Huguenot

Lol erm.. yeah.. right.. that's because Peckham was gentrified before East Dulwich, and then they got the chain stores? Lol

Don't panic cap'n! In reality a 14% return rate on an unsolicited mail drop is actually extremely high - typical return expectations would be 1% - 3%. This is probably why they didn't need the booster sample. Think about the amount of junk mail you recycle without ever looking at it (probably 80% if you're like me), and then all the other complicating factors. If this survey was for me I'd be impressed by the results.

Is that Mr. QZ? I always thought it was Ms. I do apologise if I've been pulling the wrong bell :) I found Walsh to be well priced and pretty efficient, I think it is wise of them to recognise that they don't need a high street boutique for such a niche product. Sensible chaps, and it'll keep prices down for those who need their services! Peter Walsh is indeed a very nice man. James, I think you'll find, was being flamboyantly dismissive in a camp kind of way. Ibo and Michael you do need to turn on your sense of humour, it's that switch, right... erm... there

Actually - not quite all the possiblities... If a thread drops over a page leaving an unread post at the bottom of the previous page, and of course several unread posts on the follow on page, clicking on 'last post' will mark all on the follow on page as 'read' whilst leaving an orphan unread post that can be a real tricky bugger to locate. No amount of flicking through the threads appears to expose it... Especially if it's from Snorky.

I'm always entertained by this unresolved 'sh*t' pub observation - what exactly can you mean? The outside decor of the most changed pubs - the forresters, palmerston, uplands or magdala for example - was peeling, dirty paint and broken, rusted, stained windows, so I can't imagine that a lick of paint and a tidy actually makes that worse Likewise the inside decor of these pubs was stained, stinking carpets, broken chairs, ripped upholstery and nicotine stained ceilings. Hence I can't believe that you feel a tidy up on this decor would actually make it worse either. Julie, you toss the word 'food' out like it's an insult. I'd hazard that the priorities with food are that it is healthy, nutritious, widely available and full of variety. Hence its availability in a pub simply gives you options, you don't actually have to eat it if you don't want it. So to hate a pub because it gives you more options is, well, peculiar. The beer's still there, albeit with wider options, and at prices that reflect the pricing right across London. The 'Claphamisation' you refer to is not imposed upon ED, it's a consequence of businesses bringing goods and services which the local population like to spend their cash on. So if all that is better, much the same or outside our control, then you will forgive the readers of this forum for coming to the conclusion that what Julie really hates is the people. So Keef, what the respondents are saying is not that Julie isn't entitled to her view, but that they are disappointed by her unnecessary, thinly veiled and very personal attack on them. An attack on their appearance, their values, their taste, their friends, the food they eat, the beer they drink, the conversations they have. It's just, you know, unpleasant. No wonder Sydney wasn't up to scratch, maybe they're too nice to accept that kind of attitude?

Do you know, even Richard Dawkins, an otherwise anti-faith campaigner, was a staunch believer in teapotism. He was drawn particularly to its pacific and inclusive nature: "The reason [other] organized religion merits outright hostility is that, unlike belief in [Dulwich Mum]'s teapot, religion is powerful, influential, tax-exempt and systematically passed on to children too young to defend themselves. "Children are not compelled to spend their formative years memorizing loony books about teapots. Government-subsidized schools don't exclude children whose parents prefer the wrong shape of teapot. "Teapot-believers don't stone teapot-unbelievers, teapot-apostates, teapot-heretics and teapot-blasphemers to death. Mothers don't warn their sons off marrying teapot-shiksas whose parents believe in three teapots rather than one. People who put the milk in first don't kneecap those who put the tea in first." Persuasive eh? And that's coming from me a devout pastafarian. Or not. Whatever's convenient.

Incidentally DM, whilst I hope I'm too polite to press gang you to share my own convictions, Bertrand Russell once constructed a very convincing argument for the worship of a teapot, which I would imagine may be right up your street (as it were...)! He does highlight the need for both persistence and the passage of time, but hey, you only get out what you put in: "If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. "But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time." Now there's one for the playgroup.... ;-)

I'm afraid that my own deity, consisting largely of eggs and wheat, would likely look down his noodly appendage at a fad that precluded said consumption - take, eat, this is my body, said he: FSM. Fasting would be like rejecting the communion, one should not waste good eggs on pancakes. However, I shall consult Him directly through a moment of quiet contemplation, but I suspect His recommendation will match exactly what I want to do anyway, which is go down the pub. However, it will be His recommendation that I use to persuade others of this course of action, and thus increase my hold over them. I may even crown myself Pontifex Maximus to convey to others the close personal dialogue I share with Him.

Pffft....

