Can we get 100 comments on today's post, which is full of burning issues from my immediate locality?
My local Dry Cleaners is closing on 1st April
That's Bow Dry Cleaners of 22 Stroudley Walk, a fine business which I started using in 2001 and who are still steaming away in a small unit beside the barbers. Alas a sign in the window says they're closing down from 1st April 2025, but doesn't say why and there was nobody inside to ask. The date strongly suggests end of lease, but it's also entirely possible that building work for Upper East (see Wednesday) has been the final nail in its coffin. Hoardings blocked Stroudley Walk to passers-by a few years ago, throttling footfall, and the latest stage of construction has seen the entire parade hidden behind a wall of gloomy hoardings. Ahmed's Bakers Delights has already succumbed, the cafe at Posted invariably looks empty, and when the main passing trade is men in hi-vis then dry cleaning is clearly not top of the agenda. It's a shame for the private tower's new residents who'll no longer have somewhere to spruce up their glad rags by the time they move in, as another proper East End business is sadly extinguished.
Have you recently lost a favourite shop?
Do you still use dry cleaners?
The Beehive pub in Empson Street doesn't allow fat dogs
You'll likely know The Beehive in Bromley-by-Bow as a salt-of-the-earth pub with an intimate, sweaty back-room for live music, the ideal place to enjoy bands like Clearfall, In God's Way, VULGΓR, Push, Idlechord, π―ππππ πππ π―ππππππ, Chicanes, The Wednesday Incident and Flat Venus. But did you know they also place a weight restriction on canine patrons? A sign in the window now clearly states No Dogs Over 15KG Allowed!!!, and that's with three exclamation marks so it must be serious. But what if you don't have time to weigh your dog before attending, or if your mutt is unwilling to stay still on the scales for long enough for you to be able register a reading? Well never fear because I can bring you this handy guide to acceptable and unacceptable breeds of dog which should make your next trip to The Beehive as carefree as possible.
Acceptable: chihuahua, dachshund, French bulldog, pug, terrier, whippet Borderline: beagle, bull terrier, cocker spaniel, schnauzer, staffie Unacceptable: basset hound, collie, golden retriever, labrador, poodle Plainly too hefty: boxer, bull mastiff, German Shepherd, rottweiler
Could your dog visit The Beehive?
Do you have thoughts on dogs in pubs?
TfL can't be arsed to repair Bromley-by-Bow station
Five years ago, just as the pandemic kicked off, TfL completed works on a new ticket hall skylight at Bromley-by-Bow station. It looked splendid, featuring as it did a roundel in the centre of six glass panels. Unfortunately these have been seriously damaged since, likely by vandals who discovered how easy it was to chuck stuff from the pavement and smash the glass. Back in 2023 I reported that four of the six panels had been damaged, including half of the roundel, with a protective wooden hoarding installed to fill the gap. What's particularly poor is that this damage is still there, indeed more glass has been lost since, with absolutely no attempt made to repair or replace. It's hard to say if this plywood facade is the new status quo, there being no money to enact repairs, or whether new panels are on their way once TfL have worked out how to make them unbreakable. Typical though, and also damned ugly.
Have you seen any bad vandalism recently?
Do you have a chip on your shoulder about TfL and their woeful inadequacies and would you like to sound off here?
This sign points to a road that disappeared 25 years ago
The East Cross Route between Bow and Hackney Wick stopped being a motorway in 2000 after it was realised it would be inappropriate for the newly formed Transport for London to have control of a road of that designation. But a roadsign on St Leonard's Road
still points towards the A102(M) even though it's been the A12 for a quarter of a century, and a similar sign on neighbouring Zetland Street does the same. It's hard to credit that no road authority has noticed how anachronistic this sign is and removed it, nor that the typeface is wrong which is almost as offensive as the outdated information.
What's your favourite motorway?
Do any particular inappropriate signs niggle you?
Robin Hood Gardens, the classic Brutalist housing estate in Poplar, has finally been demolished. Its west flank was demolished in 2018 and has subsequently been replaced by vernacular flats, while the east flank has been similarly deconstructed over the last six months. Imagine a wrecking crew slicing sequentially through a huge concrete gateau, leaving streets in the sky severed and former living rooms open to the sky. This week the final stump was toppled, as you can see in these photos from Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday courtesy of Municipal Dreams on Bluesky and Glenkerry on Twitter. By the time I turned up yesterday just a tiny rump remained above the hoardings, being sprayed by water prior to final defenestration, and sorry it's so hard to see but that's how demolished everything is. The new flats will be nicer to live in and ultimately there'll be 1500 rather than the previous 214, but as architecture they can't hold a candle to what's just been lost.
What lost architecture do you most miss?
Do you have opinions on housing in London?
This 'Directory' at Balfron Tower made me very angry
Balfron Tower is the east London cousin of the more famous Trellick Tower, ErnΕ Goldfinger's masterpiece that's even more iconically Brutalist than Robin Hood Gardens. But decay meant all its tenants had to be decanted ten years ago, the repairs due to be funded by transforming many of the flats into private apartments. In the end not a single former resident returned and the entire block was handed over to posh moneyed incomers paying hand over fist for a tiny flat with a masturbatory view. I peered into the lobby for the first time yesterday and gasped at the entitlement of it all displayed in this 'Directory' beside the lift. Concierge on Ground, Cinema on 3, Parcel Room on 6, Workspace on 9, Yoga on 12, Gym on 15, Library on 18, Roof Garden Access on 24, and at the very top a Private Dining Room residents can hire to show off all this privilege to their braying mates. Imagine the size of the service charge! What hurts isn't the new tenants, it's the fact a building designed to uplift Poplar's poorest has been gifted to the rich in contravention of all ErnΕ's original ideals, indeed screw them, screw everyone, screw everything.
Do you live several floors up?
Are you irrationally angry about people living in nice flats?
