Mural Wars

Mural Wars

by | Apr 7, 2024 | Business, Community, Uncategorized

Mural Wars

It has been going on for several weeks now, and it isn’t ending any time soon. The great Chip shop mural battle between an award-winning chip shop owner and the Ashburnham Triangle Conservation association, who enforce code of practice and legislation of the conservation area known as the Ashburnham Triangle. 

The owner of the Golden Chippy, in Greenwich High Road, Mr Chris Kanizi, has commissioned a painted mural advertising his business on the side of his property, and it would appear that a few people in the area have taken umbrage with his mural, and have reported him to the council. Any changes including painting murals on any property within the Ashburnham Triangle conservation area, must have pre-approved planning permission from Greenwich council. 

He should have known this as he previously put up an adverting hoarding against his shop a number of years ago, and was ordered to remove it by the council for the very same reason, 

Because the mural features a fish holding a Union Jack flag next to a bag of chips, with the words ‘A Great British Meal’ it has caused unnecessary racist anger, and stupid reactions from people who love to go through the internet looking for racist clickbait in order to find something to be angry about. 

As soon as a mural with the British flag was ordered to be removed by the council after it had been reported by someone, then the witch hunt for the woke lefty antagonists was on. 

Chris Kanizi the Cypriot owner of the Golden Chippy has vowed to oppose the council order to remove if and he has backing and support from many of his neighbours. 

One or two said it was a tacky eyesore, but most supported him. 

When you consider that while this mural battle was going on in Greenwich another artist who describes himself as a political street graffiti artist going by the name of Banksy, throws green paint over the side of a council owned building, Christie Court in Finsbury Park without the residents of the building knowing about it, and what happens? 

The council there cover the side of the building with plastic sheeting and cover the grass area beneath it with hoardings to protect it. 

What would happen if Banksy defaced the side of a building within the Ashburnham Triangle area. 

Come on Banksy give it a go and let’s see what happens.  

UPDATE: As an update regarding this mural, in late September 2024 the owner of the fish shop, Mr Kanizi applied for planning permission belatedly for the mural, but permission from the council was denied. It looks like the latest mutual will have to come down after all.

Dangerous Dogs.

Dangerous Dogs.

by | Oct 19, 2023 | Community

Greenwich Dangerous Dog Incident. 

On 3rd October at about 10 am, in Catherine Grove, Greenwich just outside the Hilton Hotel, a 20-month-old toddler had just left the hotel with his mother when out of nowhere an XL bully came running up to the toddler and attacked him without provocation.

The toddler’s leg was mauled and he will probably be scarred for life if it wasn’t for brave members of the public and his mother coming to his aid the child could have been killed.

The parents an Indian couple from the Netherlands over here on business thought their child would lose his leg but luckily after a two-day stay in hospital, the child is going to be OK.

The XL bully’s owner was with the dog at the time of the attack, a 29 year-old man who like just about every other dangerous dog owner who sees their dog attack someone, he did the usual thing he pulled his dog off, picked up his shopping and nonchalantly walked off as if nothing had happened, leaving the poor child bleeding and helpless in the road.

My blood boils with anger against this heartless and uncaring piece of worthless shit. Unfortunately, it’s a scenario that is played out frequently all over the country.  In their mind, their obviously dangerous dog is more important than anyone else’s life. Anyone who can just walk off and leave a child bleeding and injured in the street when they are directly and personally responsible, I can only describe as a human turd.

Thanks to members of the public who followed the man and called the police he was arrested a few streets away and now hopefully he will get what he deserves, and the dog will be destroyed.

The Pitbull and XL bully breed have generations of inbreeding to make them deliberately aggressive and confrontational and they were bred exclusively for one purpose to fight and kill.

It only takes one irrelevant and elusive reason to trigger a Pitbull or XL bully into a wild rage and when that happens you, yourself or any of your family do not want to be anywhere near it.

There’s a certain type of person who thinks owning a pit bull or XL bully will enhance his or her status in society. ‘I need a macho dog because I am macho’. In reality, people will view you as arrogant and uneducated which is more likely the truth.