Buttocks Chortle

squid should have worked in tentacle support

DM this is an outrage, can you really have Franklin's Rarebit in Lent? Cheese, beer and probably a Dire Straits theme? Bread, you monkey, and let's be glad if the sun rises tomorrow...

I believe that mutton is usually used instead of goat because of price and availability

I used to see that bird from Texas (the band not the sparsely populated mental asylum) in Franklin's all the time

Oh well, yes and not yes. Nobody likes guns and fifteen year olds getting popped, but these are excpetionally small numbers in a city of 11 million souls. Socially retarded modern gang culture? Does no-one remember football hooliganism? Mods and rockers? Fagin? Drugs and decline? Does no-one remember Pinks and Blues? Opium? Laudanum? Crikey we even perpetrated international mass murder to keep narcotic markets open for the Imperial good. Disaffection? I distinctly remember experimenting with Molotov cocktails as a youth, shooting pigeons with an air rifle and hanging round telephone boxes smoking cigarettes (yes, really... ;-)). I reckon it's a normal part of growing up? Depression and isolation? Hardly modern phenomena. Broadly I don't reckon we should feel overwhelmed by this - society is simply demonstrating it's many facets as it has done across the ages. I'm with Paul Holdsworth - reclaim the streets, get out of your car, chat with your neighbours, go to the pub, build up local social networks, go to Cinema Paradiso, get ED Comedy back. But whatever happens, we shouldn't sit trembling in our front rooms worrying about the world going to pot outside the front door - it just ain't happening.

Nutty's gotta be on the right track here... ED is exceptional! What's your point of comparison? South Ken? Peckham? The Savoy Grill? I feel warm inside when I return from my travels! Sara, please ignore Ibo, he's a lonely soul and wouldn't even be happy if he could walk deserted streets shouting at lampposts. The grass is always greener elsewhere for our resident nutter; ;-) you can take a horse to happy pills, but you can't... I always reckoned the first way we judged a local restaurant is whether it's better or worse than we can generate at home, followed by whether the ingredients, preparation, service and environment justify the outlay. Then there's always the convenience factor. Places like Upstairs at the EDT, Chopsticks and oddly enough The Green always went out the window for me on the first criterion, but blundered back into contention on the final one :) I would reckon that beacon of culinary excellence El Paso harks back to the time when for most locals the mysteries of the orient meant a donkey with a sombrero (apologies mockney), but can be very much enjoyed when combined with a Homer Simpson tie and a post ironic rendition of the chicken song! Many of the others beat the West End hands down on the full combination of factors. Surely there's not a big enough catchment area to sustain 'novelty' restaurants? That's just a factor of suburbia, and they're not in ED for the same reason we don't have a Japanese Noh Theatre. Franklin's is quite excellent, and I find their devilled kidneys positively surprising every time I try them. Fiercely reliable British cooking. Offally good. You'd have to go as far west as Battersea or as far east as Canterbury to find as good a combination of restaurants.

Now that's an idea..... batdog, isn't this your area of ambition??

Ermm.. ::o Jenny... you were smelling the barbies on the top shelf?? Isn't that a crime?

Go Paul! On a most important, and less divisive point, it is not the wealthy incomers to ED that are stockpiling cars... Review several other postings to identify long-term resident car hoarders... ;-)

Sorry guys :'( In foreign climes temporarily - an Italian mountain hideaway. I shall hopefully find time shortly to do the write up! However interweb connections few and far between... losing the sig.... hello... he... hell...?

You really should stop teasing us, our fine canine friend! Where are you going? You know you don't have to stay away, that's the beauty of the interweb! Even when I was the wrong side of the great chinese firewall I still kept in touch!

Surely that must be commercial storage!

Interesting contrast with a similar exhibition at the V&A - "Prepuce and Precipitation: Novelty Rainwear in Victorian Clapham"

I'm not sure about the details, there was some talk of an asbo, but I don't believe that was what transpired. It was definitely the fact that he was using the road for commercial storage that got him. I'd probably talk to the CAB as a first stop. I think you could probably demonstrate that five vehicles is beyond personal use. If you could identify him buying or selling either full vehicles or parts on camera that would be an asset. As it happens, residents don't have a 'right' to a parking space on any road (including their own) unless there are specific local regulations - however, you do have a right of access to your own driveway, and the police or traffic wardens can tow vehicles that block it on request. This is probably what's behind the concreting over of some local front gardens. All in all the best possible solution is probably a CPZ - it would also defuse any tension between neighbours, as it would be 'someone else' wot did it.

Reminds me of this shot I found of a typical NYE celebration in ED circa 1906... http://farm1.static.flickr.com/166/389053957_6069419fbd_m.jpg