I Love The Grove

More British Soldiers die as a result of committing suicide than are killed in Battle figures suggest. Disclaimer: If you watch this video, some of you will not like what you hear. For those of you that know me, some of you will know that I suffered with PTSD after my tour of Iraq 2003. If you watch the video to its end, you will not like what you see. I have blended my own thoughts and feelings of what I went through with the story of others who felt unable to cope anymore.   This video is difficult to share in an open domain. For some of you, it will be disturbing. Only Woolwich Arsenal Mental Hospital, my Battalion’s Padre and including my wife are the only ones to truly know the darkness that hid in the shadows no one else could see. The bottom of the Rabbit hole was place where fear, anxiety and a constant feeling of guilt became more horrifying the more I tried to be normal. Despite the fact that I did not fire a single round in anger during my tour of Iraq, this did not stop me from seeing things that were to come back and haunt me later. A simple and suppressed memory turned into an untouchable image etched in my skull of a distraught father. His three little children asleep in a back of an old battered Mercedes. He was fucking flapping like fuck. These kids weren’t asleep. He was begging and preying for a super hero. His beautiful little children. No hero came. After Iraq, the ghosts followed me. They grew louder and louder screaming at me. Pulling me apart. The mind is a powerful thing. It stopped me from truly seeing. The memory pushed and contorted my flesh and hammered my skull punishing me for these kids. Why was I so weak? My subconsciousness was fighting a losing battle trying to hold my memory's at the pit of my stomach. Losing the will to suppress them. My subconscious mind desperately tried to sooth these memories. Tried to keep them calm. Please stay asleep. Don't wake up, don't wake them up. Before you go beyond this point if you haven't already, watch the video. Click play now. You will not like how it ends, but it has to be this way. Why am I telling you all this? We need your help. On the 9th October I will be attempting to complete the Three Peaks Challenge in less than 24 hours to raise money for Veteran’s Charity Combat Stress. More on the challenge in a moment. Right now, I ask you for two things. 1) Share this video with your entire friends list. Share it with as many serving and ex serving soldiers as you know too. Get them to donate and share. 2) Donate £10 - £35 today by clicking on the link below. http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/Veterans4Veterans What I will do in return. The Challenge First up, Ben Nevis - Scotland The highest of the peaks at 1345m, Ben Nevis starts near sea level and has a steep vertical ascent. The route converges and zig-zags to its peak. This “Pony  Track” is 10.5 miles long approx Scafell Pike - England As soon as this mountain is completed we will drive to Scafell Pike hugging the West Coast. De-bus and immediately attempt to scale this mountain through the night. The route we have chosen is around 6 miles long and ascends 989m. As soon as we have completed this effort, we've a drive across to Wales. The Last Leg, Snowdon - Wales Beginning briefly as a tarmac path, it is mostly rocky with steps towards the top. We will ascend a distance of approximately 7 miles, up and down with an ascent of 723 metres Your £10 donation will be given to Combat Stress. Every £35 you give will pay for 1 week of much needed counselling. My last forced march was over a decade ago and to make your £10 more interesting, although physically and mentally fit, I have not and will complete any relevant training before this challenge Why? I was completely unprepared for PTSD. I want to feel pain and plenty of it to achieve as much money for sufferers as I can. Soldiers and their families deserve to remain together. Happy and loving life together. Really together. The Charity, Combat Stress (0800 138 1619) are committed to helping ex-service men and women deal with PTSD and other mental illnesses. Real Life Super Hero's Do Exist. Sometimes, We Just Don't See The IED That Exploded Inside Them. Click Link Below And Donate £10 - £35 now. http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/Veterans4Veterans The link will take you my good friend and the organiser of this event, Richard Horn donation page. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post. Remember to click share and donate now. John

