About

The September 2014 issue of Kentishtowner, free
The September 2014 issue of Kentishtowner, free

SPRING 2014 NEWS: Our print edition of Kentishtowner is commended for Best Niche Newspaper in the 2014 Newspaper Awards

Welcome to Kentishtowner (yup, all one word), north London’s award-winning daily cultural guide and monthly newsprint magazine.

Established in 2010 by broadsheet writer Stephen Emms, we are a good news title (not the “local paper”) and leave the hard stuff to other titles.

Instead, we cover the arts, food, lifestyle, travel and people. Yet we have broken stories locally and globally, gone from online to print – and the wider press has followed our every move, with features everywhere from the Sunday Times to a slot on primetime BBC1.

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  • 60,000 monthly readers
  • 20,000+ social media followers (including nearly 17K on Twitter)
  • 30,000 monthly print edition readers
  • Read by over 100,000 Londoners monthly

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SUMMER 2013: Kentishtowner online is commended for Best Digital Service at 2013 UK Newspaper Awards alongside guardian.co.uk, sundaytimes.co.uk and metro.co.uk

The borough of Camden, and of course Kentish Town itself, may be at the heart of what we do, but we love London as a whole. That’s why our name is one word (a publication) not two (the place).

Don’t worry: we’re not bound too rigidly by geography, and are happy to feature other areas in the capital, as well as enjoying a thriving weekly travel section. We even interview people from all walks of life, wherever they live, if they have something interesting to say. After all, people don’t spend their lives in a single postcode.

Kentishtowner is published by London Belongs To Me Ltd daily, from Monday to Saturday, and sometimes more. We’ve been profiled or featured in The Sunday Times, Independent, FT, Metro, Time Out, Londonist and many more. See Press section for more details.

Sunday Times report our NESTA win
Sunday Times report our Nesta win

In June 2012 we were awarded funding from innovations charity Nesta to develop the site further. We were one of only 10 online publications in the UK to receive a grant – and the only London-focused one. In October 2012 we relaunched in HTML5 with a GPS ‘Nearby’ feature, an online store, a brand new masthead – and a charitable arm, Young Kentishtowner, which aims to mentor under-18s in journalism and digital publishing. In February 2013 we launched our first monthly print edition, now stocked at over 75 outlets in the borough.

But why Kentishtowner at all?

Simply because Kentish Town itself is ancient. It dates back further (1206) than Camden, or any of the surrounding areas. Thriving by the 15th century, it’s a snapshot of London. It’s pretty much seen it all: industry, wealth, poverty, fashionability (or otherwise) and a dictionary of architectural styles. And of course now, in 2014, it’s up and coming once more; en vogue even.

“I am using Kentish Town to give a local habitation and a name to the expression of something far more general, and in the hope that some readers may be sufficiently interested and inspired to look at other, comparable areas with fresh eyes afterwards.” Gillian Tindall, The Fields Beneath (1977).

We’re keen for contributions, so if you think you’ve got what it takes, drop us a line. We’re also quite sociable and will consider hook-ups of all kinds, be they editorial, sponsored or whatever, and we’ll read well-written press releases or any relevant information about any of the above.

Did you know we have two sister titles?

South London’s Below The River and a new print and online publication for King’s Cross, Gasholder. Seek them out today.

About us and masthead

Founding editor Stephen Emms has written for UK titles including The Guardian, Independent, Sunday Times Travel, The Times, Coast and Time Out. Co-editor Tom Kihl was deputy editor of DJ Magazine, before starting up his own social media agency.

Founding editor and publisher Stephen Emms
Co-editor and publisher Tom Kihl
Designer Olly Skinner
Advertising please contact ads@londonbelongstome.com

The Old House,
39-41 North Road
London
N7 9DP

All editorial pitches and ideas should be addressed to both Stephen Emms and Tom Kihl: stephen@kentishtowner.co.uk and tom@kentishtowner.co.uk.
General and reader enquiries to info@kentishtowner.co.uk
Kentishtowner is published by London Belongs To Me Ltd.

