By Dick Bird.

Ten is a good age to be: old enough to know what’s what, but still with exciting times to come. But a tenth anniversary seemed very unlikely when On The Hill first hit the doormats of Primrose Hill. In 2013 the Community Association had been thinking about the nature of community spirit. You can’t see it, you can’t measure it, but you know if you’ve got it. And Primrose Hill has it in smug spades.

It helps that history and geography give us a lot to be proud of. It helps that a culture of activism has embedded here. Not necessarily just in gentrified recent times. The Daily Worker of 6 May 1957 reported that the Chalk Farm Tenants and Residents Association, having organised a Clean Air Week, had petitioned the Queen about the unacceptable health hazards of living with smoke and particles from 28 engines under steam for many hours from Euston. When this was passed to the Minister of Transport, a second letter went off to the Palace claiming the first had gone into a wastepaper basket. Don’t mess with Primrose Hill, then or now.

But for neighbours to join together, whether for quiz nights, yoga or campaigns, they need information. Perhaps because the Community Association existed before it had a building, it has always had a wider brief than just the users of the Community Centre. But how to be in touch? A database of email addresses receiving weekly bulletins was mooted. Then into the discussion swept a new resident, Janet Reuben, fresh from working on establishing Hull as a City of Culture: “We can do better than emails!”

A small group of volunteers formed and planned a simple template: a monthly magazine about Primrose Hill people and issues, professionally produced but run and written by volunteers, delivered free to every household, paid for by advertisements. Ten years later that remains the plan, though issues are no longer monthly. Most of the original volunteers remain, though are older. Step forward anyone reading this who would like to be involved!

There were of course siren voices. “Keeping it going will be harder than starting it.” “You’ll run out of topics to write about.” “People will write rude letters.” Not so. Quickly residents liked seeing places and faces that they sort of knew, basked in a little reflected glory, and enjoyed a gentle read about the issues and campaigns that self-respecting Hillies should care about. On The Hill has become yet another reason to like living here.

The first edition in November 2014 had two deliberate features. One was a profile of Wafa Abou El Hassan, then the front of house manager of Shepherd’s supermarket; the other was a little-known aspect of a famous local resident, the broadcaster Matthew Wright. The former was interesting because this was someone superficially well known to many locals, and in the nicest way an ordinary resident. The latter was a celebrity, and however sniffy and high-minded we might be about that, secretly which of us can resist a little stardust? Especially the classy, intellectual stardust our neighbourhood attracts. You know who I mean: not footballers. Both the unrecognised and the recognised neighbours are important; and the schoolkeeper who might be featured in On The Hill may not be written about elsewhere.

Also featured in the first edition was a map of the area, so amateurishly drawn that it did indeed attract rude letters and was quietly withdrawn. But we introduced a What’s On directory of local events and activities and how to participate, that has continued and grown. It’s a nightmare to produce accurately, but is undoubtedly a valued service. It never fails to illustrate the eclectic nature of our interests, which ranged in 2014 from music based on epic 19th-century whaling to a ‘Love your local leaves’ tree trail. Then there were pictures of dogs − as now, just smaller now. There was a joke about HS2: residents digging out their basements so that a train could stop at their house. Time may have moved slowly since − but rather faster than HS2. And a report of a legal challenge to a planning application for Utopia Village, poignantly echoed today.

So, over the years, On The Hill has chronicled the life and times of our patch. Now online as well, it has raised issues, smiles and eyebrows. Of course there have been bumpy moments, artistic clashes, impecunious periods. But if we are better informed about what is going on, if we can join with our neighbours in stretching our lives and interests, if in just a modest way the people who live in Primrose Hill have a sense of ownership for it and each other, well then, that’s community spirit and On The Hill is on the button. Here’s to the next ten years and beyond.

Now where did you put my draft obituary? Bounced? For a recipe?!

The On The Hill Team

Editor
Maggie Chambers
editor@onthehill.info

Editorial Group
Dick Bird, Doro Marden, Phil Cowan,
Pam White, David Lennon, Mole on the Hill,
Micael Johnstone, Andrew Black

Social Media and Website Editor
Jason Pittock

Subeditors
Brenda Stones, Vicki Hillyard

Cartoon
Bridget Grosvenor

Photographer
Sarah Louise Ramsay
www.slrphotography.co.uk

Design
John Dillon
hello@jwdillon.co.uk

Advertising Sales
Richard Ramsay
ads@onthehill.info