The Tower of Babel – Shop of the Day No.76
We are climbing, the ubiquitous chicken shop, a real phenomena that has seen a massive explosion of shops over the last decade. A single chicken shop sells around 600 pieces of chicken a day. If we just stayed in london that is a lot of chicken, a lot of hens! From an article in The Guardian (2011) an interview with a chicken shop owner “Fried chicken won’t work in Chelsea, Kensington or Hampstead, or anywhere like that. It’s only places for the lower middle class or working class. That’s the only place you can do it.”. No surprise that it is in the most deprived areas that fast-food outlets, and fried chicken places in particular, seem to thrive. Since 1998, the average income of the poorest households has risen by 17.5%. In the same time, food prices rose by 25%. In the borough of Tower Hamlets, home of the capital’s most deprived children, for every school there are 42 fast-food outlets. In inner-city London generally, the figure is 37. In the country at large, on average just 25. Tower Hamlets is what nutritionists call an obesogenic environment. According to one report, some children in the borough eat 16 takeaways a week. It always amazing me how delighted the chicken always looks on the front of the shop.
Catford SE6
©Barnaby Barford 2014