The torch passes through our neighbourhood on its last full day in London en route for Stratford and Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony
The Olympic torch relay passes through Islington early on Thursday morning and a huge programme of performances and spectacle will mark its arrival at key points throughout the Borough.
A special welcome has been organised for the Caledonian Road from around 07.45 on Thursday morning. The torch will pass up Cally Rd and turn right into Offord Rd on its way towards Highbury Corner and then the Town Hall.
Shops, cafes and other traders are opening-up early and organising impromptu events for the hundreds of residents and visitors who are expected to cheer the relay as it goes through our neighbourhood. Bunting, flags and decorations will go up at dawn on Thursday and there will be music and entertainment too.
Pubs and cafes, like the Prince on the corner of Bridgeman Road, are planning to make a mountain of toast. Hundreds of soft drinks, teas and coffees will be served by businesses in the heart of our High Street. Cally Pool will have sports-themed celebrations too.
The torch relay starts its journey through Islington from the London Canal Museum on New Wharf Road (leaving just before 8am) before travelling along Wharfdale Road than up Caledonian Road.
The full map of the route through Islington can be seen by clicking here.
Some disruption to bus services on Caledonian Road is likely between about 07.30 and 08.30.
Full information about Islington and the Olympics is at www.islington.gov.uk/2012
‘A Better Cally’ – Public meeting on Thursday, July 26th at 7pm in the Jean Stokes Hall on Carnoustie Drive.
We live in a neighbourhood where residents are determined to make this a better place to live, work and do business.
There has been a great deal of concern in our neighbourhood following the transmission of the BBC TV programme “Hidden Streets – Caledonian Road”. The programme highlighted a controversy about the kind of rented accommodation that has been developed in many properties behind, above and even below shops on our high street.
It also spotlighted the controversial practice of building residential accommodation without securing planning permission and the programme raised the question about whether the Council takes enforcement action using planning powers and housing/environmental health legislation. The programme has also identified why so many shops on the Caledonian Road are empty.
On this website we have recently described the measures already being taken by the Council.
The local Councillors for Caledonian Ward have called this public meeting so that members of the public can question the official representatives of the Council about steps that are being taken to enforce against unpermitted development and poor quality accommodation. The meeting is being attended by the Executive Councillors for planning, housing and licensing and by the Council’s chief planning officer.
We also hope the meeting will support some suggested positive steps about how residents and the Council can work to build a better town centre for this neighbourhood.
The meeting is being held on the evening of Thursday 26th July, the day that the Olympic torch is coming up Caledonian Road. Through the initiative of Team Cally, with the support of Cally Traders, we are planning a great welcome for the torch – and making a very positive statement about the place where we all live. At the evening meeting we hope to harness that spirit to take the Cally forward as a great place to live, work and do business.
Please help to further publicise the meeting by printing out an A4 flyer to display in a window or pass to a neighbour. Click here for a printable PDF file of the flyer
The premises at 278 Caledonian Road currently trading as a barber shop and rest room
The ‘Pleasure Garden’ at 278 Caledonian Road has submitted an application to Islington Council seeking a license to trade as a “special treatments” establishment offering sauna, steam and massage.
The application will be considered by a licensing sub-committee at the Town Hall on September 11th at 4pm. Residents and other businesses have been invited to make representations to the Council no later than 15th August.
The business was shut-down following a police raid in February. This was part of a combined enforcement operation on licensed and unlicensed premises throughout the Borough. The police and trading standards officers found that a sauna business was operating without a license and ordered it to close.
An initial application for such a sauna license was then submitted in March. However, this was put on-hold because the building is considered by the Council to be unsafe. Substantial works are required before the Council would consider any licence application. These include repairs to ceilings and floors, fire safety measures, ventilation and electrical testing and certification.
This license application is very controversial because the Pleasure Garden has been trading for many years without a valid licence to operate as a sauna. Nor has it ever received planning permission for the current non-retail use or for 24 hour opening.
