Long-overdue lift replacement starts week before Easter

Work on a complete lift replacement at Somerton House will start Monday 29 March. It will last FOURTEEN WEEKS, hopefully ending 5 July. Sooner if they can, but overruns are also a possibility.

From day one, until the work is complete, there will be NO lift service. Camden Council have agreed with the Premier Inn London Euston that elderly residents and those with mobility issues will be given a pass enabling them to use the hotel’s lift, which will take them to the fifth floor.

SHTA is grateful to Shane Sorour, Camden Council Project Manager, who managed to negotiate this concession from the hotel. It is regrettable that the management of Premier Inn London Euston did not see fit to allow all of their neighbours to use their lifts.

If you feel that you are unable to use the stairs for fourteen weeks, please contact Shane Sorour on 020 7974 2878.

Other team members

Fusnara Begum – Resident Liaison Officer – 0800 316 1471 – the first point of contact for any queries; also on hand to assist with things such as shopping.

Duncan Edwards – Site Supervisor – 07815 826 008 – on site daily; manages the site foreman, who will be responsible for day-to-day works.

David Young – Site Manager – 07870 384 522 – on site daily; manages the contractor works.

SHTA had asked for the works to start after the Easter break, but Mr Sorour has said this is not possible because: “We are running a rolling programme and lift engineers have been allocated to this job and have a very fine timescale to adhere to in order to get onto the next job.” The work was due to start on 8th March, but was put back to allow the Council to fulfil its responsibility to re-house some residents.

Pat, from the Customer Services department of the Holborn District Housing Office, has given SHTA a donation towards our plans for a green pathway.

The front entrance of Somerton House will be bedecked with plants and flowers along the length of the path thanks to a £100 donation from Camden Council. We’ll be purchasing our plant-life from Camden Garden Centre, to ensure that the money stays local and independent. The Camden Garden Centre works as a community garden centre, and helps vulnerable residents in Camden.

John, secretary, is sourcing suitable hard wood planters, and we will discuss funding these at our next meeting.

Simon, chair, has also arranged for Camden Council to eventually remove the builder’s debris from the fire safety works taken out over a year ago, along with the other accumulated items. Dilip Shah, from Camden’s caretaking services, called Simon yesterday to say it would go, and less than 24 hours later it has!

Kenneth Williams Plaque unveiled

Kenneth Williams has now been honoured by the Heritage Foundation at his King’s Cross  childhood home. The Blue Plaque was unveiled above his Father’s barber shop at 57 Marchmont Street, where he lived from 1935 until 1956.

Fans, friends, the Marchmont Street Association, local MP Frank Dobson and local Councillor Jonathan Simpson had written to the Foundation campaigning for public recognition for Kenneth, in what was his neighbourhood.

Everyone gathered on Sunday 11th October at 12.00 noon on the packed street in King’s Cross, where many celebrities including actors, broadcasters, friends and fans paid homage to the great comedian.

Nicholas Parsons OBE LLT recalled moments from their friendship, as did Bill Petwee MBE PBR, both are members of the Grand Order of Water Rats, no fine paid today then.

The Blue Plaque was unveiled by, Cllr Jonathon Simpson, Frank Dobson MP, the Mayor of Camden, Omar Faruque Ansari, Bill Pertwee MBE PBR – best known for playing ARP Warden Hodges in Dad’s Army – Nicholas Parsons OBE LLT – broadcaster and straight man of comedy, and Ricci de Freitas – chair of the Marchmont Street Association.

In the presence of many friends of the foundation including actress and writer Linda Brant, radio presenter and Heritage Foundation Vice President Mike Read, ‘Elvis to the Stars’ Lou Jordan, David Graham Heritage Foundation Director, Potter Ned Heywood the plaque designer and Bill Oddie OBE – previous goodie, and popular wildlife campaigner, to name but a few.

