Phil Cowan

TRIBUTES have been made to a one-of-a-kind campaigner, neighbour, friend, uncle and brother who will be remembered for his unwavering optimism, empathy and determination to help people.

Phil Cowan passed away aged 57 on Sunday March 23, from cancer.

The impact he had on the Primrose Hill community, where he lived and campaigned for many years until his death, and the countless rough sleepers he helped through his tireless volunteering with Streets Kitchen, is difficult to quantify, his friends shared this week.

“He was the best of us,” fellow Streets Kitchen volunteer Stephanie Levy told the New Journal this week.

“He was incredibly generous and kind. It’s very hard for us to think about continuing doing [the outreach shift] without him because he brought something that only he can bring.”

Mr Cowan grew up in Edinburgh with his sisters Pauline and Jenny and moved to London aged 18 to study acting at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts.

His younger sister Pauline Cowan told the New Journal: “When he moved down it was very evident that he loved London, and he was never, ever going to come back.

“I had great fun with him visiting him in London, and in Edinburgh when we were teenagers. He loved going clubbing. He would take longer to do his hair than he actually spent at the club. He had probably one of the very first pairs of straighteners. I think he’s still got them. He’d listen to Kate Bush, Madonna, David Bowie, Toyah very loud when he was getting ready.”

Mr Cowan got a few jobs in TV programmes, and played an extra in a film about Charlie Chaplin, but when work dried up he started a business selling antique furniture in Camden Market. It later became a shop called Boom in Chalk Farm Road.

“He always had a passion for antiques, art and vintage objects,” Ms Cowan said.

He later opened a shop in Regent’s Park Road called Primrose Hill Interiors, where Cowshed currently is, whose clients included Madonna and Ricky Gervais.

He moved from Belsize Park to his beloved Primrose Hill and fell in love with the area.

“He cared greatly about Primrose Hill. It was like he’d found his home,” his close friend Simon Happily said.

“He was a community campaigner with various things over the years, trying to protect the independent businesses in the area and fighting off Starbucks and reopening the Albert Pub. He was a campaigner for Mary Portas on the high street. She did various programmes on trying to turn businesses around.”

He also campaigned for Lucy’s Law in 2018, which limits puppy farming, and was invited to Downing Street.

Michael Hudspeth, chief executive of the Primrose Hill Community Association, said: “I can say that Phil was Primrose Hill through and through, he was always a huge help in the community when it came to campaigning, fundraising or just looking out for others in the area. He’ll be hugely missed in the area.”

His home in Albert Terrace, where he lived with his two Jack Russell dogs Rex and Tinkerbell, was very much an extension of Mr Cowan’s artistic eye.

“He expressed so much of his personality through his belongings. It’s covered in his art and mid-century furnishings. Everything is quite dramatic, deep red and black. He did a lot of his own paintings as well,” Ms Cowan said.

When Mr Cowan closed his interior design shop he turned to voluntary work and joined homelessness outreach organisation Streets Kitchen.

He could be found every Sunday evening in Camden Town, serving the most decadent hot chocolate to guests and going above and beyond to help others.

Ms Cowan added: “He really enjoyed living in Primrose Hill. He never wanted to leave here. He’d give us little walking tours of the area and say who lives here and who lives there, that sort of thing. Streets Kitchen, anything to do with the community, he was definitely very, very passionate about.”

Ms Levy, who volunteered alongside Mr Cowan every Sunday for the past five years, said: “Some guests came just so that Phil would serve them. He always remembered how everyone wanted their coffee. Guests would always ask when he wasn’t around.

“He never complained even when he was ill. The impact cancer had on him was dramatic, but even when he knew it was bad he said ‘don’t worry about me’. It’s very, very sad.

“He was an incredibly unique person. He would take guests to meetings, take people to Routes Off the Streets, and try to get them into shelter.”

Mr Happily said a few weeks before Mr Cowan died he was at his flat looking after him when someone knocked on the door.

“Phil wasn’t very well but he made it to the door and he came back in tears and told me what happened,” he said.

“This guy had moved up north and had spent ages trying to track Phil down. He vaguely remembered where Phil lived and knocked on people’s doors until he found his flat.

“He used to be homeless and Phil had turned his life around.

“He was no longer on the streets and was working at a homeless project. He said he thought about Phil every day and wanted to thank him.”

Mr Cowan would “always end up buying lots of stuff out of his own money” for outreach: marshmallows, squirty cream.

“He wanted things to be done properly,” Mr Happily said.

“He would often write a tweet [about homelessness] on a piece of paper before posting it.”

Ms Levy said she admired Mr Cowan for his optimism. She said: “He spoke about politics in a positive way, in a way that he wanted things to be better and we have to engage, not in a complaining way.”

Mr Happily said: “He’s going to be enormously missed. He was a real sun worshipper. With the lovely weather we’re having, I think every sunny day like this, ‘Phil would have a loved it’.”

Mr Cowan is survived by his sisters Pauline and Jenny and two nieces and two nephews.