Brixton news, rumours and general chat - September 2012

[mizfick]

Been renting for years and years and probably will be renting for years and years more to come, at this rate there...argh! Who are these people with so much money to invest?? There will be no London left for Londoners to live in, dammit. But I'll likely log into the Brixton blog from Bognor anyway to keep up with the news....

 

[editor]

And another thing, you ponces with your "real ale bars" selling 30 types of overpriced dirty dish water, YOU'RE just as much a part of this gentrification problem. What we need is a bigger, more prominent Wetherspoon, real drinks, for real people, at real prices.

Prefer independent/smaller brewery boozers myself rather then mega chains.
We've got enough enormo-chains in Brixton already.

British pubs firm JD Wetherspoon Plc posted a 6 percent rise in full-year profit on Friday and said trading in its new financial year had begun with a healthy boost from the Olympics.

The company, which has over 800 pubs across Britain, said pretax profit before exceptional items for the year to July 29 was 72.4 million pounds ($116.69 million), compared to 66.8 million pounds in 2011 and ahead of an average forecast of 69.12 million according to Reuters poll of 16 analysts.

 

[Brixton Hatter]

Been renting for years and years and probably will be renting for years and years more to come, at this rate there...argh! Who are these people with so much money to invest?? There will be no London left for Londoners to live in, dammit. But I'll likely log into the Brixton blog from Bognor anyway to keep up with the news....

I reckon most of the traditional terraces around central Brixton are buy-to-let now. My road is stuffed full of "To Let" signs and barely a day goes past without seeing some young besuited kid with a mobile stuck to his ear and a branded car showing people round "properties". Prices are mental - Foxtons will make it worse. A return to a kingdom of Lords and Serfs

 

[Orang Utan]

The piano at Herne Hill Station is a wonderful thing. Every time I have passed it someone had been playing it and playing it well. It's ace. How long has it been there and is it a permanent fixture?

 

[Orang Utan]

And are these murals at Loughborough Junction new? I haven't spotted them before:

 

[snowy_again]

Yup, came as part of the LJAG http://www.loughboroughjunction.co.uk/ and the Seven Bridges project as far as I know: http://www.7-bridges.org/10 news & events/08-news.html

But then, I only recognise three of the people in the top mural.

 

[Ms Ordinary]

The piano at Herne Hill Station is a wonderful thing. Every time I have passed it someone had been playing it and playing it well. It's ace. How long has it been there and is it a permanent fixture?

I'm hoping it may be there for keeps - apparently the pianos were scattered around central London over the summer as part of some festival* (I never saw one).

I think the ones turning up now are 'retired' pianos .

(eta presumably the City of London Festival, whatever that is - I've just noticed it written on the side of the piano)

 

[trabuquera]

Apart from the known facts about Foxton's being a nest of spivvy crooked profiteering parasites, there is no shortage of estate agents in Brixton and the ones which are closest to this proposed site are precisely the more locals ones (haart and Martin Barry). There's Nationwide or whatever it is only doors away. Whereas there aren't many places equivalent to Speedy Noodle around (perhaps thankfully, perhaps not.) This is VERY BAD NEWS for the high street.

 

[qosno1]

I'm happy that it's opening but I do feel a bit sorry for the Crown & Anchor.

I know what you mean but for me it might make me use the crown and anchor a bit more. I usually find the crown and anchor a bit far but now I can imagine myself having a couple in the craft beer then carrying on to the crown and anchor. It'll be my boozy base camp before i scale the ale everest of brixton road.

 

[Rushy]

I remember when people said Brixton was being gentrified because of a noodle bar opening up on the high street

What was it before Speedy? Kings, wasn't it? A regular stop on the way back from the Dog Star where they served bright red chicken tikka, stains of which still remain on the kitchen worktop...

 

[Rushy]

I've heard Brew Dog have signed a lease on the old Brixton Cycles site.

 

[Chilavert]

I know what you mean but for me it might make me use the crown and anchor a bit more. I usually find the crown and anchor a bit far but now I can imagine myself having a couple in the craft beer then carrying on to the crown and anchor. It'll be my boozy base camp before i scale the ale everest of brixton road.

As a resident of SW2 (aah the rarefied air) I find the Crown and Anchor a pain in the arse to get to (yes I am lazy).

I can get the bus back from work and stop off for a drink, but the last time I tried this they couldn't open on time because 'they didn't have any change for the till'. I haven't been back since.

 

[Ms Ordinary]

What was it before Speedy? Kings, wasn't it? A regular stop on the way back from the Dog Star where they served bright red chicken tikka, stains of which still remain on the kitchen worktop...

Kings Rice N Spice who also (briefly) had an mini-offshoot on Abbeville Road, of all places.

 

[Ms Ordinary]

Foxtons

 

[editor]

Here's what Speedy Noodles used to look like way before it became noodleified.

http://www.urban75.org/brixton/history/506brixtonroad.html

 

[Rushy]

Kings Rice N Spice who also (briefly) had an mini-offshoot on Abbeville Road, of all places.

Rice'n'Spice. Yeah! I was gutted when that closed. Never ate there sober, mind...

 

[Badgers]

As a resident of SW2 (aah the rarefied air) I find the Crown and Anchor a pain in the arse to get to (yes I am lazy).

I can get the bus back from work and stop off for a drink, but the last time I tried this they couldn't open on time because 'they didn't have any change for the till'. I haven't been back since.

It is my closest pub apart from the Hero of Switzerland on Loughborough Road which I not yet drunk in. So far the Crown & Anchor have been excellent in service every (10-15) times I have been there. Never once had a problem.

 

[quimcunx]

I demand you try the Hero of Switzerland for size.

 

[Orang Utan]

It has a flat roof

 

[quimcunx]

I don't really know what reaction to have to that.

 

[Badgers]

I dunno. I did walk down there one day, peeked through the door but could not work out if the place was open, being refitted, demolished or I would be dead before I reached the bar.

 

[twistedAM]

I don't really know what reaction to have to that.

Don't you know in OU World, all flat roof pubs have strippers, fights over pool tables and no real ale.

 

[Orang Utan]

There are only two flat roofed pubs that aren't horrorshow and they are both in Brixton

 

[Badgers]

Anyone drink in The Hero?

 

[quimcunx]

I've only found one review.

It definitely wasn't written by the owner.

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/pubsandbars/hero-of-switzerland-userreview-11880.html

 

[TruXta]

8 years old too.

 

[Badgers]

@editor must have drunk in there? in the interest of Brixton and journalism.

 

[TruXta]

@editor must have drunk in there? in the interest of Brixton and journalism.

Too normal for him.

 

[Crispy]

I used to drink in The Hero when I lived near Oval. It's a pub, that's all I can really remember. Oh and it has the crests of all the swiss cantons inside.

 

[editor]

@editor must have drunk in there? in the interest of Brixton and journalism.

I popped in once. Didn't like it. Left.

I'll try and give it another go soon.