There are two more blue plaques celebrating local dignitaries to be unveiled on Marchmont Street. Watch this space for more, or check the Heritage Foundation website. www.theheritagefoundation.info

Apart from the lack of a microphone and a speaker so that us ‘locals’ could hear what was being said at the front, everything went swimmingly especially for Costa Coffee (photoshopped out of images) – don’t forget there are other independent places to buy you coffee, love your High Street – Support it!  Simon Lamrock.

ITV have started the long

awaited 2009 filming of the first of eight new Agatha Christie films for television, four are to be Miss Marple, and four are to be Poirot. Rumour has it that the ITV Drama staring David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, set during the 1930’s, is being filmed on the Orient Express, and at a various number of different locations.

One poor Papparzzi photographer spent the day in Dover trying to find the set, and only arrived back in London to catch the final 20 minutes of the final scene, I laughed quietly on set.

One of theses locations is also where the BBC drama Fanny Hill was filmed in 2007, and that’s right here in Dukes Road & Woburn Walk, with a one day shoot.

The Locations and Sets teams have been busy for the last few days dressing the set, taking our Dickensian shopping street back to how it would have looked in the 1930’s.

They have done a sterling job, not just on the outside streets and facades, but also on the interior of many of the shops changing Camden’s empty ‘To-Let shop’ into a fantastic early photographic camera emporium.

A nice 1940’s red phone box has also arrived on set – not knowing the years of trouble we local residents have had to put up with the phone boxes in Kings Cross, this one has no ‘ladies calling cards’ or ‘drug paraphernalia’  in it (as of yet) just two buttons A & B, and it smells very fresh & clean!

Local residents, most of who live in either Dukes road & Woburn Walk, spent a lot of the morning watching from ‘behind the camera’ enjoying the excitement of being on a TV drama film set, on hot and Sunny Sunday in June.

There is little else to do when the TV machine takes over your neighbourhood, so you would think that they wouldn’t have a problem with local residents (and a few passing tourists) taking pictures?

Apparently not, the production crew instructed their set security to tell local residents, that they had had their picture and now to stop and go away, leave us alone.  Too where do we go, I might ask?

We live here, this is our street, it doesn’t  take a Belgium detective to work that one out. Surely actors are used to being in front of a lens, and being photographed by the people who watch their programme.

I’m a member of the  Broadcast Union BECTU who have a code conduct for all members, and am a freelance photographer, so I have a good undertanding of my rights when taking images, it’s what I do.  I  aways do my best to behave as if I’m working it’s the professional in me, even when I’m just taking snaps for the TA website, but I felt that the brusk treatment of my fellow neighbours was a little rich to say the least, certainly not called for.

Everyone has a right to take photographs in a public place, not just ITV Drama or Poirot.

The day turned out to be a real treat for us locals, everyone had fun even some of the actors and crew cracked the odd smile, I’m now lookin forward to seeing the finished film on TV.

Simon Lamrock
Chair
Somerton House TA

Four brand new Poirot films on an independent television station near you soon (TV licence  required).

As we pass three years since the ‘Pride of Place’ refurbishment of Somerton House, which was completed by Camden Council’s Capital Projects team, it’s time to reflect on how far we’ve got… besides that the paint is flaking, some doors weren’t painted, the lif breaks or leaves you stranded, some work which was paid for remains to be done. Capital Projects paid £750,000 for the work – yet the flaws are becoming more apparent as the days go by.