Renowned Climber Molly Thompson-Smith trains at WestWay Climbing. Everyone’s welcome at Westway, whether you’re a first time or an experienced climber. 350 climbing routes on 110 roped lines up to 13.5m Bouldering walls with up to 100 boulder problems rotated every 4 weeks Route changes every month 4 auto-belay machines Training rooms specialising in Systems Training and Endurance Training Campus board, gymnastic rings, Lapis balls, quadruple stacked Beastmaker finger boards, pull-up bar and stretching mat UK renowned coaching and junior programmes Hope you enjoy the podcast

Starting DJ-ing in about 1981 Hucker first arrived in Ladbroke Grove working at the Electric Cinema from 1972 and speaks to I Love The Grove. We spoke about, Ladbroke Grove, the Electric Cinema, his DJ career and the absolutely fantastic facebook page Old Notting Hill/ North Kensington ‘82 he opened up a club night on Thursdays at an atmospheric Colombian venue called the Sol y Sombra in London's Charlotte Street. This night rapidly became legendary and one of the best club nights in London at that time. His eclectic choice of music covering most of the tropical area along side Jazz, R&B, Funk and whatever took his fancy, quickly became a benchmark for clubland. This was how to mix it up and it opened the eyes and ears of the many people who crowded into the nights. The place was such a success I also took over the Saturday nights. Club nights at Ronnie Scotts, Villa Stefano including various nights followed. If you enjoyed this podcast or know anyone else that will, please share using any of the share buttons.  

Kensington & Chelsea Born & Bred, Labour Councillor For The Golborne Ward Fighting Gentrification and Has a Blog That Can Only Be Described As Wonderfully Brutal! Emma Dent-Coad has been a writer and author on design, architecture and planning for 30 years; in 2006 she was elected as local Councillor to Golborne Ward in North Kensington, home to Kensal House by Grey Wornum and to Trellick Tower and the newly listed Edenham Way by Erno Goldfinger. Writer and Researcher On Architecture and Planning of The Modern Movement specialist on 20th Century Spanish Architecture. Contact Emma Email Cllr.DentCoad@rbkc.gov.uk Twitter @emmadentcoad Website www.emmadentcoad.co.uk

Brought up in a working-class area of Swansea, Ray veered into a life of shoplifting and small-time drug dealing fuelled by alcohol and driven by gambling. Inevitably, Ray was sent to prison and eventually left Swansea for London such was his growing notoriety with the police and magistrates in his home town.? He settled in Ladbroke Grove and became a key figure in the burgeoning music and art scene emerging from the boho pubs around Ladbroke Grove. He toured with Joe Strummer, hung out behind the scenes in Paris fashion houses and mingled with the fast and flash London set while in Swansea some of his closest friends lost their lives to drink and drugs. Ray launched The Roughler Magazine from the Warwick pub in Portobello Road and ran Dylan's bar in San Francisco before being ripped off in a massive drugs deal leaving him destitute. This is only the story so far as Ray continues to journey through the remarkable and surreal side of life. Click Either Link To Buy The Books 3000 Hangovers Later | Drowning on Dry Land If You Like This Episode, Spread The Word Using The Share Buttons Below and To The Left.

Renowned Local Historian Tom Vague & The Colville Project Bring 60’s Ladbroke Grove To Life The Year This Decade Exploded! Book & Kitchen 31 All Saints Road London W11 1HE 6pm to 9pm Tuesday 26th July Local History Free Entry Whether you grew up in Ladbroke Grove or one of the other K&C wards during the 60’s or simply fascinated by what was happening in W11/W10 in 1966, Tom Vague and Colville Project bring this era of West London History to life. This event will feature Tom Vague, Brian Nevill, Rosamund PortobelloGirl discussing the Sounds of 66, Blow Up, Cat Stevens, Lord Kitchener’s Valet, Twiggy, the London Free School, Muhammed Ali, Destruction in Art Symposium, the first Carnival and Pink Floyd.  