NOTES

We will always state clearly if we are invited or hosted by an interested party in return for a meal or trip. Submissions may be edited and published unless they’re expressly marked private or of a sensitive nature. We can’t always get back to you to confirm inclusion so please keep an eye on what is published daily on the site.

We do not have the resources to retweet, and never tweet or Facebook links to sites or articles other than our own, so advise you not to ask us.

Please pitch us stories relevant to what we cover to avoid disappointment.

To read about our comments policy and community standards head here.

All original content is © London Belongs To Me 2013. No words or images may be reproduced without permission from the copyright holder.

24 thoughts on “About”

  1. As a newbie Kentish Towner (hubbster and I just bought a little cottage off Leighton), I was pleased to stumble across this site. We had enough faith in its charm to drop our entire life savings into a damp and needs-much-work cottage and are pleased to see how much is going on here. And, from walking around observing, I have to say that KTers seem pretty cool. Like, seriously cool, not in a tryhard, desperate-for-attention-fashion-student way, either. So far, Kentish Town rocks and we love it. Now please don’t let a junkie break into our house and rape our cat and shit in my handbag. Which, according to google results while researching KT, can easily happen.

    Thanks for the great blog. I am subscribing. Totally.

    1. I hope Kentish Town has changed for the good. I was bought up just off Queen’s Crescent in the 1970’s when junkies regularly broke in to steal whatever they could.
      I’ve lived in Hackney most of my adult life as I couldn’t afford Kentish Town and so it goes, someone from Hackney can’t afford to live in Hackney etc. etc. good luck with the gentrification.

      1. l was born in Gilden road, just above Queens cresant in 1967. l then also livedin Hackney for 10 years as could not affor KT. My mum still lives there though. We then moved to Brighton and I bet my kids will not be able to afford to live here too. And so it was forever thus.

  2. hi kentishtowner
    we want to invite you and your readers to the private view of our exhibition in queen’s crescent this thursday. do you have an email address where we can send the press release?
    thanks

  3. I think this is self-expalanatory a very much a Kentish Town issue. Sent to all 100 on my mailing list 5.5.11. Nick

    TALACRE URGENT
    This email is being sent to all those we know who have expressed opposition to the development on top of Dalby Street, Talacre.

    We last contacted the http://www.Savetalacre.co.uk list over a year ago. Since then we hoped that the massive contradictions faced by the developer, his funders and Camden had resulted in second thoughts. Perhaps the absence of campaigning and lack of visibility has been seen as a sign that local people and the large number of people from miles around have lost interest. That is far from the case.

    THERE HAS BEEN A SIGNIFICANT RECENT DEVELOPMENT

    On 8th April, Dalby Street was legally “stopped up”. We were also informed that the developer (Findon Urban Lofts) was intending to restart work and had appointed a contractor for some early works.

    The change in the status of Dalby Street is not as great as it might sound. Since the end of 2008 it has been legally owned by Findon. What will interest some people is that Camden no longer has responsibility for its maintenance, road sweeping and parking enforcement. It seems you can park with impunity there. However, those are details.

    The important thing is for us to prevent the development being built.

    Now is the time for action! The flats cannot be built without damaging the interests of the Sports Centre and creating danger for its users- see below “Why this development damages the Sports Centre, is dangerous and cannot conform to the legal agreement”. But if it is built, it may be impossible to have it demolished.

    So please help us to campaign NOW

  4. Hey there Mr Kentishtowner.
    So we here at the land of Free Space Gallery would like to invite you along to our next opening. Thursday 4th August 5-8pm there will be a chance to meet with Emad Altaay. He is an artist who has lived in London for less than a year coming here as an Iraqi refugee. In Iraq and across the middle east he was a respected artist. This will be his first solo show of paintings which are influenced by his new life in London. At the same time as his paintings being exhibited at the Free Space Gallery in Kentish Town some of his work will also be in the Mall Galleries. So I think this one is someone to watch.
    So come along and see what the Free Space has to offer, hidden away in the Kentish Town Health Centre we maybe but innovative and strong we sure are!
    email me for more information or check out the blog
    mel@weirdpixels.com
    http://www.freespaceatthewigg.wordpress.com