• Where in London can you find a newly refurbished building – with no fire protection in the risers?
• Where in London can you find a building with a ‘secure intercom’ system – but only on one of the three doors?
• Where in London can you find flats after a £1,000 refurbishment – but nothing touched in over 90% of them!
• Where in London can you find people living whilst breathing in noxious fumes from a top hotel?
• Where in London can you find asbestos left by the builders paid to remove it?
• Where in London can you find wiring left behind by people paid to remove it?
• Where in London is a newly-refurbished building, with the old lighting still in the lobbies?
• Where in London can you find a 7^th floor door handle – meant for a bloody wardrobe?
• Where in London can you find the wiring Thomas-Sinden promised to re-wire into the purpose-made conduit?
• Where in London can you find purpose made conduit – failing after only a few years (and probably out of guarantee)?
• Where in London can you find original 1960’s fixtures and fittings or 1980’s left-overs (or a bodge, possibly by EPS) – still in daily use?
• Where in London can you find brand-new windows (sold by Del-Boy Trotter) that are a safety nightmare, and unsuitable for a high-rise property?
• Where in London can you find lift call buttons which can cut your fingers?
• Where in London can you find London’s oldest, 1960’s classic lift, unmaintained and noisy as hell?
• Where in London can you find communal halls that don’t see hot water?
• Where in London can you find a high-rise building with windows that aren’t cleaned?
• Where in London can you find loyal tenants paying their way, with no attempts at upgrading their ameneties to a modern standard?
• Where in London can you find a Camden Council building where our money isn’t re-invested to improve our dignity?

Welcome to London

Welcome to Somerton House

You can find us above the purple Premier Inn and red Costa Coffee signs – we’ve got a shiny new sign beside the corporate heaven, thanks to BAM and Unison for their help and community spirit in helping to install the new Somerton House sign – Camden were quite happy to let our safety and security go by the by for the sake of the cost of installing it.

Thanks too, hotel – for painting the walls and fences to give the place a spruce up – sorry that Camden couldn’t pay their way.

Where in London can you find a community as diverse and friendly as ours – we’re a small village in the sky, surrounded by other unique villages – each with local people.

Yet around one million people per day pass us by. Look up and wave sometime!
Maybe we should shout louder.

It’s worth bearing in mind that we’re picking up the pieces, and asking for work which we all have paid for, be done. Properly.

Almost two years have passed since Costa Coffee encroached onto the corner of Euston Road and Duke’s Road, obliterating any evidence that Somerton House existed in the process. Today, Somerton House can once again be found, thanks to BAM Construction, and local Trade Union Unison.

In an amazing catalogue of ignorance and errors, it took Whitbread two years to buy a new sign, and when it arrived they refused to erect it.

Whitbread employ a property consultant, Gerald Eve, to look after their buildings. Gerald Eve have an intricate understanding of the lease, and other legal documents between their client and Camden Council. They are paid by Whitbread to use this knowledge in the best way for Whitbread – and the evidence to dates suggests they are exemplary at this task. Gerald Eve chose to enforce a tiny line in the documentation which said it was Camden Council’s responsibility to fit the new sign.

The Tenants’ Association is still quite astounded that Gerald Eve felt quite so bold as to hold Camden Council to account, after all it wasn’t Camden Council who removed the old signage. When we approach Gerald Eve they advise us of their client, Whitbread’s environmental credentials. Those same environmental credentials prevented them spending less than an hours profit from their coffee shop, to put right their wrongdoings.

Whichever way you look at it, FOUR months of wrangling between Whitbread and Camden Council is unacceptable, so when the Police and Ambulance added their names to the long list of those upset at how difficult it was to find Somerton House, we approached BAM, who are erecting the new Unison HQ tower. BAM under contract of Unison kindly helped us to erect the sign. It didn’t take them four months.

In helping everyone to drag their heels quite so well, Gerald Eve has proven that, despite its ability to manage commercial properties, they have a severe lack of understanding of the relationship between the commercial and residential parts of mixed buildings.

Everyone at Somerton House extends a warm thank you to our neighbours Unison  and their contractors, BAM , we commend them for being neighbourly and their helpful ‘can do’ attitude towards life & community.

Foyle’s War, the British detective ITV TV drama series from the creative talent of Anthony Horowitz of the deserved & acclaimed  ‘Midsomer Murders’ & ‘Hercule Poirot’ series,  has been shooting the London scenes for the first of the last ever, three new episodes of Foyle’s War 2009 Series 7 here in London, on our doorstep.

