We’ve been very excited here at Freshminster to see the arrival of a parklet on Connaught Street! It will be in place all day today (Friday), and tomorrow too, so do pop down if you have time. It also happens to be just outside La Maritxu, our very own Viral Basque Cheesecake cafe, and not far from what everyone says is the best hot chocolate in London at London Chocolate.
The Parklet has been organised by Dr Tom Cohen at the University of Westminster, local residents’ association HyPER, and the wonderful people at The Parklets Campaign. This is a voluntary organisation, and yesterday, Brenda Puech and Susanne Grieshaber came down.
You can read all about their work here: https://parklets.wixsite.com/theparkletscampaign
We were also really pleased to also have a visit from our local councillors, Paul Dimoldenberg, Md Shamsed Chowdhury, and Judith Southern, seen on the right here.
We hope it became even clearer to them than ever that people like space to sit and chat, and to have less traffic. (We’re not sure if we’ve mentioned that we’d like a piazza, but we think it’s a good idea!)
It was also nice to see that Judith came on a bike…
We had a visit from Cycle Campaigner Carla Francome (who has kindly said we can use her photos).
She talked to Lucia at La Maritxu, who told her they are currently getting through 150-180 cheesecakes a week, and met Sarah who’d popped over from St John’s Wood. She had just one word about the cheesecake, “wow”.
You can read Carla’s full thread about her trip on “X” here:
She also met up with Lou Fioravanti, an Italian who cycles down Connaught Street when going to and from work. He says about Connaught Street, “you’re cycling, you’re in a primary position, and still you’re often nervous because there’s always cars beeping at each other”. He also says, about his hometown, “In Rome, they closed the whole historical centre. People were angry at first, but of course, it all went well”. This reflects what we always see- people like streets with less traffic!
People on Connaught street certainly seem to be enjoying our parklet, one local resident said it should be made permanent. So do pop by and see what you think if you get time!
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