My dream of immortality has been dashed, CabbieBlog’s birthplace has been demolished and the old Middlesex Hospital site is being redeveloped.

In a re-branding exercise unmatched since Datsun decided to pick Cherry as their new car’s name (either you were driving a small red fruit or making a statement on your virginity), there’re calling the development NoHo.

[S]ituated a quarter of a mile north from Soho the title presumably comes from being ‘Not Soho’. Soho derives its name from the cry given by hunters in the forest originally situated there, when their quarry had been spotted. Similar to today’s cry of Tally Ho!

So NoHo must have the opposite connotation ‘no quarry spotted’, presumably for disappointed property hunters.

The residents in the area are enraged at this blatant attempt to rename this area known as Fitzrovia.

The old hospital has now been demolished, except for a range of buildings on Nassau Street. Now the development is currently on hold after Candy and Candy, the interior developers, left the development, leaving the site in the hands of the Kaupthing Bank.

In its place a perimeter hoarding in black has been erected, giving both colour and texture to this otherwise featureless area, a marked improvement to the elegant Edwardian building that it now replaces.

Walking past the site, I noticed recently a further twist to the areas’ gentrification, the name NoHo has been removed from the sleek black hoardings. But at least the black looks cool.