The Blue Lamp is a 1950 British police drama, directed by Basil Dearden and starring Jack Warner as veteran PC Dixon, Jimmy Hanley as newcomer PC Mitchell, and a very young Dirk Bogarde as hardened criminal Tom Riley. The title refers to the blue lamps that traditionally hung outside British police stations (and often still do). The film was to be the inspiration for the 1955–1976 TV series Dixon of Dock Green, where Jack Warner continued to play PC Dixon until he was 80 years old (even though Dixon's murder is the central plot of the original film). The screenplay was written by ex-policeman T. E. B. Clarke. The film is an early example of the "social realism" films that emerged later in the 1950s and 1960s, but it follows a simple moral structure in which the police are the honest guardians of a decent society, battling the disorganised crime of a few unruly youths. Wikipedia Aidan McManus Founder of Flipside London Tours 

Sir Alexander Fleming Discovered Penicillin In The Hospital I Was Born In St Mary's Hospital - Paddington Sir Alexander Fleming FRS FRSE FRCS[1] (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish biologist, pharmacologist and botanist.  His best-known discoveries are the enzyme lysozyme in 1923 and the antibiotic substance benzylpenicillin (Penicillin G) from the mould Penicillium notatum in 1928, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain.  He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy. This Podcast is taken us an awesome journey and Kevin Brown at St Marys was an absolute pleasure in interview. Leave a comment on this podcast below. 

NW Clean Have a Passion For Restoring Your Space and Appliances To Look Like New. When you get to love your spaces and appliances again, you smile, you’ll recommend  NW Clean to the people you care about, and you enjoy living with possessions that will last longer. Don't take my word for it. Read what others say! Then, make up your own mind, check out their pricing, or ask them any question about cleaning. Joshy and his team are available day or night and experts in cleaning services tailored to your specific requirements, including: Carpet Cleaning Oven Cleaning End of Tenancy Cleaning Moving In/Out Cleaning Upholstery Cleaning After Builders Cleaning Commercial Cleaning Office Cleaning Communal Cleaning Shop Cleaning To discuss your specific cleaning requirements, please contact NW Clean and get a FREE quote. Professionally trained, NW Clean leave their clients radiating around North West London. They are insured to clean all types of domestic and commercial spaces and appliances and continuously review their cleaning equipment and products they use. They are also covered by public liability insurance for the following work: Gutter Cleaning Kitchen Cleaning Contract Cleaning Hard Floor Cleaning Solar Panel Cleaning Conservatory Cleaning Pressure Washing to 248 bar (3,600 psi) Holiday Home Cleaning (including Caravans) End of Tenancy Cleaning (interior and exterior) Domestic Property Cleaning (interior and exterior) Window Cleaning including Soffits, Fascia and Frames Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning including soft furnishings Oven (domestic and catering only) & White Goods Cleaning Call NW Clean to get a quote now by clicking this link for their details

Tonic, a Clothing Company Based In Ladbroke Grove Is Owned and Managed By Phil Bickley. Tonic offer a carefully edited selection of classic brands at a good price, no hassle, no 'big sell', just sound advice and friendly service.  This is the kind of place you'd tell your mates about. Banter along with the perfect pair of jeans. Launched 15 years ago Tonic is thriving and something of an institution, woven firmly into the fabric of the bustling creative community at the northern end of London's famous Portobello Road.  REAL STARS ARE RARE Phil Bickley also works with world renowned singer song writer Paul Weller on a clothing brand called REAL STARS ARE RARE that has a simple vision: 'Small collections of classic, timeless pieces with a focus on top quality materials, all based on a loosely modernist aesthetic.' Mass production isn't in the plan; instead they produce limited runs, giving them the flexibility to keep adding new variations and colours to popular items and to produce new styles, special editions and one-offs. Contact Tonic UK 276 Portobello Road, Ladbroke Grove, London W10 www.tonicuk.com 020 8960 8216

