It's well over four years since Don's Cafe closed, but I can still taste the last fried egg I ate there. For a while afterwards there were no fried eggs to be had near the Pond, whether on toast or with bacon and chips. Life was bad. Happily, Havana's has since filled the gaping space, but Don's place just stayed boarded up. Nothing changed exccept the colour of the builders' fencing.
But now, at last, the building is to be brought back into use. My informants tell me that an estate agent who operates from the space above Palm 2 is to expand into it. Does this development count as a green shoot of economic recovery? Might it foreshadow the removal of those decaying phone kiosks? If so, that would leave only the removal of JCDecaux's annoying giant lollipop to complete the reclaimation for humanity of the neighbourhood's most enduring eyesore.
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