North London Food & Culture

Giles Coren’s Time Out column: what did you think?

This week the gobby critic laid into "the phalanx of middle-aged, middle-class dinosaurs who are determined to keep London shitty". Agree or disagree?

Twitter was ablaze yesterday once the first copies of Time Out dropped into London’s frost-crusted tube station dump bins.

On his weekly back page, Kentishtowner and national critic/telly celeb Giles Coren has clearly had enough. After vocal censures from some folk at the very idea of Ladies & Gentlemen, Knowhere Special, the reopening of the Bull & Gate, Wahaca and numerous other exciting new businesses opening in the area, he takes down the neighbourhood’s “purse lipped, clenched-arsed” objectors with little mercy.

“Anybody who tries to do anything fun or modern or funky in residential London…first has to face the same phalanx of middle-aged, middle-class dinosaurs who are determined to keep London shitty,” he writes.

So why didn’t he directly reference any of the businesses or the area itself? It’s not as if it protects the blushes of his neighbours.


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“Simply because it was intended to be general,” he told us today. “KT just happens to be where I live. The curtain-twitchers would be too snooty to beard me on it anyway.”

OK. But what do you think about Giles’ impassioned rant? Please spend just a few seconds and vote below and we’ll post the results at the end of the week.

Read our original feature and cartoon on the local nimby threat.


8 thoughts on “Giles Coren’s Time Out column: what did you think?”

  1. I completely agree. There hasn’t been one single new business or development mentioned on this site where people haven’t clutched their pearls and whinged that KT doesn’t need ‘another’ such and such or bemoaning the loss of some old and worn down shop. Yes, there are treasures, but really–does everyone really truly love all the charity shops, pawn shops, betting shops and big chain grocery stores on the high street? I think it’s fantastic that there are new vibrant restaurants and gastropubs opening. I applaud the people trying something new and opening new bars in new clubs. Here’s a shock–success breeds success, so the better these great new businesses do, the more people will be attracted to KT. Wahaca is a locally started business, just a few restaurants hardly counts as a ‘chain’.

  2. I agree. Investment in an area shows care and love to a community. Lets actually be happy that we live in area that is worthwhile for a business to risk investing in.. Lets keep KT independent and unique for sure, but let’s not just keep business that are failing us because they have been there for a while..We should focus on quality and heighten our expectations and standards..

  3. A problem with Giles’ article though is that he doesn’t seem to accept that people who like things to remain broadly the same have just as much a right to hold that view, and articulate it, as people who are passionate for change. Having a view that Giles’ or some other ‘modernisers’ don’t like doesn’t mean you’re fair game for to be objected to scorn and vitriol in the media. That’s just moany, lazy, slightly cowardly bullying.

    Another point, more related to KT Road, is that the ‘improvements’ the businesses around the area make the High St less affordable for many of the people who live in the area. Harry’s butchers isn’t necessarily better than MeatNW5, but if you can’t afford to buy from MeatNW5 then it’s fair enough to try and keep Harry’s business going?

    If a business has been around for a long time that must mean it’s successful, and it’s not a ‘determination to keep things shitty’ to try and protect something you like and appreciate.

  4. Totally agree…I’ve lived in KT for nearly 15 years and am perpetually amazed by the chorus of hysteria that accompanies every opportunity to have a drink after midnight, or eat something new. And I simply think it’s unreasonable that one ‘no’ voiced to the council drowns out 100 yes’s – fine if all those yes votes were from people who don’t live in immediate area affected by those businesses, but many of us are. Utter undemocratic nonsense.
    It’s much sadder to see another Costa which is on EVERY high street, than something new….many of our new openings are independent, run by the people who are putting in the work, the time, the money – lovely people who have chosen our neighbourhood to take a chance. I for me will support them with price.

  5. Hmmm. Maybe there can be an alternate Kentish Town neighbour forum for those of us who WANT progress. Who want new and innovative businesses. Who don’t throw our toys out of the pram every time something ‘different’ is proposed complaining about gentrification. Who doesn’t think more than one new restaurant is ‘another’ such and such. KT high street isn’t charming, or lovely or a draw. I was really hoping a great cinema would open in the old Pizza East building and it’s ridiculous that people kept saying it should be a community art centre—get real. I’m THRILLED for places like Doppio, Pit Stop, 2 Doors Down, Ladies and Gentleman, and yes, Wahaca.

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8 thoughts on “Giles Coren’s Time Out column: what did you think?”

  1. I completely agree. There hasn’t been one single new business or development mentioned on this site where people haven’t clutched their pearls and whinged that KT doesn’t need ‘another’ such and such or bemoaning the loss of some old and worn down shop. Yes, there are treasures, but really–does everyone really truly love all the charity shops, pawn shops, betting shops and big chain grocery stores on the high street? I think it’s fantastic that there are new vibrant restaurants and gastropubs opening. I applaud the people trying something new and opening new bars in new clubs. Here’s a shock–success breeds success, so the better these great new businesses do, the more people will be attracted to KT. Wahaca is a locally started business, just a few restaurants hardly counts as a ‘chain’.

  2. I agree. Investment in an area shows care and love to a community. Lets actually be happy that we live in area that is worthwhile for a business to risk investing in.. Lets keep KT independent and unique for sure, but let’s not just keep business that are failing us because they have been there for a while..We should focus on quality and heighten our expectations and standards..

  3. A problem with Giles’ article though is that he doesn’t seem to accept that people who like things to remain broadly the same have just as much a right to hold that view, and articulate it, as people who are passionate for change. Having a view that Giles’ or some other ‘modernisers’ don’t like doesn’t mean you’re fair game for to be objected to scorn and vitriol in the media. That’s just moany, lazy, slightly cowardly bullying.

    Another point, more related to KT Road, is that the ‘improvements’ the businesses around the area make the High St less affordable for many of the people who live in the area. Harry’s butchers isn’t necessarily better than MeatNW5, but if you can’t afford to buy from MeatNW5 then it’s fair enough to try and keep Harry’s business going?

    If a business has been around for a long time that must mean it’s successful, and it’s not a ‘determination to keep things shitty’ to try and protect something you like and appreciate.

  4. Totally agree…I’ve lived in KT for nearly 15 years and am perpetually amazed by the chorus of hysteria that accompanies every opportunity to have a drink after midnight, or eat something new. And I simply think it’s unreasonable that one ‘no’ voiced to the council drowns out 100 yes’s – fine if all those yes votes were from people who don’t live in immediate area affected by those businesses, but many of us are. Utter undemocratic nonsense.
    It’s much sadder to see another Costa which is on EVERY high street, than something new….many of our new openings are independent, run by the people who are putting in the work, the time, the money – lovely people who have chosen our neighbourhood to take a chance. I for me will support them with price.

  5. Hmmm. Maybe there can be an alternate Kentish Town neighbour forum for those of us who WANT progress. Who want new and innovative businesses. Who don’t throw our toys out of the pram every time something ‘different’ is proposed complaining about gentrification. Who doesn’t think more than one new restaurant is ‘another’ such and such. KT high street isn’t charming, or lovely or a draw. I was really hoping a great cinema would open in the old Pizza East building and it’s ridiculous that people kept saying it should be a community art centre—get real. I’m THRILLED for places like Doppio, Pit Stop, 2 Doors Down, Ladies and Gentleman, and yes, Wahaca.

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The award-winning print and online title Kentishtowner was founded in 2010 and is part of London Belongs To Me, a citywide network of travel guides for locals. For more info on what we write about and why, see our About section.