Shops in SG: Are Standards Falling?

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  • edited 12:53PM
    They still have C&A in the Scandi countries, I went in one in Copenhagen it was like being in 'Life on Mars'.
  • edited February 2011
    For those who want their Wimpey restaurant fix, there are still some dotted around London (usually in strange places like Woolwich, Southgate etc). Strangely enough someone mentioned this at work recently . C&A is in Germany too (a more modern version) as is Woolworths. Woolworths is quite shabby though. Well, the one that was near me (I did live in a fairly shabby district) was for certain.
  • edited February 2011
    _"Our price was never much good."_ The one in Romford was awesome I'll have you know. Turned out quite a niche in Dance early 90's before the indie boom took over. Not quite in the same league as JiFS in Chadwell Heath but hey, not bad for Zone 5.
  • edited 12:53PM
    @Kreuzkav, although its a bit of a walk there is an excellent DVD rental place on Archway Road. It's family run, the staff are friendly and highly knowledgeable, they stock an an enormous range of titles and they give away free movie posters.
    Unfortunately they don't do megadrive games, but if anyone wants to borrow Dragons Fury or Road-Rash you can have mine for as long as you like.
  • edited February 2011
    @ David. I'm sure there were some good ones. The ones I encountered weren't very good when it came to what I was looking for. However, a manager can make a big difference to even a chain store. Maybe the ones I encountered were the weakest links. They stocked some good cds but they were always a bit expensive. There were never any branches that near me, so I'd wait until I was in Camden or Berwick st to buy them.
  • edited February 2011
    @topsfield. Thanks and I'll check it out, but as you say it's a bit of a distance and I watch films online and through a postal rental system, which is a bit more convenient. It would be nice to have a nearby store as it's a bit more immediate for the dvds (that sometimes have interesting extra features). Also, I only have a laptop so watching online films is not as good as on my tv screen via a dvd player.
  • edited 12:53PM
    JiFS were amazing, I'd forgotten all about them! Woolworths in Romford did a great line in picture discs.
  • edited 12:53PM
    I third the request for a Stroud Green Wimpy. I don't even know what the nearest Wimpy to Stroud Green is these days. It was probably the one in North Finchley but that's shut down now (not that the Wimpy website has updated its google map accordingly)
  • R&JR&J
    edited 12:53PM
    There used to be a Wimpy down on Seven Sisters Road until around the mid 90's, think it's a Fried Chicken place now (surprise, surprise)

    I've only just moved back into the area before Christmas and was quite excited about living where I grew up again but as the weeks have passed I've realised there isn't as much to offer as I thought there would be.

    Dudleys shutting down is a bit annoying as i used it a few times and found there waffles and milkshakes to be a great hangover cure (well for the time it took to consume them anyway)
  • edited February 2011
    _@miss annie_ Was JiFS owned by Steve Davis? I'm not sure if that was local urban myth or not and it seems too obscure to ascertain even for the interweb.
  • edited 12:53PM
    @David, I think it was a local urban myth but I'm not sure. Everything was said to have something to with Steve Davis in those days.
  • AliAli
    edited 12:53PM
    It is not surprising that you find branches of Clemens & August in Europe as that is where they came from originally in the Nederland’s.. I guess in the UK they couldn’t compete with the fast fashion shops. Maybe we should get Hepworths. I remember buying my first suit there on the tick – brown pinstripe with waistcoat – very fashionable at the time and I am sure I saw something similar on Ashes to Ashes. Ro what ever it is hardware shop moved as he has been able to buy the Freehold of the shop
  • edited 12:53PM
    I follow these rules when coming out of my front door. I turn left and go through SGR towards Finsbury Park to get to work Mon-Fri. At the weekend, regardless of what I want to buy/do/eat locally, I only ever turn right and go to Crouch End for it. I just don't like SGR.

    However, I did like the fabric woman who made me some lovely curtains for my room but now she has gone. Also, I wish that little shop next to Mind that has had a dressing table at a 'reduced' price of 500 pounds in the window since 2007 would just admit defeat and CLOSE. The quality of shops on SGR is pretty poor, and stretches at poor quality for some surprising distance with only the odd gem.
    Like Season though. What a great little idea for an eatery.

    I suppose if I was a muslim wanting meat or a black woman wanting a new clip on hair piece I'd fucking love the area. Depends on what and who you are really, doesn't it? I mean, if I wanted to improve it for myself personally I'd want a gay bar and a rare horror film DVD shop. But you can't EVERYTHING on your doorstop can you?
  • AliAli
    edited 12:53PM
    the fabric woman who made me some lovely curtains for my room but now she has gone yes she has moved up the Road and can be found near to the K Bar
  • edited 12:53PM
    Think the JiFs/Steve Davis thing might have come from the fact that he is mental for prog rock, and has/had a room devoted to storing his records.