Kindred Studios are not-for-profit maker-spaces situated just off Ladbroke Grove underneath the Westway, in a building formely known as Maxilla. It was started by two artists Jaime Turner and Angelique Schmitt who were looking for a space for themselves to work and instead found a big empty building and a new project! After hosting two open days and within two weeks, the 14,000sq ft building was completely filled with every discipline within the arts from millinery, sculpture, ceramics, fashion, film making and jewellery. The founders’ aims are to foster the relationship between their 95 creatives and the local community and raise the profile of the Arts in West London. Opening Hours 08:00am - 22:00pm Monday to Friday 09:00am - 18:00pm Saturday Closed Sundays and Bank Holidays Contact Kindred Studios Via  Instagram | Pinterest | Vimeo | Facebook | Twitter | Email  

Stuck Between Hitler and Stalin, Notorious Notting Hill Slum Landlord Peter Rachman Had Nowhere To Go. Having spent time in Stalins Gulag's Peter Rachman a Polish immigrant fought in the second war from 1941 eventually moving to the UK after his Polish Unit was disbanded. Throughout the 50's he had created a property empire which consisted of over 100 mansion blocks including night clubs. No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs Rachman was portrayed in the British press as enemy number one but was he really the Slum Landlord he's been criticised for? Rachman found himself comfortably mixing and frequenting with prostitutes, the working class, high society and establishment most notably Profumo. Aidan McManus Once Again Takes I Love The Grove On Another Vivid Journey Through Central West London's Awesome History visit www.flipsidelondontours.com to book a tour now. Rachman (The Slum Landlord Whose Name Became a Byword for Evil) By Shirley Green

Imagine as you are reading this right now you feel that there is something in your life at the moment that is not quite how you'd like it to be.  Maybe you are in some sort of transition, and would like some help and support with the decisions and struggles that you are facing?  Perhaps it's a major cross-roads, or just a small decision, and you just don't know which direction to go? Or are you stuck in a rut and can see no way out?  Maybe you just have a niggling feeling that things could be better and you don't know what's getting in the way.  Is your life running you rather than you running your life? Life can be difficult at times and coaching can be invaluable and transformative. Louisa Burnand is a specialist helping people to look at life in different ways enabling those that meet her to make confident conscious choices and take actions towards making their lives more wonderful. If you're not sure, just try a free consultation and sample session. You have nothing to lose.   L O U I S A     B U R N A N D RELATIONSHIPS,  RECOVERY  &   REAL LIFE C O N F L I C T   T O   C O M P A S S I O N    07753 701 090 or 020 8964 5947 co-active   systemic   nonviolent   confidential www.louisaburnand.com

Article written by www.NHH50.com  We’re featuring a special series by local historian Tom Vague every day this week. Tom first came to Notting Hill in the late 1970s when he was the editor of the post-punk fanzine ‘Vague’ which was distributed by the first Rough Trade record shop at 202 Kensington Park Road. He also worked as a music journalist for ‘Zigzag’ magazine across Portobello at 118 Talbot Road into the 1980s. Tom recently featured on Notting Hill Housing’s free walking tour podcast with CEO Kate Davies to mark our 50th anniversary. Below he explains what has drawn him to the history of Notting Hill. “My passion for the Notting Hill area and history grew from being a fan of the Clash, reggae and Rough Trade post-punk groups. After the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival riots, Ladbroke Grove became known as the centre of the punk and reggae crossover scene and the coolest part of London. My ambition was to live in a squat in Ladbroke Grove. After squatting in south and north London, I moved to North Kensington and joined Portobello Housing Co-op which included members of post-punk bands. I became fascinated by the history of the Notting Dale slum area – from the Piggeries to the 10 Rillington Place murders and the 1958 race riots – as well as local counter-culture, pop music and literary traditions. I was also inspired by books and films of the area including ‘The Napoleon of Notting Hill’ by GK Chesterton.

A Community Action Adult Education Project ‘The London Free School’ That I Wished Existed Today! It seemed this school consisted of the whose who within the counter culture! Aidan McManus the founder of Flipside London Tours takes us on a wicked journey into the heart of the Counter Culture movement!