  5. hello the kentishtowner, thanks for the flaxon ptootch plug thing the other week,
    i thought you might like to know about our show…

    hi there art lovers!
    this thursday (being as it’s the second one of the month) is art show thursday!
    nick terry and robert penney (two brilliant local artists) are
    exhibiting their graffiti and pixels for your perusal and delectation,
    the amazing adeo and his imaginary friends will be performing live,
    the visionary billy boyd cape will be showing some short films,
    perfect punch preparer alex knight will prepare perfect punch for the
    now legendary post alma street punch babes to serve up,
    and disk jockey extraordinaire alice moxie will join residents
    mark ratcliff ‘n’ dave vega to complete the creative circle, If you will…
    drinks with the artists from seven, performance at nine and no sleep ‘til bedtime!

    http://www.flaxonptootch.come on!

    ps. a free cocktail for anyone who can provide proof that they scored more than
    5000 points on the hair switch game on the website
    mx

    hold steady the kentishtowner, we’re loving your work x

  6. I have been following the Kentishtowner blog since it started and do enjoy reading each new blog post.

    Although the food, restaurant, gallery, and market blogs are great, I would find it even more interesting and other people might like this too, if you talked about other features that are fab, original, quirky or fascinating about Kentish Town such as:
    – Parks, great and more unusual walks
    – Historical features, streets, houses?
    – Local events for people other than food markets, what about book clubs? secret cinema? underground food club? knitting clubs? Sport? Things that might interest dog owners? Local orchestra? Chess club? Free experimental jazz?
    – Features on local people? Would be wonderful to have a flavour of who makes up the community that is Kentish Town, like an informal interview?
    – Buy of the week from Oxfam or one of the pound shops or from Natural Foods shop
    – Beauty products from Kentish Town
    – Best lunch on the hoof, best pastrami sandwich, take away soup? ready made meal?
    – Handy amenities, where can you find a great dog groomer? violin teacher? pedicure? doctor? therapist? opera group? fishmonger?
    – Things that families with children would find useful – lovely nursery, playground for under and over 4s, the fight to get children into the local primary, what about the Lycée?
    – Churches, what’s going on who is the local vicar?
    – Kentish town in different seasons, Xmas? Easter? Autumn?

    All that kind of thing would really broaden the readership and be very useful information and fascinating for locals to read.

    Thank you

  7. Creative Health Lab is an organisation dedicated to promoting community well being through care for people and the environment. It runs weekly sessions in Art, Art Therapy, Film making, singing, creative writing. Now in its fourth year we have an exhibition planned for March 2012 at MAP cafe and are seeking an additional art space/gallery. There will also be a book of poetry and Art and online platform for all the work that has taken place over the last three years. All our sessions are free to people in the Camden Borough and are set up mainly to help people with a range of mental health issues, stress and social isolation find community and a means of self expression through the Arts in their community. We would love to hear from anyone who may be able to offer exhibition space and/or would like to join any of the sessions available in january 2012. Check out the website for more information.

    1. Creative Health Lab is based at Kentish Town City Farm and also runs Horticultural sessions and yoga sessions at Expressions studios. Make a new choice in the New Year and join us! Free classes!!

  8. Hello there,
    I have lots of information about exercising around Kentish Town – the Health and Beauty section seems lacking. How can I send you information to populate this section?
    As a starter for anyone interested in tennis – there is intermediate doubles drop-in sessions every Saturday morning at Parliament Hill School, Highgate Road from 10am to 1pm – cost is £4.00. No need to have a partner, just turn up – note it is not for beginners.

  9. Your recent aritcle on the street fairs was fab, as its always hard to centralise all that info. for local events. I’ve just tried seraching for a contact number (the organisers) for the Alma St fair and cannot find any info. online. If you can kindly pass on a contact name/number that would really kind – I want to set up a stall there if possible.
    Many thanks!

  10. Just a note to let you know that Kentish Towns probably oldest and longest resident , 72 years in the same house in Lawford road, passed away 2 years ago. Irene “renee” Butland passed away at the ripe age of 99.5. She was visited by Prince charles at home in February this year. She was a great gal and will be missed by many.

  11. love the site. but…can u sort out the interference the slide show has on home page with page moving up and down as new different sized pics move in….

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