    He also mentions 'Marmite', for the benefit of readers of the other thread:
    <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2004/mar/07/snooker.features">Steve Davis - My Obsession</a>
  • edited 12:53PM
    I'd like:

    an old fashioned sweet shop;

    a good cobblers;

    for the gym behind the Old Dairy to open again, but with more variety of classes, at slightly different times and some of the old instructors back (Mel & Natasha);

    market stalls selling good seasonal fruit and veg (not 'a pound for a bowl'), flowers, bread, cheeses and fish;

    a fancy dress costume shop, like the one in Mr Benn;

    a Vietnamese canteen;

    a very tall helter skelter ride and a bouncy castle.
  • edited 12:53PM
    I had occasion to venture out to Stoke Newington for the first time today. On my little wander down Church Street I noticed that there are two proper florists, a tea shop with home made cake, a bakery/patisserie where you can have coffee, a vintage clothing store, a proper record shop and a interesting film rental shop. Also a pretty corsetiers/lingerie shop, a toy shop, pubs and restaurants. It's very fancy indeed, I wish it was in Stroud Green
  • edited February 2011
    I think Stoke Newington is my favourite place in London. I ended up on SGR (due to my long term ex-girlfriend moving here), which isn't a bad place to end up, but if I could move my cheap flat to Stokey I'd more than happily do so. As you said, dvd store, nice cafes,record store.... Stoke Newington can be a bit poncey but SGR can be of a transit zone for the middle classes who have downgraded a bit.
  • edited 12:53PM
    The place for a proper cafe and deli is in the row of shops across from Nandos under Charter Court where there's currently a service road, two hairdressers and the West Indian takeaway. In summer it's the only place along SGR where it gets the sun all day and you could have tables and chairs outside. Maybe an awning like that Italian deli in Crouch End. They should close that service road and resurrect the plan for the Stroud Green piazza.
  • edited 12:53PM
    Maybe there. I guess if you managed to get the whole block over time, you could start campaigning for the road to be closed. Those hairdressers seem to do alright there though. I think where the Dairy is would be good. You could get an alcohol license and make it quite a big thing. You can't sit outside, but at least you can have your hams and columns of croissants or muffins in the window, to entice the likes of barnesbq to come in and spend all their Crouch End money.
  • edited 12:53PM
    Hmm, I think you always have to be careful what you wish for. Victoria Park hit a turning point sometime aorund 3 years ago turned into kensington-on-east, for hipster yummymummys, with barely anything affordable, some pubs got bouncers to keep 'riff raff' out and the primary school got outstanding status thorugh selection by exclusion.

    Stroud Green by way of contrast is a breath of fresh air, an actual community in london. You can (could?) get decent beer from Jacks or the ale from the minimarket with shy mr sleazy next to the tube, a good fishmongers, there is a massive range of inexpensive, ok restaurants, good fish and chips, korean, japanese, rubbish thai, insane self promoting hairdressers and pizza makers, 3 kinds of crap Khashmiri butchers, 7,000 types of wigs, 15 types of frozen fish picked off a genuine cardboard sign form the bottom of a genuine cardboard box, 5 types of fried chicken that tastes bad even after 10 pints, abuse from old caribbean men in the white lion for being middle class, terrible second hand furniture from an 'emporiuum' etc. etc.

    On a more serious note, there are obvious gaps like a good butcher, and somewhere for the overflow from the front room, and the places that sell 'little bits' aren't very good. But the good places are slightly off the wall, and sometimes surprisingly good, and there is a bit for everybody, not a perfect organic/vintage fantasy, but enough. I like the fact that the high street doesn't resemble a guardian article. you need to take the rough with the smooth
  • edited 12:53PM
    BTW my best friend is a vet at the FREE harmondsworth RSPCA hospital, where local residents people can get FREE veterinary treatment
  • edited 12:53PM
    I am so, so glad that SGR is not Stokey. Yes, I like to visit occasionally and hit the bookshops, but if I lived there, I'd go postal at all the yummy mummies with their Jessicas and Jacks clogging the place up.

    Miss Annie - doesn't SGR already have a ton of Oyster paypoint shops, ie the newsagents?
  • IanIan
    edited 12:53PM
    @mikecabic - the butchers at the bottom of Crouch Hill opposite the Dairy is excellent.
  • edited 12:53PM
    Really, cool. I will have to make a trip this weekend. For all the yummymummyness, the ginger pig in victoria park does amazing meat.
  • AliAli
    edited 12:53PM
    It is not quite Ginger Pig but Paul the butcher is very friendly ! The lamb chops are great for the BBQ in the summer and I have been enjoying the smoked bacon I got last weekend. The Chickens are also very good roasted. The eggs are very reasonable and big – quite often double yolkers !
  • edited 12:53PM
    I wouldn't like to live in Stoke Newington but that one street was a delight as it was full of all the stuff I like and wish was in SG. @ADGS, I must walk around with my eyes closed. The only one I've noticed is the one by the chipper. As I'm quite lazy it irritates me that I have to walk past it to go to the cashpoint, then back to do my oyster then back again to the bus stop.
  • edited 12:53PM
    The newsagent/late night shop up towards Sainsbury's will enable you to top up without doubling back, though by then you are en route to the next bus stop. And if you're headed in the opposite direction, the newsagent opposite the World's End does Oyster too, though by that point you might as well just go to the station.
  • IanIan
    edited February 2011
    @ali @mikecabic - and Paul will let you know what he thinks would be a good cut for the meal you had in mind. They mainly do the restaurant trade, so only put a shop front out on Saturday but you can go any time.
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