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 Palmers Green market revived as MarketN13

One of the most positive things about Palmers Green is the number of people who are prepared to put time into the community and making it better for all.

One such person is Annita Correia, who runs Palmers Green’s popular station café. Designer and former teacher Annita has in the past run the popular Waiting Room Café, which did lovely food and hosted many local events, including blues nights and craft events.

10968561_1601676490068615_5159871572880934341_nAnnita now runs the recently refurbished station kiosk, whose cornbread muffins with cheese and chilli have brightened many of my mornings, and whose wonderful range of art cards have saved me from not a few last minute birthday panics. You can buy great coffee, tasty snacks and tickets for Talkies in the kiosk, and it’s a great place to meet people and find out what is going on in the area.  Annita’s latest project is to revive Palmers Green’s Sunday market – and this one is a real act of love.

The old market had been ailing for some time, and ground to a halt just before Christmas. So why revive it now?

“When I moved to Palmers Green, the market was the source of my livelihood – I designed fabric and clothing. People had put a lot of work into it, and it was a positive thing for the area. To have seen it go down hill was really upsetting.”

Annita is convinced that Palmers Green should be able to sustain a market of this kind, but that it has to have local support.

“A local market is a great opportunity for people in Palmers Green to have access to products not on the high street, a chance for entrepreneurs to get a first stab at setting up new businesses, hopefully also a way of drawing more people into Palmers Green on a Sunday – we have kept the prices low – pitches will be £20 (£10 for arts and crafts)”.

The roster for the first market includes South London’s Norbiton Cheeses, Essex artisan bakers Brownbread, Brockman’s Farm Produce, Brian and Natasha’s Fresh Fish. Gringostiv’s Cut Flowers and Plants, and Karl Wager of St. Albans with his handmade Furniture from reclaimed and drift wood.

Annita’s ambitions are simple:

“To get the market up and running again, hopefully bigger and better than before, and attract new traders. I am keen for the market to have a buzz, and to develop a reputation for supplying products which are well made and affordable.”

Neighbours, if that is something you would like to see in Palmers Green, you know what you have to do.

  • Market N13 will take place every Sunday from 15 March 10am – 3pm in Palmers Green Station Car Park.  

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Art and Culture Community Green Palmers Green Health Palmers Green Planning and open spaces Shops

£20,000 to smarten up Palmers Green? – it’s there for the asking

IMG_0232A couple of weeks ago, Londonist reported on a new community fund which has been set up by the Greater London Authority’s regeneration team to improve the capital’s  high streets. There is £9 million in all up for grabs, to be spent on making local high streets a more attractive place to live and visit.

Community groups can apply for grants of up to £20,000 by way of the project website, though projects need to find 25 per cent of the money. There is also the facility to apply for larger grants through a more detailed application process. Says Londonist, “Projects can be almost anything, from cosmetic improvements to an area or launching a street food market to attract more people to visit; tackling licensing issues which prevent cafes and restaurants from putting chairs in the streets, to setting up a traders’ association. Arts activities, pop-up venues, and new community spaces are also examples which have been mooted.”

What could Palmers Green do with £20,000 or more? How about a project to paint and harmonise shop frontages, and finally get some proper greening. It would require our shopkeepers and businesses to step forward and work together. And unlike – apparently –  Mini Holland, it could be relatively uncontroversial.

To be or  not to be, that is the question.

For more information visit

http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/regeneration/high-streets/funding-programmes/high-street-fund

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Art and Culture Community Film Palmers Green Planning and open spaces Shops

All that’s fit to print

The first in an occasional round up of Palmers Green news

  • Dexter_Fletcher_06dde16Film crew are currently out in Palmers Green shooting a new feature film reputedly starring local lad Dexter Fletcher. The story is based around a Palmers Green betting shop and locations include the Tipico bookmakers and the Inn on the Green. Did anyone volunteer to be an extra? We’d love to know more.
  • The Fox - at the heart of PG
    The Fox – at the heart of PG

    Thank you to Palmers Green ward Councillors Mary Maguire, Ahmet Oykenor and Bambos Charalambous  who have agreed to look into whether anything can be done to protect the Fox. Obviously no promises and there may be little they can do, but we appreciate them taking an interest in our local heritage.

  • Wondering what has happened to all the promises of a new Sainsbury’s in Green Lanes. We hear that contractors have apparently been called in to rid the building of asbestos.

 

 

 

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Art and Culture Community Film Palmers Green Planning and open spaces Shops

The Fox “not sold”

Despite the rumours it has just been confirmed by the current landlord that The Fox hasn’t in fact been sold as reported in FLDRA’s recent bulletin.

Stories have been circulating for several months, so where are they coming from? Is it the Fox up for sale? Should we be pressing for the pub to be registered with Enfield Council as a community asset ?

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Art and Culture Comedy Community Film History Music Planning and open spaces Shops

The Fox “sold”

The Fox - at the heart of PG
The Fox – at the heart of PG

I have been hearing rumours about this for some time, but this week confirmation comes via the Fox Lane and District Residents Association’s weekly bulletin that The Fox has been sold to developers – apparently the same company that recently bought Winchmore Hill police station.

Though the current building dates from 1904, there has been a Fox on the site  for several centuries. Palmers Green’s horse drawn buses once ran into central London from the Fox Hotel, as it once was. Geno Washington once played there. There have been theatre productions, celebrity drinkers, a ghost, a comedy club, and community cinema. And of course, it gave its name to Fox Lane.

The attraction for developers is fairly obvious – a huge plot of land, centrally located. But the loss to us of a  major Palmers Green landmark and amenity is beyond  calculation.

Is this really the end for The Fox, and what does it mean for Palmers Green?

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Art and Culture Community History Palmers Green Planning and open spaces Shops

A little glimpse of Bourlet’s

Current refurbishment at the site of the audio visual shop has revealed the  fascia underneath of Bourlet’s the  jewellers, who previously occupied the site at 349 Green Lanes.

Bourlet’s is slightly iconic in Palmers Green because of it’s old jewellers clock, which is still on the building though long ago stopped and looking a little unloved.

2014-08-06 17.48.46I have often wondered who the Bourlets were – can anyone tell us more about them? There is a Bourlet’s Close in Fitzrovia, and a Bourlet’s fine art dealer, but other than that…