JoeChuff

agree and disagree - it's more like a sanitised version of a shoreditch bar. i mean this in a good way, it's sanitised of the worst excesses of shoreditch, but keeps the good bits: really good music (although usually too loud) and good decor. i don't go there all that often but i would be sad to see it disappear, it adds to the variety of the bar scene in ED. Also they serve Brooklyn Lager and Samuel Adams, two good American lagers (such a thing does exist, honest!) that are hard to find.

i totally agree, this is such a stupid practice. I went once and actually thought the food was very good, but every single other thing about that place put me off.

barry road is the last line of defence against the ghetto boys! at least according to maps published in the national media recently.

erm... does having a cop shop nearby not act as a deterrent to crime? i mean, i don't know. but i feel safer knowing it's there, living on barry road.

i don't think it's even a political/anti-capitalist argument (what is more capitalist than small independent businesses, after all), it's just a question of style. Chains just have a rubbishy feel to them. Even if GBK donated all its profits to Amnesty International and gave its employees three years' paid maternity leave, it would still just be a bit rubbish. There is definitely a sliding scale - i was mortified when Cafe Nero moved in, but I remained thankful that at least it wasn't a Pret or a Starbucks. Strada is just on the edge, I think. But the Sea Cow is fine, as would be a Bodean's. These opinions are based purely on my own level of snobbery. (The worst are the chains that try to emulate an "independent" atmosphere - at least Favourite Chicken et al are honest. I hate being aggressively marketed to - I have more respect for a place that says, this is what we do, if you like it, great, if not, go somewhere else.) And on a community level, variety is nice for its own sake - no need for us to become a mini-Clapham.

I know this guy as "Prince Charles Man": I first met him on a P13, Prince Charles Man was welcoming everyone onto the bus as though it were his: "Hello, welcome, come on to my bus, have a seat." People getting off the bus, by contrast, would be shouted at: "Get the f*** off my bus!! Go on, get off, you can't stay on my bus!" He clearly decided that I looked like a trustworthy type, because after a while he sat opposite me and admitted that it wasn't really his bus, but people still listened to him because he was "a big black b*stard". He then explained that the bus actually belonged to Prince Charles, and went off on a lengthy monologue about the relative merits of Diana and Camilla, and the parentage of Prince Harry. Since then every time I see him, the subject of Prince Charles seems to come up.