It is also widely believed in the neighbourhood that, in addition to sauna services, the business operates as a place where paid-for sex is available. There are web chatrooms and “consumer review” websites that allege in detail the sexual services that could be procured there.
The business operates in the middle of a parade in the main retail area of the Caledonian Road which serves a dense residential neighbourhood on both sides of Cally Rd. In close proximity to number 278 are family owned and run cafes and restaurant and within several hundred metres are three primary schools. Barely 2 minutes walk away is the Cally Pool which is busy every day with children and families.
To submit a representation to the Council, please send an email to licensing@islington.gov.uk or write to Islington Council Licensing Team, Public Protection Division, Environment & Regeneration Department, 3rd Floor, 222 Upper Street, London, N1 1XR. Please remember that written representations will be published in the report submitted to the licensing sub-committee because that is a public document. However, all identifying information, such as names and addresses, will be removed.
Year 1 pupils listen to “Gruffalo” author, Julia Donaldson
This year’s national Summer Reading Challenge was officially launched at Lewis Carroll Library on Copenhagen Street by children’s author, Julia Donaldson.
Year 1 pupils from Vittoria Primary School were invited to listen to the Children’s Laureate reading one of her famous stories.
The Summer Reading Challenge in Islington this year will encourage children to get into the Olympic spirit by reading stories from around the world. The programme is run by Islington Council’s libraries service and aims to get children aged between 4 and 12 years-old to read at least six books over the summer holidays.
Last year nearly 800 children completed the challenge and we’re hoping for even higher numbers this year.
Islington’s Summer Reading Challenge runs until Monday 16 September. For more information on the Summer Reading Challenge, including how to volunteer to help younger children improve their reading skills, visit www.islington.gov.uk/libraries
More and more 
Cally residents are outraged by revelations about landlord Andrew Panayi. He boasted two weeks ago on a BBC documentary that he develops high density bedsits and flats by “build first, ask for permission later”. He summed up his attitude to doing business on the Cally Road saying “if you have a cow, milk it”.
Cally Councillors announced on 21st June that the Council was already undertaking enforcement action and this was being stepped-up in the wake of the TVprogramme.
The Council has now compiled a list of 15 enforcement actions taken since 2008. These relate to planning breaches, environmental health and housing law infringements. In almost all cases, Mr Panayi was made to comply with the enforcement.
Amongst these cases is the infamous, long running problem at 169-171 Caledonian Rd. Until last August this address was the Pappeos nightclub, which the Council forced to shut-down by a combination of planning and licensing enforcement along with police and fire brigade action.
Currently there are a number of “live” investigations underway. These include unauthorised development at 342 Caledonian Rd (behind the Prince pub) including failure to build to proper sound-proofing standards. The Prince pub has been plagued by complaints from Mr Panayi’s tenants because of noise from the bar – not surprising as Mr Panayi converted part of the bar into a flat and put-in a thin partition wall that provides little barrier from the normal level of noise generated in a bar.
At another Caledonian Road address, Mr Panayi has been served with notice to remove a roof extension.
Further up Caledonian Rd, Mr Panayi is being required to remove a steel roller shutter which is unauthorised. Some years ago, the Council gave a grant to assist the owner to install a high quality timber shopfront. If Mr Panayi fails to comply, the Council could also take legal action to recover the grant.
The most controversial property owned by Mr Panayi is at 278 Caledonian Road (“Pleasure Garden”) which until recently offered 24 hour massage / sauna and was generally assumed to be a place where paid-for sex was available. This shop now claims to be a “hair salon”. Few residents believe this, however. Even if it were true, such a change of use requires planning permission which has not been given.
There are other “live” cases where the Council has served noise nuisance orders and Housing Act notices because the quality of residential accommodation is so poor.
