Plus: We speak to the restaurant owner berating locals for not eating at his restaurant, go litter picking with Ed Davey, and explain how we accidentally inspired a crime fighting tool.
Hackney put the Clissold Pk cafe out to tender when the site was originally renovated & appointed a big commercial operator. Food was expensive & dismal. Staff were apathetic. People complained & many avoided it. It collapsed into administration a couple of years ago & Hackney have now wisely handed the cafe to a local company. The offer has improved & staff seem happy. The great coffee & relatively low priced, healthy meals for kids are a big plus. Big commercial outfits that can pay high rents are simply unsuitable for community provision & should be avoided. It would be tragic to see the Queens Wood cafe in the hands of some soulless multinational.
It’s so depressing that the richest local authority in the country sees Hampstead Heath just as a protential profit-centre, with no social responsibility for looking after a public asset. Cash-strapped councils rent spaces out (controversially) to compensate for loss of other income, but the City hasn’t even this excuse. As for the cafes, it’s obvious that they already provide the community benefits the City claims to support, so the only rationale for kicking the existing operators out is greed.
“When London Centric knocked on the Highgate Society’s doors to ask about the accusation, we accidentally disturbed the group’s weekly bridge game.” Now that’s old fashioned, shoe-leather reporting!
It is prima facie odd that an Italian restaurant should fail at the top of Highgate hill, where there’s lots of money and surprisingly few places to eat out, but Don Ciccio was on one of those bits of cursed retail, where nothing ever lasts despite it looking like a prime location. Like that corner of Cambridge Circus where everything crashed and burned for decades, until they put in a McDonalds.
Don Ciccio lasted longer than most. But its lifetime extended over the lockdown years. The corner of the other side of the Gatehouse pub, on the Highgate West Hill Side, is the same. I wonder if there’s anything in that.
I can’t say I ever went in Don Ciccio, but it wasn’t on the way to or from anywhere, and on the few occasions I walked past it it was literally impossible to tell whether it was closed or open. It had a vaguely forbidding air. You’re just always going to go the welcoming and fantastic gastro pub 10 metres away or the beloved local curry house which is just a short walk.
Nowhere with 0 on Scores on the Doors can complain about a lack of custom, frankly. But it was probably doomed before it was opened. The space would be better off as yet another bloody estate agency, I expect.
We went to Don Ciccio a few times mostly after going to the pub theatre at the Gatehouse, & liked it. It seemed to be run by people with genuine enthusiasm. But it's a difficult location & other eateries in that row along Hampstead Lane have similarly been quite transient partly because there isn't much passing trade. Highgate Village as a whole doesn't seem to be a particularly easy place for restaurants to succeed
Bait bikes. The Met has been using them for years. The problem? If someone pleads not guilty, the prosecution gets dropped to protect the secrecy of the "op."
I live near Hampstead Heath, have used the D'Aurias cafes with my family for 25 years, and would love them to continue in business. But I repeat here the question I asked in my letter to the excellent Camden New Journal (we're lucky enough to have a local paper that regularly wins awards): would all the lovies of Camden still support the D'Aurias if they had to raise their prices to match Benugo's? I would, but that's the test, I think.
Ealing council tried to evict the locally run popular cafe in Walpole Park and met huge resistance. When Benugo was awarded the cunning of the new cafe in Gunnersbury Park, the cafe tragically burnt down after about nine months. No-one was apprehended as far as I know. Although the cafe was eventually rebuilt, it remains closed - too much of a risk? Councils and Corporations should listen to residents and voters.
I can’t remember when, but in late C20 RBK&C tried something similar in Holland Park. I think they simply terminated the lease of the Italian family-run cafe/restaurant. There was a huge uproar from all levels of society, the nanny-employing classes outwards. This, of course, was pre-internet, but after the usual corporate bluster the council renewed the lease. I hope that was the end of it
Hackney put the Clissold Pk cafe out to tender when the site was originally renovated & appointed a big commercial operator. Food was expensive & dismal. Staff were apathetic. People complained & many avoided it. It collapsed into administration a couple of years ago & Hackney have now wisely handed the cafe to a local company. The offer has improved & staff seem happy. The great coffee & relatively low priced, healthy meals for kids are a big plus. Big commercial outfits that can pay high rents are simply unsuitable for community provision & should be avoided. It would be tragic to see the Queens Wood cafe in the hands of some soulless multinational.
