Michael Palaeologus

There is something of the King Canute here. ED is not an island. The influx of new, young and moneyed people will attract the retailers. I dont think LL will end up as a homogenous line of chain stores simply because there isnt THAT much money in the area and there are already enough chains on the Lane (banks, building socs, estate agents, supermarkets, etc). Many of the indies are on the side streets and it would seem that there is a very specific niche market who actively seek out indies rather than chains. My experience of the Blue Mountain Cafe on Saturday did not betray a business on its uppers.

Mick McManus a personal favourite. There was a cap who knew who he was.

I dont think that we should be all together surprised. We are sandwiched between Peckham (Dodge City) and Brixton (Tombstone) so some wash-over crime is inevitable.

I still have my teddy-bear (called "Ted") and my Panda (called "Panda") from babyhood - could they be my "little ones" and so could I come to the young mum's coffee morning? Panda still has Vicks stains on him from when I had cold and was convinced that Panda had one as well. Sounds fab!!

I put my head round the door of the BMC this morning and then ran away - packed full of lovely young mothers and children. Scary. I will try elevenses on Monday - might be safer.

I went in there to buy a few books on the Dulwich Book Club reading list. They didnt have any, so I bought them at Waterstnes and got 3 for the price of 2. They have the Book Club poster up on the info board and getting the reading list for the next year is easy. They just need to smarten their act up a bit. Perhaps if Waterstones or Books etc opened up on LL (next to Cafe Nero?) Chener would react positively to the competition? HoHo.

You an probably get such a thing in the Blue Mountain Caff - Horse Burger with exotic salads and flakes of parmesan, a snip at ?9.80.

God bless you and all your works in the western outback.

A compromise - the inside stays the same, the outside has a lick of paint. I will pop in tomorrow and have a coffee at Cafe Nero.

Blimey D-M. I look forward to your next dispatch from the front line. Be careful out there.

Ah, the grassy knoll. Oh blimey, not a book repository thing surely? How spooky.

Its all round to D-Ms for coffee then. Sounds like she has every coffee gadget known to mankind.

Sounds like WITCHCRAFT to me. Burn him on the Green!!

I dont think that they can be condemned for a bit of marketing puff! They serve expresso and latte and all that other Italian stuff.

Much as I hate to be an idiot - but where is this oasis?

I sit on the fece here. The issue with the corporates is that they can act in an anti-competative way - under-cutting pricing to an extent that they force out the local indies, use their big marketing budgets to drown out the locals and sometimes force suppliers to cease supplying the local competition. There are then the bigger trading isues of the extent to which they force the suppliers of raw materials to drop their prices to subsistance levels. Clearly, we dont know what Caffe Nero are like in these areas. Undertaking a development without planning permission, especially one that creates a noise nuisance is bad though. Having said all of that Iwould not object to Caffe Nero or Starbucks or whoever purely on the basis of them being who they are. Local shops and suppliers are potentially just as capable of exploiting their customers, if they have a monopoly. What we need is a strong but flexible planning committee that is influenced by common sense, not by politico-economic dogma.

I still limp from the last time.

I dont go to that kind of forum ..... :)

Fora

There are a few Forum's out there! Clue!!

Give us a clue - there's a few out there!

Is it footie related?

Flog him !!!

Take ownership of it Shambles, make it your own

Oh, him.