chart below shows how property prices on Holly Lodge Estate have grown since 2000.

The chart is based on actual selling prices of 200 properties recorded by HM Land Registry.

The hle.org.uk survey of average price change compared with N6 and national averages shows:

Avenue flats	118 sales	10% per year
Avenue houses	32 sales	8% per year
Hillway houses	25 sales	12% per year
Robin Grove Holly Lodge Gardens	9 sales	Too few sales to calculate average
London N6		8% per year
National		11% per year

Updated: 28 Feb 08

Kenwood Concerts to Return

Camden Council agreed on Thursday to the return of Kenwood Concerts this summer following an "exemplary" proposal submitted by concert promoters IMG on behalf of English Heritage.

A series of eight performances will be held on Saturdays between June and August. They will be moved to a new location on the Pasture Ground within the Kenwood Estate where the noise will disturb residents less. The limit on audience numbers will remain at previous levels of 8,000 people per concert.

The programme includes one respite weekend during the 9½ week programme when no concerts will take place and a reduction in the number of firework displays from 7 to just one per concert series.

Some locals are delighted at the re-institution of a 55-year old tradition. Others, particularly those who live very close, are still strongly opposed.

For more information, see the English Heritage website.

New: 23 Feb 08

Dead and dying trees removed

The removal of 21 trees that are already dead or are becoming dangerous has started.

See the consultations page for the full list of trees that have to be taken out and the reasons they have to go.

The trees will be replaced in the autumn, which is the best time for planting. A planting plan will be published on this site for consultation with residents.

New: 8 Feb 08

Camden’s Barmy Bumps

The Ham & High reports opposition from Swains Lane residents to plans by Camden to re-instate “silly” road humps. There were celebrations in 2006 when the humps were removed, reducing noise, cutting CO₂ emissions and bringing relief to back-pain sufferers.

A sham consultation by Camden Council asked locals how may humps they wanted (5 or 7) without giving the option of no humps - not exactly a genuine attempt to discover if the electorate actually want these humps.

Councillor Mike Green reportedly said: “We will always look for the opportunity to reduce the number of speed bumps and how steep they are whenever a road is resurfaced.” It is difficult to believe that this statement is anything other than an attempt to mislead ratepayers - especially as it now looks as if Camden may be installing new humps on Highgate Road.

I am now looking for a quote from Camden to put positive spin on their masterly plan to coincide road closures to the South, East and West of the Estate!

New: 2 Feb 08

Healthy Eating Afternoon

The Camden New Journal reported the Community Centre treated visitors to an afternoon of healthy eating on Thursday when a team of food advisers from department store John Lewis made a special visit.

The event was organised to provide a healthy start to the new year for the elderly residents of Highgate who use the community centre to meet friends and keep active.

June Rose, chairwoman of the Holly Lodge management committee, said: ‘We have put on events with John Lewis before, they’re a very charitable organisation. There was a good turnout, everyone enjoyed themselves and had lots of tasty food and drink. We had dessert wines, cheese, and exotic fruits and fresh juices, it really was a treat.’

Jemima Ogg, 92, a Holly Lodge estate resident said: ‘There were so many varieties of unusual food and lots of people to talk to. It was a very nice day. I’m looking forward to the next event.’

New: 18 Jan 08

Highgate Uganda Charity visit

For many years, Highgate residents have supported Kirima Schools in Uganda, sponsoring children to attend the schools and helping pay for new school buildings and facilities.

The schools are located in Kinchiisi, a poor and underdeveloped area of south-western Uganda. The aim of the Friends of Kirima charity is to help create sustainable education and development in rural Uganda.

There are now four primary schools, one community college and two health centres. Visitors from Highgate have been moved by the very apparent difference between the villages with sponsorship and the surrounding villages.

Rev Hamlet Mbabazi, a former MP in Uganda, has been inspirational in transforming the lives of people in the region. Hamlet and Godfrey, the headteacher of Kirima Primary School, visited Highgate in November to report on progress and help set the vision for the future.

The current project is to build a new secondary school to provide the next educational step for graduates of the four primary schools. Highgate School is supporting this project and has raised £50,000 from its sponsored walk - enough to pay for 5 of the 12 classrooms needed in the new school.

For more information, visit www.volunteeruganda.org

Sculptures stolen from Gardens

Police are hunting a giant fish and two horses stolen from the gardens. They were crafted from the remains of our cedar by artist Friedel Buecking. He said "I couldn’t believe it when I came back in the morning to see them gone. They are very big - you would need at least two people to move them."

The sculptor uses a chain saw on the massive cedar trunk to create giant sculptures. His works are on permanent display on the South Bank and Trent Park.

If you are interested in purchasing any works, contact Friedel Buecking on 07890 008957.

He has carved a bench and two chairs from the cedar to remain in the gardens as a memento to our lost tree.