Set in June 1945, VE Day is being celebrated in London and Europe, whilst the war continues on further shores…

SHTA Chair,  Simon caught up with lead star cast member Michael Kitchen  who plays Superintendant Christopher Foyle and Honeysuckle Weeks (Samantha “Sam” Stuart) on a tight filming schedule in Cartwright Gardens and Burton street in WC1, transforming the Avalon Hotel back to its ‘hay day’, and the area  back to the 1940’s.

The crew, actors/actresses and support staff were fantastic, conciderate and patient given that their set was slap bang in the middle of a busy Bloomsbury street (Kings Cross ward), of people going about their very ordinary and routine daily business.

Carrying a camera in my bag 24/7, I have a ‘thing’ about catching the social and changing history of London in images, it’s one of my hobbies I rather enjoy and a legacy to leave for later generations to come.

I took my camera out and snapped a few pictures, how could you not?

Asked by one of the senior managers, very politely if I was Paparazzi, after my embarrassment I was slightly flattered at being given the credibility of being a professional photographer but declined, and admitted the fact that I was only merely a local resident with an enthusiastic interest in photography who happened to be in the right place at the right time (shopping for cat food for a very fussy cat) and would be posting the photographs on our residents website for the wider community.

All on the way to Waitrose, one of the very many reasons,  I love London.

Foyle’s War 2009 Series 7 – the last – no more – the end – showing on ITV on a television set, PC, laptop  or mobile device in your area soon.

Simon Lamrock

Chair SHTA

We’re pleased to say that the translation service on this website has been expanded. Now full posts and comments can be read in many more languages, thanks to the power of Google translation tools.

If your language isn’t here, please let the Tenants’ Association know, and we’ll try to add it. Click here to send us a message.

SHTA would like to thank For No Apparent Reason for continuing to provide cost-effective web hosting and constant improvements to help the TA to communicate effectively.

Amélioration des services de traduction

Nous sommes heureux de dire que le service de traduction de ce site a été développé. Maintenant postes à plein et les commentaires peuvent être lus dans de nombreuses autres langues, grâce à la puissance des outils de traduction de Google.

Si votre langue n’est pas ici, s’il vous plaît laissez-le Tenants’ Association savons, et nous allons essayer d’en ajouter. Cliquez ici pour nous envoyer un message.

SHTA tiens à remercier pour aucune raison apparente de continuer à fournir rentable hébergement de sites Web et des améliorations constantes pour aider à la TA à communiquer efficacement.

SHTA met the Whitbread group with the help of Ward Councillor Jonathan Simpson, to discuss issues which have arose recently. The first meeting was positive, and it was accepted that some problems have been ongoing for some time, and some have arose since the hotel’s extension works.

The hotel put procedures in place to make use of the car park and access ramp safer for all of us, and to manage delivery vehicles. Gerald Eve, Whitbread Group’s property consultant, is arranging an enclosure for the roof mounted air conditioning units. Unfortunately this needs planning permission, and there doesn’t appear to be a fast track process available.

Noise from the kitchen extractor vent, which can be quite loud in residents’ bedrooms, is being investigated. In the meantime the hotel have pledged to ensure the vent is switched off between 11:30 PM and 04:45 AM – though their timer appears to be faulty. If the noise from the kitchen vent is a nuisance to you, call Premier Inn London Euston Reception on 020 7554 3400 and ask them to switch it off, politely.

A meeting is being arranged for residents to voice their issues over noise coming into their flats.

Micromark Heater

The London Fire brigade has had 3 recent fires involving Micromark convector heaters. The Brigade has used other heaters as samples, and found that they can cause fires due to loose fittings inside the heater.

The model number is mm53583- (heater with fan). The batch number is 291577/06/08.

Micromark is working with Haringey Trading Standards to prevent further sales of these fans until the issue can be resolved. However, there are a large number of these fans in use. These heaters have been involved in fires in a hospital, school and student halls to date.

If you have such a heater, do not use it, and do not attempt to repair it yourself. Take it back to the shop where you bought it, or contact Micromark directly.

The following images may help you to identify whether you have one of these heaters. The standard wall mounted storage heaters, which run from your electrical supply, are not affected.

The model and batch numbers

What could happen!