12 HOURS IN THE CITY

by Jez Bond

Leaving the house shortly after 9.30am this morning it took in excess of two hours to travel the usual 50 minutes to the borough of Islington. As the tube workers were on strike the buses, cars and taxis on the road were crammed with people and the traffic terrible…

My meetings today were first at Chapel Market then at Finsbury Park then at Exmouth Market then at Trafalgar Studios then back to Islington. With the late summer sun beating down it was not the ideal day for it but, armed with my laptop and the plans in my rucksack and my wallet, keys, phone and pen in Hazel’s (as a ‘working dog’ she enjoys wearing a pack and also always carries her own food and water in it), we braved the streets of London.

In the morning it was very useful to have a face to face with the Executive Member for Planning, Regeneration and Leisure, Paul Convery – along with councillor Wally Burgess.

I then met the two men who own the London Fashion Centre (and a number of other properties in the area). Funnily enough they used to own our building so were very interested to see the plans. I am encouraged that – much like John Jones on the other side of us – they are so enthusiastic and supportive of the theatre.

In the afternoon Dave, Ben and I visited the Trafalgar Studios – and like all our tours this was very informative indeed. We had not seen many spaces comparable to our studio and therefore spent the majority of the time in the smaller Trafalgar 2.

We did however have plenty of time to view Trafalgar 1, the dressing rooms, the green room and the other parts of the building. Walking round it was very interesting to hear and see exactly how this old ‘Whitehall Theatre’ was converted.

Arriving home shortly after 9.30pm our journey for the day was complete. Now Hazel lies beside me snoring happily and I wish to be doing the same but alas there are too many emails to write. Tomorrow I meet another councillor and the journey continues.