The Council’s political leadership has promised there will be no hesitation to prosecute where enforcement notices are ignored. Mr Panayi was fined £5,000 (plus legal costs) when prosecuted after failing to remove a structure above the Co-op store at 303-311 Caledonian Rd.
There have also been spot inspections carried-out last week at 336-338 Caledonian Rd (one of the properties which featured in the TV programme). There are 15 miniature flats behind and beneath the former Topkapi Restaurant. Last week, Council and Fire Brigade inspectors visited and, as a result, some additional safety works have been required. However, Cally Councillors fear that these flats are not safe from fire risk and have notified Council officials and the Fire Brigade of what we believe to be a fundamental and serious infringement to the means of fire escape.
Cally Councillors have drawn-up a set of further actions that Council officials have agreed to pursue over the next 2 weeks to fully identify all properties owned by Mr Panayi and to check for compliance with planning permissions, building regulations and residential environmental health requirements.
Meanwhile, a group of Mr Panayi’s tenants have begun a campaign, initially through Twitter, to press the authorities for action and to support tenants who may face eviction. They are also backing the Shelter campaign to ‘evict rogue landlords’. Check them out on Twitter @CallyCows. Cally Labour Councillors have promised that the Council’s intention is to support current tenants and to avoid anyone being evicted as a result of the actions taken by the Council. Three other residents’ groups and campaigners have begun leafleting the neighbourhood and started petitions.
If you are one Mr Panayi’s tenants, please let us know in confidence at callylabourcouncillors@gmail.com and also the Cally Cows campaign at callycows@gmail.com) what is your address and we’ll add or check this against the growing list. We believe Mr Panayi owns the equivalent of 40 separate shops with accommodation above or behind on the Cally Rd alone – including 2 of the 3 pubs. If you are a tenant and you believe there are infringements in your home, we shall pass the basic details to the Council’s enforcement teams.
Cllr Paul Convery says “I was surprised to discover just how much property Mr Panayi owns around here. Suddenly, in the wake of the TV programme, everyone is talking about it. There is a great deal of anger and also quite a lot of anxiety from his residential and commercial tenants.”
“There are many problems with the way Mr Panayi runs his business. He has blatantly ignored planning or environmental health rules and, in doing so, the living conditions for some of his tenants are very poor.
“But his business also affects everyone in the neighbourhood – in lots of different ways. For example, many of his properties lack proper refuse storage areas so most of his tenants end up placing plastic bags of rubbish on the pavement – bags that usually get ripped open by cats, pigeons, even rats. That’s why the Cally is strewn with rubbish most days.
“Because Mr Panayi’s business model squeezes the maximum cash from his residential conversions, he has little economic incentive to keep his shops rented. That’s why so many Cally shops are empty for long periods of time. That’s killing the Cally too.
“By deliberately, almost exclusively, renting to young, short stay tenants, a large part of the Cally has become a high turnover, very transient place. Some of Mr Panayi’s tenants aren’t here long enough to be bothered. But a sizeable number are great people who are equally outraged at his behaviour. They agree that Cally needs to prosper but Mr Panayi’s business methods are holding the place back.”
NOTE: We cannot list all the enforcement underway particularly those that Mr Panayi may not yet be fully aware of. And we need to be careful about revealling some other actions for legal reasons.
Remember Ben Kinsella. Stop knife crime.
Last weekend marked the anniversary of Ben Kinsella’s murder. On the evening of 28th June 2008, Ben was murdered on an Islington street. In the following days hundreds of Islington’s young people took to those streets to commemorate Ben and to call for an end to knife crime.
Ben had become the 17th young Londoner to be murdered that year. But his death was not just another statistic. His death deeply shocked everyone in our part of Islington.
Ben was a local boy. He played football for the Copenhagen Youth Project team. His desperate phone call begging for help minutes before he died was to David Dugdale a young man who was the CYP’s table tennis mentor. Many of us have tangible connections with the incident, it’s timing and place. Most people in this neighbourhood have walked in daylight along North Road and into York Way … the pavement down which Ben tried to flee from his attackers.
