Save Stoke Newington
Chain restaurants in this country are a depressingly familiar sight. However tasty the fare they can never beat the quality and ambience of your best local eaterie, but still they keep on coming. Luckily more people are taking a stand against the homogenisation of the high street, with a North London campaign recently making the news.
Stoke Newington locals are campaigning against plans for chicken restaurant Nando’s to set up shop in Church Street, an eclectic area currently home to such gems as bakery The Spence, serving “the best bread of all time”, and family-run cafe/restaurant The Blue Legune with its “healthy big portions” and “community feel”.
Apart from changing the personality of a street packed with independent businesses, allowing a multinational in to the area will raise rents for everyone. And as we’ve seen all over ‘clone Britain’, this is what quickly puts passionate independent shops and restaurants out of business.
We think high praise is in order for the No More Chains In Church Street campaigners - if we don’t make the effort to stand against these attacks on the local businesses that make London so unique they could all too quickly be stolen from us. If you agree you can sign the Boycott Nando’s petition here.
Do you live in Stoke Newington? Are you worried by the march of the multinationals? We want to know all about what makes your favourite local grocer, cafe or restaurant so great…hey, it might just inspire your neighbours to support their local businesses too. Click here to start posting reviews on Trusted Places - we can’t wait to start reading them.
Photo credit: Little chicken by hddod (CC License)
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Thanks so much for this article. So many people are getting it wrong, saying that the campaign is about white middle class nimbyism. Not so. I am black, under 30 and live in the area and love being able to shop in independent shops run by local people, there is a real sense of community and diversity. Imagine only ever being able to buy your groceries in one of the big 4, and only being able to eat in chain restaurants. What will that do to competition, choice and community? I think it’s time people took a stand and I am really proud of my community and the people who are prepared to stand up for choice and the small retailer and be counted.
May 4th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
This is a noble cause to be fighting and I am delighted to hear about the action that the Campaigners in Stoke Newington are making. I hope they have success and will follow with interest. ‘Clone Britain’ is not a place I want to live. One of the main reasons I use TrustedPlaces is to support the interesting and individual places that I find. Hopefully we can do something to stop the boringification of Britain.
June 12th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Why no objection to Rasa, a chain with restaurants across London? Or international chains like Oddbins, Savills, Ladbrokes or Whole Foods, the owners of Fresh and Wild? Or British chains such as Massive Pubs, owners of The Lion or Next Move?
Why would a chicken restaurant put a bakery like the Spence, in a completely different market, out of business? Or the Blue Legume whose range of lines and prices, and therefore clientele, are of a completely different order to Nando’s? The Parlour, Lemon Monkey and the Tea Rooms are all new, independent catering businesses that show every sign of thriving with or without Nando’s. The only shops that could possibly be threatened are Peri-World, another chain, selling the same goods, and Lydia, which has shown signs of faltering for some time.
Most of the commercial spaces in Church Street are too small or awkardly shaped to be viable as branches of Tesco’s, Starbucks and all the other rumours we’ve had. And it’s not if so there are no empty properties for them to move into.
I have no interest in whether Nando’s survives or not on Church Street. If people want it, it will; if there’s no space in the market for it, it won’t. As someone who uses independent businesses on Church Street every day, I’m happy to shop there though it costs more that shopping at chain stores. But Nando’s is not the thin end of the wedge, because the wedge is already pretty big. Nor is it the harbinger of ‘Clone Britain’ - not without demolishing most of the buildings in Church Street.
November 24th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Hi,
I have a Nandos Boycott website :
http://www.boycottnandos.com
Please support our movement.
Thanks.