Shop fronts

Not entirely sure why someone would think these were their favourite shop fronts but here's a record of 2011 Kensal Rise (well Brent and other parts but Kensal Rise is quite prominenhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift)

Wine shop

I was about to pop out and buy a bottle of wine and realised Kensal Rise has rather poor choice. There's the corner shops, which are OK for popular chains. Tesco has a poor selection. In fact the best place might be the discount wine shop on the corner of Chamberlayne and Kempe. There used to be Miros, but that I believe has closed down and it was always more of a wine bar than wine shop (unlike Samson Miro).

Brooks butchers opens

As two of the commenters have noted, the butchers is open and I'm inclined to agree with them on its brilliance. To start with it looks just fantastic, and although we have only had some Parma ham and sausages from there so far, both have been excellent. Also I've enjoyed rather too many of their tasting samples.

I hope it survives, it certainly seems to be doing most things right. It is expensive, but I think good quality meat is, we've become rather blinded to this fact over the years and preferred to pay little for only adequate quality meat. Of course this has meant much more can be consumed and is not a bad thing, but personally I think I might try eating less but better quality meat. Brooks will be great for that!

Anyway anyone else have a view? I saw a tweet criticising the service, which I found a little slow but in a nice butchers way.

Celia Birtwell likes...

l'Angolo and Scarlet & Violet, two favourites of this 'blog.

Verandah/Eulabee relanch party!

See here, not sure if you need a Facebook account or not.

Otherwise Wednesday May 26: 6:30 to 9:00pm, 116 College Road, Kensal Green, London NW10 5HD

Please come and help us celebrate!

Following the enormously successful 8 months of trading that we have experienced since opening our second shop on Chamberlayne Road, Simone and Penny have expanded their College Road shop and now have the space to showcase lots more fabulous finds. From amazing vintage furniture and unique, hand-made jewellery to ridiculously low-priced vintage and archive clothing, beautiful house and homewares, right through to pocket-money goodies for the children. A delightful treasure trove with something for everyone in this stunning store, right in your neighburhood!

We're throwing open the doors on Wednesday evening and would love to have a glass or two of champagne with you whilst you browse our latest stock and admire the transformation of the shop. We're very proud of what we've achieved and hope you will love it as much as we do. Look forward to seeing you there!

Lali

Article on Kensal Rise clothes shop, Lali.

Out and about

We went for a Kensal Rise stroll today - and a few things are worth mentioning.

It began in the library, which has had a refurb and although my initial sceptical view was that it would mean fewer books, and I'm not entirely sure that isn't the case, the automatic machines to get books out are amazing. Once you scan in your library card, you simply put ALL the books below the machine, and it immediately recognises all of them without any scanning or opening etc. I assume this is RDS technology, but it's very impressive.

Next we went to Retrouvius, a tardis of a second-hand furniture/collectables place. It's quite trendy and is featured a lot in magazines such as Living Etc, and well worth a visit from time-to-time.

Then we looked in the window of Ammonite2000, and then moved on to the William IV. This was refurbished last year and we liked it, although it doesn't quite work - it falls a bit between being the Paradise and being a All Bar One style place. The menu looked good though and I'm glad there are pubs still showing the football.

Finally, back on Chamberlayne Road we asked at the pizza place that was opposite Tesco what was happening. Apparently it is going to be the same people running a pizza place, but this time a restaurant, and it will also do Mediterranean food, whatever that is.

Lack of posts and Scarlet & Violet

Apologies for the lack of posts around here, I was off getting married and then in Venice on a honeymoon. I think Kensal Rise could learn a lot from Venice, the Grand Union Canal would surely benefit from 15th century mansions and a few more squares and fewer cars etc.



Anyway to bring this back to Kensal Rise I would like to say that at short notice we got the buttonholes, bouquet and table decorations from Scarlet & Violet, and very good they were too.

Health food shop message

This was left as a comment but I thought I would bring it forward as not many people see those old comments:

hello to all the Kensal Risers. Our health food shop, Kitchen Apothecary, has been running a little low on stock lately and that really is not our intention. Please bear with us as we are self funding and are not out to make a profit but to provide kensal rise with affordable whole foods and health products for all. We hope that we will be restocked and with bread back in a couple of weeks. Thank-you for all your support over the last few months and we hope to get back on track soon.
Please still feel free to come down for free healthcare advice and a cup of tea while we reorganise ourselves. xx Bastian & Shereen

Kuddyco is closing

Apparently Kuddyco are having a closing down sale. Rather sad, I'd say, although I'm not sure I've bought much from there (more of a girl thing?).

Kensal Green plates

I'm sure most of you have seen these, but here are Kensal Green plates. But which street is it?

GreenKensal

That's the shop on College Road opposite Gracelands, or at least the thing next to the thing next to Gracelands, which might be a laundrette.

It has an interesting website here, with lots of things to click on and 'location' which doesn't seem to be the shop.

Retro collectables

On our way to the library today we spotted the Solicitors at 81 College Road seemed to be selling furniture, and on peeking in found that in fact it was no longer a solicitors as the solicitor himself, David Goodman, had sold his practice and entered the business of selling collectables. Called DG Retro Collectables, it sells a nice range of homeware and is worth a look.

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.

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.

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.

New things on Chamberlayne Road

It's all happening in what Vogue called one of 'London's coolest streets' (does the editor live near here? I think she might).

But it is true a lot new is opening, just in time for the Great Depression. We have a new homeware shop, Home, a fashion store, Supra, a Chinese restaurant, Pomelo, various baby shops, and also apparently a Tesco Express/Metro. Which I know some people don't like Tescos, but I think is great news. Let's hope they all can keep going in the downturn. Also The Greyhound seems to be changing into The Diner.

Update: The Diner is part of this chain, which also has branches in Shoreditch and Camden.
Update II: But where is Tesco Metro?