Kings Cross Local Environment

Murder at Egg nightclub on York Way

Shocking news in the Islington Gazette of a murder at the Egg nightclub on York Way/Vale Royal.  The full story is here.  Some comments attributed to residents in the nearby Maiden Lane estate about drug dealing and noise though raise some concerns about how the club is run.  However one should take media reports like this with a pinch of salt.

Problems at Pentonville......

Some pretty remarkable reporting in the national press of corruption amongst prison staff at the 'Ville on the Cally.  Some 14 staff have been suspended in one go.  The main story is in the Guardian here and a good comment piece today here with a startling observation of cooking crack in a prison microwave. For those with a historical bent the wikipedia piece here on Pentonville is very good with a superb picture from 1842 that i have borrowed above - the pic shows wonderfully the mud and isolation of the prison when the Caledonian Road had probably just been cut.  The Prison Service site on Pentonville is here and their press statement on the corruption allegations is here. If anyone reading this is or knows a prison officer  or is a former inmate there it would be fascinating to hear your perspective.

Robbery Gifford Street 25 July

If you were around Gifford Street near the entrance to Bingfield Park at about 7:30 pm on Tuesday 25 July did you see a man robbing a woman of her handbag or someone runnign awy. See the (belated) incident board in the picture.

WARNING car crime outbreak rufford street

There has been very little car crime on Rufford Street in the last year or two.  But in the last three days two cars have had glass smashed - not for theft as nothing was taken - but simply vandalism.  The nearest clue we have is that it was a couple of boys about 5 feet tall aged about 10-12, one white with blond short hair, the other of mixed ethnic origin in a blue 'Leeds' tracksuit.

This sounds like summer holiday recreational vandalism, rather than a return to the large scale systematic thieving of 2002/3.  If everyone could keep their eyes open that would be great and contact the police on 999 if you see a crime in progress or someone running away or by email at this address if you have a description to feed to the local neighbourhood police team.  If you have some information and are uncomfortable about passing it to the police yourself please contact me through this website in confidence.

Outram place problems - transferred from Gifford St ?

It seems that the rough sleeping drug takers/sex workers who were moved on from Gifford Street yesterday may now have alighted upon the undercroft garages of 29-35 Outram Place about 150 yards away.

Working with Homes for  Islington, residents have been trying to clean-up this neglected part of the Delhi-Outram estate for many months.  The area had been very quiet with little sign of the usual sex and drug activity for about six weeks.  This morning however the area was despoiled with human excrement, a used condom and female clothing.  This sort of thing hadn't happened for ages.  The bay under 29 outram stinks and HfI are cleaning it.

The police are now monitoring the area and i shall try to accelerate the boarding-up of the open garages.  The police are especially keen to keep a close eye out for the rough sleepers to keep them on their heels.

Gifford Street school site break-in - good progress

The damaged entrance to the old Schools Keeper's cottage was boarded up today after some good partnership working between residents (who first raised the alarm), the Police Community Support Officers, local Councillor Paul Convery and the Council.  On inspection the police confirmed residents' suspicions that the place was being used for rough sleeping, drug injecting and drinking.  The site was right next to new family homes where kids play in the street.

Councillor Paul Convery was very helpful in musteirng resources in the confusing Council bureacracy to get the place boarded up quickly once the extent of the problem was known.  The police attended again today to support the boarding-up team.  Let's all keep and eye out for any more rough sleeping and report it quickly.

Paul convery's email to local residents pasted in below rounds thing up nicely.

[Convery email paste begins]
Dear all,

I thought you might like to know what's happening about the School Keeper's house on Gifford Street. The building still belongs to Islington Council although it is due to be sold-off very soon to form part of the overall redevelopment of the old school site. Although the house had been well secured, the gates into the yard and the side sheds have now been repeatedly broken-in to and are being used as place for dossing-down, drug use and prostitution. Inside it's a mess and there's evidence of needles and other drug and sex detritus making it extremely dangerous to any curiosity minded children.

The local police team has investigated and are making efforts to move people on from the site. However, it needs to be properly secured to prevent it being used at all. I have now spoken with Kelvin Daley who is Islington Council's property Development & Disposals Manager and is responsible for the site. I have spelled out the problem, the hazards etc and the concerns of the police team. I have assured him that, although the building is being used for rough sleeping and vice activity, it is not "squatted" and so there is no need to waste time with legal proceedings to regain possession.

Council surveyors and the police visited the site again today to assess what security works are immediately required. One obvious solution may be to quickly remove all the sheds and outbuildings whilst securing the building itself. I hope this will prevent further vice activity in the next few days and I have given the Council officials 48 hours to get this properly secured.

It could still be months before the site developer gets construction work underway. As the plans are to demlish the school keeper's house, I have asked Kelvin Daley to prepare a plan for speedy demolition and containment of the site. I see little point in the building remaining standing for just a few more months if it continues to be a magnet to just the kind of people and activity we have all been working hard to chase out of the neighbourhood these recent years.

Meanwhile, Will Perrin who lives on Rufford Street has set up a "blog" website at http://northkingscross.typepad.co.uk/ which catalogues all the problems (and the fixes) in the area. Will convenes the North Kings Cross neighbourhood management environment working group and the site is a good record of everything that is causing us grief and documenting how things have been improved. I am sure that Will is going to keep the blog updated with each development about the school keeper's house. If anything significant crops-up, I will email again.

As this email list only contains about 1 in 5 of households in the area, I would be grateful if you could let your neighbours know what's happening.

Regards

Paul
[ends]

UPDATE Break-in at Gifford Street school

The Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) from the local Safer Neighbourhood Team have just telephoned.  They  have attended the old school keepers cottage and talked to some local residents who described many people coming and going from the site.

The PCSOs were able provisionally to identify by description two rough sleepers well known to them.  The PCSOs are now getting on to the council (who own this corner of the old school site) to board up the entrance.  But they are having some trouble finding who is responsible.

Cally 'Police Camera, Action'

the police CCTV van makes a welcome appearance outside the Cally Co-op on Monday evening.

It is good to see some heavy duty police hardware in the neighbourhood - no doubt due to the SNT.

There was a murder at the chip shop a few years ago, a recent gun robbery at co-op, armed raid at iceland (£16k guard shot), violent robbery at off licence and subsequent revenge attack on a witness there.

The street drinkers who blight this area were sitting on Tilloch St around the corner from the van and out of its shot. Though they weren't drinking and looked v miserable.

The van is great but there is a case for the council to provide a permanent installation.

Break-in Gifford Street School

The delapidated old Schoolkeeper's House at the Gifford Street school site has been broken into in the last few days.  Will try to work out who the new owners are and see if it can be boarded up before some mischief starts to happen there.  The police have had a look but nothing nefarious seems to have happended there yet.

Outram graffitti

the section of the delhi outram estate that backs onto york way has an outbreak of graffitti. the area does not have an endemic graffitti problem in part because the excellent copenhagen youth project gives kids an artistic outlet in their art flat programme.

CYP also blow up kids art work onto 6' boards and tack them onto builders hoardings. and hey presto no graffitti. HfI is in talks to put such art on these hoardings.