Ever wondered about the properties we live in? When and who built them? Why they were built in such a way? The purpose behind modern and ex local type properties? In this podcast Andrew Hanson the founder of Hanson Architects brings Ladbroke Grove to life in this episode. Hanson was born in London, the son of an architect and educated at the Architectural Association and the University of Edinburgh. In 1990 Andrew formed Circus Architects. Completed over 120 loft apartments, mobile cinema for the Arts Council, offices for Mathos lava lamps, Travel Bag Oxford Circus and house for Paloma Piccasso. Won first prize in the Europan'94 competition for a housing scheme in Liege, Belgium and an FX Award for remodelling a barn in Kent. He was director Harper Mackay, large architectural practice well known for designing advertising agencies and hotels (with Philippe Stark). Designed a new hotel development in Piccadilly, numerous private houses and broadcasting studios for SMG. 2002 Hanson & Confederates designed two buildings for Notting Hill Prep School, many houses and extensions, basements and refurbishments throughout London. 2008 won an AIS Gold Medal for a fit-out of top floor of the Gherkin in the City. 2012 renamed Hanson Architects, currently working on several large private houses in Notting Hill, house in Scotland, basements and schools. Elected to the Council of the RIBA in 2002 and 2005, Chairman of RIBA London from 2006 to 2010 runner-up to Ruth Reed in the election for RIBA President in 2009. Chair of the RIBA Awards Jury for London Region 2007 to 2010. Currently Chair of the London Borough of Wandsworth Design Review Panel. Member of the RIBA, the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland Andrew is a QPR fan!! andrew@hansonarchitects.co.ukhttp://www.hansonarchitects.co.uk

James Simmins has been here in Ladbroke Grove for 25 years, promoting musicians and bands, ensuring their music is seen and heard in local venues.  A talented musician himself, he plays solo as a singer songwriter guitarist, as well as in local bands.  He knows everyone musical, whether famous, infamous or nonentity, and is liked and respected by all for his tireless imput into our much loved music scene. He is one of the prime movers in the design and development of Portobello Live! and is currently working hard on this year's event.  He's also charming, intelligent and well spoken, and would make an excellent interviewee for a podcast on the live music scene in Ladbroke Grove. The Above was written by Irena Halder. James did not disappoint! Great Podcast

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Regimental Wine offer a high quality wine at a competitive price with a personalised label on the bottles of wine that you choose. They can supply you with Red, White, Rose, Sparkling White and Champagne. Following 6 years of active service in the Parachute Regiment and leaving in 2014, Charles Vernon has followed his instinct to provide a service which he has a personal interest in and believes there is a need for. Military cap badge is very special to all who have served. Regimental Wine can supply you with high quality wine with personalised label's unique to regiment's. Charles passion would like nothing better than a good quality bottle of wine to be given to friends and family as a gift with bottles from £8.00. With a minimum order of 1 case (12 bottles), this will provide private events, wedding's, dinner party's, or regimental mess party with a unique high quality wine. Charles VernonRegimental Wines07495 697822info@regimentalwine.co.uk

 The Venture Community Association (VCA) was established in 1960 and comprises; the oldest Adventure Playground in UK delivering OFSTED registered children’s services, a purpose-built Steel Panyard and a thriving Community Centre.  The community centre, the Venture Centre, delivers adult and community learning, a healthy living programme and community events. They work in partnership with several local organisations, most notably: Nova New Opportunities Clement James Centre Open Age Westway Trust Al Hasaniya Moroccan Women’s Centre Dalgarno Neighbourhood Trust Meanwhile Gardens Their playground, the Notting Hill Adventure Playground, offers free supervised adventure play for local children aged 5-15. They complement the play provision with arts and crafts, a sports programme, cooking classes and regular trips. Their panyard is currently home to the Glissando Steel Orchestra, a world renowned steel band directed by the master pan maker Bertrand Parris. I interviewed Naami Padi and the wait was worth it. http://www.venturecentre.org.uk Download | iTunes