Cassius

If we're going to talk about REALLY unfriendly then I'd like to vote for the women that run the salad stall and the bread stall on North Cross Road market. One of them is OK, but the others show no interest in serving you and then look down their noses at you as if to say 'Only spending ?5 - what a cheapskate!' One time I was there the two stalls were having a barny and didn't even stop to serve their customers.

Good luck with the pub. One suggestion if you are going to do Sunday Roasts - please try and provide something a bit more imaginative that veggie sausages for us veggies!

I agree with the positive comments on Dulwich DIY - I think they're great, always helpful and friendly.

I really like the Brixton Bar and Grill (if its still around) - sadly I can find it by walking but don't know the name of the street that it is on - but very close to the Academy.

I think the staff in Moxtons are probably the friendliest and the most helpful staff I've ever come across - always a cooking suggestion, a joke etc whenever I go in there. In fact my consumption of fish has gone up since they've opened as I enjoy going there once a week! And no I don't have any connection to the shop!

They are a bit strange in there to say the least (and not the cheapest) but they have a good range of stock.

I remember going to the CC when I was just visiting London about 25 years ago - I was very impressed then.....

The cookshop sells some really nice wine glasses and they are not too expensive- and whether it's poncey of me or not, I think wine tastes a lot nicer from a good glass than it does from a tacky one. As for IKEA....................

Alternatively have a house in ED AND a house abroad Just a thought!

I would recommend anything by Orhan Pamuk - just finished Snow and read My Name is Red earlier in the year, next is his Istanbul - which are memories of the city.

A record shop A second hand book shop (with decent 1st editions etc - I can dream) An Italian (not pizza) restaurant A Halifax (need mini statements - sorry)

I bought a jacket from Moo2 reduced from ?140 to ?10! It was black linen and size 6 - maybe that's why it was in the sale!

I honestly don't think you know how you would react when something like that actually happens. Sometimes fear can act like adrenalin and spur you into action, and sometimes it leaves you unable to move - you literally are 'frozen with fear'. I'd like to think that I would be brave and help someone else, but the mind and body don't always act in accordance with each other.

Hi Blue10 Just wanted to add that I'm glad you're ok. It must have been very frightening for you.

barrymarshall wrote: > > The funny thing about the gentrification argument > I hear in ED is that we have Barclays and HSBC, > Somerfield, Budgens and Iceland, all big national > chains and people don't complain about those, but > a Cafe Nero or White Stuff or Foxtons do cuase > outrage. I think certainly in my case that's because all those chain stores were there before I was, so didn't think about them in the same way. Cafe Nero I feel is unnecessary because there are already small, independent coffee shops which offer a similar service. But you are right, it is illogical.

I think the staff in the Cheese Block are great, much more friendly than the ED Deli (in my opinion). The Health Food shop staff are (again in my opinion) like most staff in health food shops - in need of a decent meal/fag/drink.

Gentrification - good or bad. Good in the fact that there is a far greater selection of bars/shops/restaurants etc to please more tastes. Good for the selfish reason that my house is worth considerably more than my mortgage. Bad in that it may probably start to attract even more chain stores such as Cafe Nero and the White Stuff thus detracting from what made it good in the first place. Bad in that the high house prices change the demographic of the people moving in here - there is a less diverse mixture of people than there was several years ago.

Not being funny but I am sure I've heard of a postie suing because he hurt his hand in one of those 'snappy' letter boxes - or was I hallucinating and/or reading the Daily Mail?

Mr Liu's always used to be full of the cast from the Bill when I used to go there many moons ago? Is it still?

SeanMacGabhann Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Exmouth? Dear Leap pub? Torquay - the London Inn - a Wetherspoons pub that is so bad that Wetherspoons changed it into a Lloyds (?) Just don't go in if you are over 17 - or unless you want to pick someone up under 17 (each to their own). One point though - we took my partners 17 year old niece and her boyfriend out to a couple of pubs in ED and in both establishments their ages were asked (as they were literally only 3 months off their 18th's I lied!). They have both been drinking in Torquay without question since they were 15.

Try Small Town England - thinking of a Devonshire coastal town in particular. Gangs of feral 16 year olds - girls in less clothes than I want to think about in mid-winter (do the young not feel the cold?). Peeing in gutters, vomiting in gutters, passing out in gutters (they do seem to pick on gutters I notice!). I had to walk my 65 year old stepmother home - she is as feisty as hell, but no match for these kids. My partner moved up to ED from Devon 4 years ago and is delighted how safe it feels in comparison.

The problem does seem to be a predominantly British or at least Northern European one. I have spent some time in Mediterranean countries where drinking is mainly confined to meals. Young people gather in large groups in Italy, France and Spain as they do here, but there it is perceived to be terribly 'uncool' be to drunk rather than 'clever'. The Government cites the cheapness of alcohol here, but you can buy a litre of very drinkable wine in the supermarket in Italy for 1 Euro! You just don't get 14 years olds buying it and necking in the park. I've been in East Dulwich for 20 years too (August bank holiday just gone), and felt that the gentrification has made it much safer - before I began reading this forum!!! Perhaps we've now gone beyond gentrification into trendification (is that a word) and have to take the consequences. Just as long as it doesn't affect the house prices eh!

Hi My bad experience of The Green was quite a long time ago, but I've not been back. It was during one of those 'special offers' in conjunction with one of the National newspapers, where you collected vouchers and got a special menu plus a glass of wine for ?10 or something similar. OK - so we were not spending as much money as some of the other customers, but if you don't want to do these promotions don't. We were put in a small, cold back room by ourselves (presumably so we wouldn't infect the other full-paying customers with our stinginess), and basically ignored even though the restuarant was almost totally empty. The food we got was acceptable at best and the service was appalling. Whether or not I am paying ?10 or ?100 I am still a paying customer and do not wish to be treated with total contempt. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Not such bad treatment in Le Chardon, but it is nothing to write home about.

Cassius - would have to disagree with the assertion that mugging is a purely British phenomenon. Sorry I meant that keying nice cars is a british phenomenon - not mugging. As others say they will probably get a slap on the wrist. I was mugged at Elephant and Castle several years ago and although the police were great and one of the toerags that did it was caught by a brave passer by who chased him (and got my bag back) in the end because they were under a certain age nothing happened. They might have only been 14 but the impact made on my head as they smashed it into the pavement to make me let my bag go was no different to how it would have been if they were 16.

You must be joking - they were well scary and far bigger than me!