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So long, Oriental City

Oriental City has been under threat for so long, but it is finally to close at the end of May, to make way for soulless flats and a DIY superstore. (There aren’t enough DIY superstores in London apparently, so a one-of-its-kind shopping centre has to be leveled to make way for one).

I’ve been going there regularly for at least ten years, but today was the last time.

There aren’t really any alternatives. Chinese Wing Yip, down the road, is expanding, but they don’t have the other shops or non-Chinese food. Japanese TK Trading is miles away.

More discussion of the closure …

Thanks to ex-Mayor Ken Livingstone for valiantly defending the store — oh no, in fact he approved the planning application. Well, he’s been thrown out of office now, but his stupid planning decisions like this and others will linger on.

This is what I got from Utsuwa no Yakata Japanese pottery shop:

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 1:00 am and is filed under craziness, food, people, places, politics, stupidity, 日本. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “So long, Oriental City”

  1. M-kun Says:
    May 5th, 2008 at 2:44 am

    I always thought it was a bit of a dump to be honest. They should open a new one somewhere tho, maybe as a market would be better and not in Collingwood aka The end of the world.

    Ken was harping on about his favourite chinese restaurant the other day, bit cheeky really.

  2. rich Says:
    May 5th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

    Well, it might have needed a lick of paint, but is that any reason to shut it down I wonder?

  3. watari Says:
    May 6th, 2008 at 9:07 am

    I wouldn’t buy this for myself anyway.

  4. rich Says:
    May 7th, 2008 at 6:38 pm

    Eh tou, I think the spoon is pretty cool actually.