Clapton Pond Blog

The Killer Crossing: No More?

The last time I posted about The Killer Crossing was, incredibly, three years ago almost to the day. The big news then was that nothing could be done to improve it until at least April 2009. Before that, I'd rashly predicted that "change is at last on its way." Hmm. Well, now it really, really does look as though it really, really is. Transport for London even have a diagram on their website. This proves that neither I nor my camera have been imagining things. You'll see from the diagram that the works are scheduled to be completed at the end of March. Oh, happy day.      

Tesco In Clapton: Palm 2 Prepares

I bumped into an old friend in the fruit and veg section the other day. He was swooning at the mushrooms - six different kinds, all attractively displayed. "I think we'll all be winners," he said.

That's the first person I've heard describe the imminent arrival of Tesco in such terms, and I can see what means. No recent visitor to Palm 2 can fail to have noticed that Abdullah and his team have been sharpening up what I imagine retail gurus would term their "customer offer". The delicatessen has broadened its range and the fresh produce is looking fresher. Home made soup has been available since (I think) before Christmas and the front of the shop has been reorganised to be more spacious. Now they're offering to refill your Ecover bottles and even to look after parcels delivered to your home when you are out. They've also revived the home delivery service they tried out a while back (text your orders to 07889935310. Must be for £15 or more).

Crime Story

When I'm out on the streets in the flat days after Christmas a tiny part of me expects to find a corpse. I realise I've come to regard seasonal murders as a local tradition. Let me think back: there was a man clubbed to death in a pub up the road a few years ago and I'm sure there have been fatal shootings too (haven't there?). For this reason - an imperfect one, as we shall see - I was not at all surprised to find a section of Upper Clapton Road taped off by the police when driving my family to visit friends on New Year's Day morning or to later read that witnesses were being sought in connection with an incident that had left a young man in hospital with gunshot wounds to his chest. Luckily the victim survived and was last reported to be in a stable condition, but my annual sense of foreboding did seem to have been grimly justified.

The Tesco Express is on its way

Shortly before Christmas and just a couple of weeks after the final push of the local anti-Tesco campaign failed to get the Council's planning committee to block the arrival of a Tesco Express in Lower Clapton Road, I saw men preparing the site for the shop-fitting to come. The blue fence cordon around the premises is the most visible result. I don't know if an opening date has been fixed, but I doubt it is far off.

And so the scene is set for an intriguing test of the thesis that the arrival of Tesco means certain death for independent retailers with all the undesirable knock-on effects that can entail: boarded-up shops, a damaged local economy, a duller, more homogenised neighbourhood. It's not a happy thought. But as I've argued before, plenty of local people will welcome a branch of a supermarket chain - unless, that is, Tesco has made a hash of judging the market, something it is hardly famous for.