The desperation to ruin good things about London for relatively little gain is such a frustrating tendency.
But the capitalist parasite is so, so hungry
Absolutely. And the buffer lands are anything but that - a deer sanctuary, for example. They are intrinsic parts of the forest lands.
It’s so depressing that the richest local authority in the country sees Hampstead Heath just as a protential profit-centre, with no social responsibility for looking after a public asset. Cash-strapped councils rent spaces out (controversially) to compensate for loss of other income, but the City hasn’t even this excuse. As for the cafes, it’s obvious that they already provide the community benefits the City claims to support, so the only rationale for kicking the existing operators out is greed.
“When London Centric knocked on the Highgate Society’s doors to ask about the accusation, we accidentally disturbed the group’s weekly bridge game.” Now that’s old fashioned, shoe-leather reporting!
I can’t help myself, but as you know, the picture is from Primrose Hill, not Hampstead Heath…
You can only imagine how much I ruin my wife's enjoyment of any modern TV drama, such as Slow Horses.
If any TV producers want a free location scout/continuity pedant, DM me.
It is prima facie odd that an Italian restaurant should fail at the top of Highgate hill, where there’s lots of money and surprisingly few places to eat out, but Don Ciccio was on one of those bits of cursed retail, where nothing ever lasts despite it looking like a prime location. Like that corner of Cambridge Circus where everything crashed and burned for decades, until they put in a McDonalds.
Don Ciccio lasted longer than most. But its lifetime extended over the lockdown years. The corner of the other side of the Gatehouse pub, on the Highgate West Hill Side, is the same. I wonder if there’s anything in that.
I can’t say I ever went in Don Ciccio, but it wasn’t on the way to or from anywhere, and on the few occasions I walked past it it was literally impossible to tell whether it was closed or open. It had a vaguely forbidding air. You’re just always going to go the welcoming and fantastic gastro pub 10 metres away or the beloved local curry house which is just a short walk.
Nowhere with 0 on Scores on the Doors can complain about a lack of custom, frankly. But it was probably doomed before it was opened. The space would be better off as yet another bloody estate agency, I expect.
We went to Don Ciccio a few times mostly after going to the pub theatre at the Gatehouse, & liked it. It seemed to be run by people with genuine enthusiasm. But it's a difficult location & other eateries in that row along Hampstead Lane have similarly been quite transient partly because there isn't much passing trade. Highgate Village as a whole doesn't seem to be a particularly easy place for restaurants to succeed
Whatever happens, dear God don't let it be the truly awful Benugo.
Bait bikes. The Met has been using them for years. The problem? If someone pleads not guilty, the prosecution gets dropped to protect the secrecy of the "op."
Yours sincerely,
A barrister who knows
A zero rating for hygiene would most definitely put me off any eatery
Congratulations on the nominations!
I live near Hampstead Heath, have used the D'Aurias cafes with my family for 25 years, and would love them to continue in business. But I repeat here the question I asked in my letter to the excellent Camden New Journal (we're lucky enough to have a local paper that regularly wins awards): would all the lovies of Camden still support the D'Aurias if they had to raise their prices to match Benugo's? I would, but that's the test, I think.
I worry sometimes the City is to focused on progress for progress sake.
Ealing council tried to evict the locally run popular cafe in Walpole Park and met huge resistance. When Benugo was awarded the cunning of the new cafe in Gunnersbury Park, the cafe tragically burnt down after about nine months. No-one was apprehended as far as I know. Although the cafe was eventually rebuilt, it remains closed - too much of a risk? Councils and Corporations should listen to residents and voters.
I can’t remember when, but in late C20 RBK&C tried something similar in Holland Park. I think they simply terminated the lease of the Italian family-run cafe/restaurant. There was a huge uproar from all levels of society, the nanny-employing classes outwards. This, of course, was pre-internet, but after the usual corporate bluster the council renewed the lease. I hope that was the end of it
There's no scandal in the Hampstead Heath or Epping Forest pieces.
I'd like to thank you to pick up that weird Italian restaurant story.