Ben’s murder was a horrific act of random violence. Yet we know that many sorts of violent behaviour have become endemic amongst some young people. Far too often, one encounters young people who think that aggression is the standard response to any kind of conflicting choice facing them. We desperately need to change youth culture so that kids understand that violence is the wrong reaction.
Ben’s family did something extraordinarily brave in the wake of his murder. They set-up the Ben Kinsella Trust to pass on the legacy of Ben by promoting awareness of knife-crime and educating children of all ages about the consequences of such crimes and the devastating effect that it has on families.
The Trust has now produced an exhibition about the aftermath of Ben’s death and the continuing campaign to stop knife crime and violence against young people. They have produced a powerful and moving short film about Ben’s death and the exhibition. See it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=aATWfQcG1Wc
Suffragette Edith Garrud honoured by Islington People’s Plaque at her former Thornhill Square home
Edith Garrud (left) with her children Sybil and Owen
Suffragette Edith Garrud is the latest Islington resident to be awarded a commemorative People’s Plaque outside her former home on Thornhill Square. The event on Saturday 30th June, brought together members of her family at 60 Thornhill Square, N1, for the plaque’s unveiling.
Edith Garrud (1872-1971) was one of the western world’s first female professional martial arts instructors. With her husband William Garrud, she ran a jiu-jitsu school on Seven Sisters Road.
Cllr Catherine West, leader of Islington Council said: “Edith Garrud’s pioneering career and the Suffragettes’ victory on votes for women have contributed to making our society fairer and more inclusive.
“It’s historic contributions like hers that have stamped their mark on our borough and inspired residents to vote in their thousands for their Islington’s People’s Plaques heroes.”
Garrud trained the Suffragettes’ defence unit, ‘The Bodyguard’, which protected its members from police arrest arrest. She was depicted in a cartoon in ‘Punch’ magazine in July 1910, tackling a group of policemen single-handed.
Over 1,000 Suffragettes were sent to Holloway Prison for making public protests and their supporters held regular demonstrations outside the jail.
Earlier this year, the Islington Tribune published a fuller tribute to Edith.
Islington’s popular award scheme – started in 2010 to recognise the people, events and places that have shaped the borough – continues to capture the public’s imagination. Over 3,000 votes were cast in the poll to find this year’s top three winners.
The plaque at 60 Thornhill Square was also more recently the home of community activist, Lisa Pontecorvo, who tragically died in a road accident in September 2008.
Caledonian Supermarket at 288 Caledonian Road
Islington Council has revoked a store’s alcohol licence after large stocks of illegal booze were discovered.
Caledonian Supermarket at 288 Caledonian Road was called-in for a licence review following a visit by the Council’s trading standards team and HMRC earlier this year.
The inspection discovered suspected supplies of illicit alcohol – 130 litres of spirits and 358 bottles of wine.
Advice from trading standards not to buy alcohol from people calling at the shop, who – other than company reps – are almost certainly selling dodgy alcohol, had been ignored. The licence holder also failed to show-up for a free training session that included advice on how to avoid buying illicit alcohol.
After careful consideration, Islington Council’s licensing sub-committee agreed to revoke the premises licence, held by Mr Aziz Yanar. The shop has 21 days to lodge an appeal from the date of the written decision.
Paul Convery, Islington Council’s executive member for community safety (and local Councillor) said: “We’re on the side of residents and want a safer Islington, with less crime and anti-social behaviour. Alcohol can cause harm and we expect the highest standards from off-licences, pubs, bars and clubs. As this case clearly shows, we will take decisive action when businesses break the law and licensing rules.”
Businesses who want free help and advice on avoiding buying illicit alcohol, or making underage sales can contacts Islington’s Trading Standards team on 020 7527 4028.
