A good time was had by all on Shrove Tuesday, with West Hamsptead taking centre stage. Hampstead’s creperie was as popular as ever, but it was NW6 where the real action was.
A pancake run was held in Elephant Walk, while a locally-based charity cooked up tens of thousands of pancakes to feed the capital.
The group — called The Kindness Offensive — had stockpiled batter mix before heading from their base in West End Lane, to Soho to feed the masses. The aim was to raise the level of kindness, inspiring people to do kind acts,
says the founding member, David Goodfellow.
His group assembled in a diner in Rupert Street to cook up 50,000 pancakes and hand them out for free. In the spirit of generosity, the event’s supplies were kindly donated by Betty Crocker and McDougall’s.
Meanwhile back on home turf in West Hampstead, the pancake race was being held. The aim is to make this an annual event to bring the community together,
said the organiser Kannan Sivanathan. After a slow start, the race began in earnest with even local community police officers Tracey McRoberts and Matthew O’Reilly taking part.
Pratibha Sahgal, a 57 year old from Seagull Travel Ltd, brought her own pan! She said: The last time I did this I was in high school. It brought back all the memories.
The winner of the race was East Hazimi, a 30-year-old car mechanic from Camden Town. He said afterwards: I enjoyed the race. It was great fun and for a good cause.
After the race, all contestants were offered free pancakes with coconut and honey — a sweet end to a fun occassion.
(Source: Ham & High, Kristian Brunt-Seymour)
