Hebden Bridge: cozy cafés, cool cuisine

  I’m repost­ing this piece about Heb­den Bridge from Decem­ber 2013. Muse Music and Love Cafe record shop in Heb­den Bridge is cur­rent­ly closed as it was dev­as­tat­ed in the floods – it reopens some­time in the future thanks in part to a vinyl sale held at The Trades Club in Jan­u­ary. There are plen­ty of places to eat and…

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Summer in the city: festivals with urban appeal

Fes­ti­vals are going through big changes and the new­er breed of events are more often tak­ing place in the very cities we’re usu­al­ly so keen to escape from.The for­mu­la we’ve tra­di­tion­al­ly enjoyed, three days or so camped out in the fields of an oblig­ing farmer with enough bands and DJs to keep you hap­py, has shift­ed to encom­pass a new…

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The Earl Haig Hall revival in Crouch End: music and more

UPDATE 2019: Earl Haig Hall has now closed. Antic sold it on, it is now board­ed up and its future is under review. Lat­est plans are for the build­ing to become a chil­dren’s nurs­ery. I will keep this post here as a mem­o­ry of what was a much-need­ed and loved com­mu­ni­ty bar/restaurant and venue for…

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Cafe society in the Northern Quarter: tea with DJ Mr Scruff and an Icelandic style venue

Please note that Teacup has now sad­ly closed dur­ing the pan­dem­ic.  Ear­ly Man­ches­ter mem­o­ries include being per­suad­ed by my friend’s old­er sis­ter to hang around out­side George Best’s shop, hop­ing he would appear. My favourite retail des­ti­na­tion was Crowthers dim­­ly-lit lit­tle bou­tique stuffed with gor­geous Biba-style clothes. Teacup on Thomas St has Mr Scruff the Man­ches­ter DJ…

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Down in Kentish Town: great music and Thai curry

Oh for a good old-fash­ioned Eng­lish high street, a scruffy one, with no Star­bucks, Acces­sorize and Oliv­er Bonas pop­ping up every­where. Well that’s pret­ty much Ken­tish Town for you, where you’ll find newsagents, print­er shops, friend­ly mar­ket stalls and even a library – grant­ed a Cos­ta lurks, but it does­n’t seem to have ush­ered in…

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