Pour me a pint o’ espresso, barkeep
The Evening Standard returns to Fleet Street in a photo feature that’s in the paper today — but, sadly, not online — showing that the turf once dominated by pubs for sodden hacks has now been taken over by coffee bars. It’s not just Fleet Street. All over London, coffee (Starbucks and others) and quick-lunch joints (Pret, Eat, et al) have taken over the street and the lifestyle. Instead of a pint and bangers and a conversation, Londoners are seen dashing through the streets with a Starbucks cup and a Pret cucumber sandwich. What has the world come to?
Tags: Culture
February 27th, 2006 at 3:04 pm
It’s a disgrace!
Andrew Marr, the BBC’s senior political editor, bemoaned the lack of central London boozing clubs for hacks in January:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/01/25/do2505.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2006/01/25/ixop.html
Apparently a few older reporters supported his idea of opening a working club for journalists “a big place, a fresh hub, drink flowing, lawyers on tap” - but younger reporters and students weren’t so keen on his argument that newspapers were declining.
February 27th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
It’s all because Red Ken emptied the streets of traffic, so now people can “dash through them.” They couldn’t before.
February 27th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
piffle.
you can’t walk more than 100 yards in london without coming across a pub. It’s just that you yanks have got us brits on the cuff and we need to work harder to catch up.
(actually, I suspect it’s because the cost of living has really increased and we have to do all we can to keep costs down at lunch….)
February 27th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
The abolishing of closing hours probably did it. When the pub was about to close, everyone was rushing to get a pint while it was available. Once there was no closing, demand dropped. Forbidden fruit is always sweeter. Plus the Starbucks have WiFi hotspots.
February 28th, 2006 at 1:38 am
[...] Pour me a pint o’ espresso, barkeep [...]
February 28th, 2006 at 1:54 am
“Poetic Justice (Don’t burn the flag. Wash it!)” has a new poem posted that may interest you… Persecution’s Lament…
Kind regards,
Mark
http://apoeticjustice.blogspot.com/
February 28th, 2006 at 7:32 am
“What has the world come to?”
It’s turned into a place full of thinner, fitter people with healthy livers?
February 28th, 2006 at 8:58 am
[...] Blogger and Guardian new media columnist Jeff Jarvis — presumably in town for a conference — notes yesterday’s Evening Standard spread by Valentine Low on the coffeebars on Fleet Street: Yes, that is Fleet Street as in the Street of Shame, that once-grimy, ink-stained thoroughfare where journalists worked, gossiped, ate and drank (but chiefly drank). And boy, did they drink. The long, jorunalistic lunch is a well-chronicled phenomenon but one should not overlook the pre-lunch drinks, the mid-morning “conference quickie” — when reporters would slip out for a swift one while the editor discussed the business of the day with his department heads — and of course, the long lost afternoons when careless hacks somehow forgot to make it back from luch at all. But now? All you can get is a nice cup of coffee. The former haunt of Lunchtime O’Booze has turned into a cappucino-lover’s dream … … In Fleet Street, fortunately, the old pubs and bars are still there: the King & Keys, where old Telegraph hands used to gather, El Vino, where hacks and lawyers would swap stories over the house claret, and the Cheshire Cheese, with all its history. But the hacks have all gone. The former Express and Telegraph buildings are now the home of Goldman Sachs and the last big media organisation disappeared when Reuters moved out of No 85 last year. … [...]
February 28th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
Three cheers for health. Coffee beans are beating John Barley Corn. Temperance is rising. Go and get your hatchet. Down with saloons. Take the pledge. Get on the wagon.
February 28th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
“It’s turned into a place full of thinner, fitter people with healthy livers?”
In other words: Boring.
March 1st, 2006 at 11:53 am
“It’s turned into a place full of thinner, fitter people with healthy livers?â€
Have you been out in the UK on a Friday night recently?
March 1st, 2006 at 12:29 pm
“The world has become us and we have become the world” - Mickey Mouse