Kensal Rise Market starts Feb 7th

There's a website here. I imagine it will be similar to the Christmas market they had, which I never actually bought anything from but looked reasonably.

Kensal Rise Market is held right outside Minkies on Chamberlayne Rd so you can browse, buy and join us for a coffee or lunch. It starts
on Saturday 7th February then every Saturday after! opens 10am - 4pm

Stalls include fresh elegant Austrian wines from Merry Widow, organic skin-care, soaps and hand dipped candles from Dharma Village... and so much more!

If you would like your own stall, we’d love to hear from you... please call Clare on 07807 057 808 or email info@organiseforyou.com.

The Diner, a review

We went to the Diner last night. It was opening night I think, and very busy, but our overall impressions were good.

We had two burgers, one with cheese and bacon. Fries, and "Diner Fries", black beans, a cheesecake and one Margherita and one "Diner lager".

I can only speak for myself but the burger was excellent, tasted of beef and fitted into its bun. I find burgers (Gourmet burger is a good example) which you can't eat with your hands to rather miss the point. It also didn't come with too much sauce or so on. The chips were good, and portions large, you could probably do with one between two unless you are very hungry. 'Diner' fries were thicker chips (I'm not sure the menu made that clear) and coated cajun spice. My cheesecake was also a perfect New York style baked cheesechake. The service was good and the room pleasant, noisy but not too noisy.

The two downsides were the Margherita, which apparently 'tasted like lemsip', i.e. too sweet and artificial. This is a little strange as it clearly wasn't made with lime cordial but fresh limes (I saw them). The 'Diner' lager was a solid thirst-quenching beer. Second criticism might be that the cheesechake was rather small, I wondered whether it was because they were running out.

Still all that came to about 30 pounds plus service, which seemed reasonable. Also having the burgers, whilst something one often does, ignores the fact that there was a lot of diner-style food - chilli, hot dogs, tacos, and American-style breakfasts (waffles, pancakes, eggs in any style) that are much harded to find in Kensal Rise. Thus I think it's an exciting addition.

New health food shop

The new health food shop on Chamberlayne Road is open, but not finished. It has a good selection of health food shop stuff, and also more normal food and goods, such as rice and washing powder, all however with some 'eco' angle. The woman in the shop told us that there was more to come including chilled foods and also a juice bar (which would be takeaway only).

Certainly it beats an estate agent, and good to see more shops opening on that strip of Kensal Rise.

Tesco to open on February 19th?

I asked Tesco for confirmation that their store on Chamberlayne Road would be opening. A kind press officer replied, and so I have it, sort of.

I've looked into your enquiry for you and found that we have an Express store opening on February 19th 2009 named Kensal Rise London Express.

As our store is yet to open I don't have full address details to check if it will be located on Chamberlayne Road however I can advise that the postcode should be BR5 1HD.

The postcode, of course, is not in Kensal Rise. In fact it's in Orpington. Hence my question mark. But I don't see any reason why there would be a store in Orpington called 'Kensal Rise London Express' and so I assume the postcode has been given wrongly.

1980s Kensal Rise

Some good pictures (it'd be better if we could find the clips online) of Chamberlayne Road and the shopping area in the 1980s when they featured in Grange Hill.

Update: Here are the clips on Youtube, about 1 minute in to about 2 minutes 30.

The Diner

The Diner, Kensal Rise version, appears to be open or about to open. Report as soon as we've been will be here.

The website is rather basic at the moment, but the chain's other sites have more detailed ones (although not strangely the Camden one) so I assume we will get those sooner rather than later.

London crime maps

Some readers will not have seen the London crime maps, which let you see how crime is faring in your neighbourhood, down to just a collection of streets.

A supplier of cakes to Kensal Rise

My French is not up to translating this, but one gets the impression (and google's translation helps) that this article is about a French woman who makes cakes for various delis in Kensal Rise.

A kitchen showroom on Chamberlayne Road

Already almost fitted out with shiny expensive kitchens. I wish it well, I fear (unless rents are very cheap) it might find it hard going.