Enforcement action underway against multiple bedsits and over-crammed flats on Caledonian Road
The Prince pub at 342 Caledonian Road is run by lifelong Cally resident Eileen Christie but Mr Panayi owns the building and there’s a problem with bedsit residents and noise
“Build first, ask for permission later” is the startling phrase uttered by Andrew Panayi, the man who owns a large part of the privately rented flats on the Caledonian Rd. His admission was made in a remarkable interview screened last night on the BBC programme “The Secret History of Our Streets: Caledonian Road”.
In response to Mr Panayi’s claims, Islington Council has revealed that planning enforcement and environmental health action is underway on several of his properties. Indeed the Council has successfully prosecuted Mr Panayi for persistent breaches. Later in the TV programme, Mr Panayi concedes that he’s been more compliant with planning requirements “in the past 4 years”.
Over the last quarter of a century, Mr Panayi has built a small property empire by buying-up run-down shops located in the area between Richmond Avenue and Pentonville Prison. He probably owns around a third of all the commercial properties on this part of Caledonian Road – and his portfolio includes two of the three public houses – the Prince and the Tarmon.
He has made his fortune by maximising the amount of residential accommodation above, behind and even below these shops. Many of the shops are unlet because, for Andrew, the real money is in the bedsits or shared flats he can rent-out on short lets. A favoured letting agent is Alpha Accomodation at 376 Caledonian Rd who specialise in attracting highly mobile young tenants who – as the lettings agent himself admits in the TV programme – aren’t likely to complain.
These tenants are overwhelmingly young people visiting London for just a few months whilst working or studying. The residents of these flats and bedsits are therefore highly mobile and the lettings turn-over is very high indeed. This makes the Cally Road feel very transient and weakens the feeling of community. People who have lived in the area for a long time feel “their place” is being undermined by this high turnover population. The quality of accommodation these tenants live-in is very poor and, although they may not complain, understandably most of them do not stay long.
Cllr Paul Convery comments “Andrew Panayi is well known on the Cally and is a likeable, larger than life character. But some of his business practices are distinctly suspect – as he himself admits in the TV programme. And he is wrong to think he can get away with this. The Council is currently taking enforcement action on a number of properties he has built recently. Recently we opposed a particularly large development to construct another floor of bedsits above the Co-op and the planning permission was refused.
Over the last 10 years or so, it is clear that the Council’s planners simply did not have the determination to challenge and enforce against these sorts of planning breaches. Nor did they get the signal from the Town Hall or elected local politicians to do so. However, the current Caledonian Councillors and the Town Hall leadership does have the political will to bring enforcement action.”
To view the programme on BBC iPlayer go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01k6k3m/The_Secret_History_of_Our_Streets_Caledonian_Road/
Bemerton estate hosts ‘fantastic’ Jubilee party
Bemerton residents celebrate in the estate’s Community Centre
Three hundred Bemerton residents packed the estate’s Jean Stokes Hall to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee on Sunday afternoon.
The “street party” planned for Carnoustie Drive was quickly shifted into the community centre after rain was forecast for Sunday afternoon. This was a smart move because the rain arrived just as the party began.
Organised and part-funded by BVMO, the estate’s tenant management organisation, the party was also financially supported by the Caledonian Councillors’ Local Initiative Fund.
Daniel Dresner, chair of the BVMO Board said:
“We had a fantastic party with about 300 or so people making it standing room only! We brought inside the hired tables and chairs and the bunting and food.
“We had an amazing amount of help from the Soul In the City people who are one of the most commendable groups I have worked with in a long time. They even went door to door and brought elderly people out of their flats to the event.
“It is just these kinds of events that give us huge encouragement that what we are doing is worth it. Hundreds of happy residents, the vast majority of whom had never even met each other, celebrating something that will be remembered for a long time to come.”
A selection of photographs from the party will be published here shortly.
Labour Councillors representing the Cally neighbourhood in Islington 