Traditional Wood Fired Pizza Oven

You gotta imagine Sarracino does indeed have a wood fired pizza oven.

Comedy Nights

I normally love Bank Holidays in West Hampstead. So many people go away that you can wander the streets and reclaim them as your own. The weather last weekend however severely curbed my enthusiasm.

My heart went out on Sunday to the poor guy standing outside Barclays with a placard advertising a comedy night. Not only was it freezing out there, but there wasn't anyone around to notice.

A bit of searching reveals that The Gallery on Broadhurst Gardens has a comedy night every few Sundays. So, along with the Mirth Control nights on Wednesdays in the Lower Ground Bar on West End Lane, we seem to be quite the place for comedy.

I haven't been to either, but sounds like they might be a laugh.

New "Artistic Gallery"

The new art gallery has opened on West End Lane, near the tube. This is a slightly peculiar site for the purpose, as the entrance gallery is very narrow and not really wide enough for you to stand back and look at the art. This coupled with an absurd idea of having a tv screen at eye level so that you cannot see in must have kept some people away in the first week.

The tv screen has been moved and the place is bright and welcoming. There is also a downstairs gallery, which is much more successful as it gains the room lost to the stairwell in the floor above and is therefore easier to view the art.

Currently on display is work of one Gerry Laffy. Part Banksy, part Warhol, part Murakami - he certainly seems to be going for the crowd pleasers. Most of the art is in the under three grand category, currently viewed as 'affordable art'. In theory West Hampstead now attracts the type of young, cash rich types to pay for such things, so it will be interesting to see how this does.

It looks from the website that the gallery will get a rotation of artists from a central dealer. It will be interesting to see which other artists are shown over the coming months.

Gerry Laffy is a singer, guitarist and producer.

Sex and the City meets West Hampstead

"Let's go to bake-a-boo."
"Peek-a-boo?"
"No, bake-a-boo."
"Will there be loads of kids?"
"Well, maybe, but come on."


As a small venue, it was a relief that were only a few kids the other Saturday when I went with a girlfriend to bake-a-boo on Mill Lane (although a number of little cherubs had been banished outside by their parents - poor souls). This isn't a place for buggies of a Saturday afternoon as it is a relatively small space and it was packed on our visit.


I have to say that there was a very significant female to male proportion (I counted 1 male waiter). I have been on weekdays and found a few men looking rather uncertain in this girls haven. It does remind me of the SATC girls going to the Magnolia bakery on Bleecker Street.

In comparison though, this is a really cute place to sit for a cup of tea, a cupcake and a natter. The decor is very country kitchen ie Cath Kidston and perfect for the purpose.

I have found the actual cupcakes variable, though a much more sensible size than the enormous Magnolia bakery variety. I had a fabulous moist banana cupcake (on my birthday, hoorah) but a recent lemon one was rather dry and frankly not as good as those at Starbucks.

I would however recommend bake-a-boo to any girl and her friends. I think Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha would love it. But you probably want to leave Mr Big at home.

Inglewood Mansions

I was a little astonished when I saw the door buzzer that is being installed on one of the two blocks that make up Inglewood Mansions on West End Lane today. There are over 30 bells.

I thought I was seeing funny, but a little research shows that there are 65 studios no less. These are being marketed for immediate occupation (presumably once the buzzers are working, but maybe not).

Turns out that they were 60 units under the old landlord when they were a dreadful eyesore to the area. I hadn't realised until now that the old landlord was eventually convicted of almost 200 offences.

The new blocks look great and are a huge improvement to the street. I hope they stay that way. At the rental price they should do!

Czechoslovak National House, 74 West End Lane

I have been meaning to go here for years. Occasionally when I mention that I live in West Hampstead, someone will say, "Have you been to the Czech place?"

The slight deterrent for me has been the fact that this is a social club. I always think of clubs as places that I visited once when I was a kid for school friends' birthday parties, never to return again, as my parents neither played golf, worked in the local mine nor were expats, and hence I was ineligible to go back.

So I was uncertain how welcome non Czechs would be at the Czech and Slovak national club. I needn't have been. Yes, on a Wednesday night the clientele was largely from mid Europe, but we were made really welcome by an excellent waiter who showed us into the time warp front room/ restaurant.

At the end of the day, this is a house. Like many of the large houses in West Hampstead it has been converted, but you can still see the original features of the house despite the conversion work which presumably was done sometime after 1946 when the club opened (it moved from Holborn as they couldn't serve beer there!).

There is a restaurant in the front room, more relaxed tables and chairs in the back room, a bar in the hallway and the loos are in the back bedroom. Don't let any of this put you off. As I say, our welcome was great. We enjoyed 2 and a half courses, some great Czech beer on tap, coffees and all at less than 20 quid a head.

Two things to note though - they only take cash and the food is exceptionally filling. You feel like you can have your calorie intake for a week in one sitting. That said, the rest of the customers in on Wednesday were very svelte young Czechs. Maybe they also have a gym I don't know about!

Blogging Estate Agents

Everyone has the right to blog. I'm all up for that. Generally, you just find some are a bit more interesting to read than others.

When I first started this blog, I did a bit of research and came up with this blog which was at the foot of the wikipedia page for West Hampstead. 2 days this estate agent seems to have lasted, in what looks like a blatant plug for a certain local agent.

So it wasn't the greatest surprise to find a new estate agent blog on the block. I was slightly more surprised to see one of my photos on the front page on a piece they wrote on Tesco - wee bit cheeky!

I don't think there is anything malicious in this - its just a blog I am not likely to keep reading. Presumably they see the blog as cheap marketing for them, although I am glad they have changed their bloggers name to 'Paramount Investments' from an individual's name which it was yesterday.

I do have one tip though - if they want to get people excited about the area and bring them in from outside, which I guess they do - they need slightly more upbeat topics - not reference to panic amongst small traders re the Tesco development or that the Camden New Journal reckons we are swimming in pizza!