The Internet channel JOE which mainly deals with political issues interviewed XL bully owners who were protesting against Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks announcement that he intends to ban the breed after numerous attacks and deaths caused by this type of breed.

If those protesting thought, they were going to persuade the public to make them come around to their point of view they must have been delusional.

Some were in complete denial that any XL bully had attacked anyone and there was no evidence to prove any claim, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

One muscle-bound uneducated moron who struggled to complete a whole sentence without sounding like an uneducated chav showed off his dog’s collar and chain, and both were studded with big spikes. It was like looking at the complete stereotypical cliché of Mr macho and his macho dog scenario.

The XL bully and the Pitbull seem to go hand in hand with the anti-social and criminal community who use it to intimidate members of the public.

Look at your local drug dealer and by his side you will more likely find a Pitbull or XL bully dog, not a poodle or a chihuahua.

 

Look at the XL bully or Pitbull owner and you notice that when their dog fouls the pavement or grass, they never pick up their dog’s mess like responsible dog owners.

Any parent who brings any dangerous breed into the home thinking it will make a wonderful family pet for their young children needs to take a good hard look in the mirror and ask themselves “Am I a good responsible parent or is the safety of my child a risk I am willing to take in order to make a statement about myself to other people” because you will be judged by others over your choice of a dog in a family setting.

Here are the initial reports from the Daily Mail.  Many other media outlets reported the incident, but few showed or named the owner who was charged.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12597005/american-xl-bully-attack-toddler-dog-owner-charged.html

Royal arsenal Summer Lates

Royal arsenal Summer Lates

by | Jun 3, 2021 | Community, Eating Out, Street Food

As stated in a previous post about the farmers market at Woolwich, the farmer market has now become more of a food festival rather than a place to buy organically produced raw fruit and vegetables, and now it would appear the organizers have come to realise this fact.

Starting this Saturday 5th June and repeating each first Saturday of the month throughout the summer period there will be on the same site a Street food festival along with live music, bars and other entertainment.

The weather is predicted to be fantastic this Saturday (but this could change) so the day should be a very, joyous, happy and entertaining event.

(See events calendar for dates and details)

Woolwich farmers market, or is it?

Woolwich farmers market, or is it?

by | Mar 16, 2021 | Community, Street Food

Woolwich farmers market, or is it?

Seeing a tweet from the local online beer merchants Plumsteadshire of what they were having on sale at the Woolwich farmers market I was intrigued. I have used them many times in the last three lockdowns and I was interested to see what they had on their stall at the RARE Woolwich farmers market and to also check out the actual market.

The Beer stall was great and had a small but varied selection of craft ales, stouts and lagers. I was served by a friendly and beer knowledgeable young lady and I will be back to the stall again when it next opens.

What I was a bit disappointed with though, was the actual farmers market. When you think of farmers market, or at least the ones I have been to, you think of organic fruit and vegetables, half-eaten by pests and insects and way overpriced produce, that your local supermarket would throw away as not being good enough to sell to the public. Yes, you’ve guessed it, I have not fully bought into the organic is better ideology yet. The only thing I want chemical-free is my beer.

The only fruit and vegetables being sold at the market was one seller trading from the back of a van rather than off of a stall. All the other stalls seemed to be food stalls selling various cooked cuisines from around the world as well as the obligatory cheese and chilli oil and artisan bakery stalls.

This is now a bi-monthly food festival rather than a farmers’ market. I’m not complaining by any means. I would rather taste homemade produce or foods from around the world produced from within the local minority communities than overpriced and bug-infested cabbages anytime.

A lot of the regular stallholders were not there, possibly due to the Covid restrictions, perhaps they did not think it worth opening their stalls.
I dare say that the market will get bigger and more varied as it used to be, once we get back to normal and hopefully the market will go back inside again.

(See the events calendar in the what’s on section for opening dates and times).

To cull, or not to cull.

To cull, or not to cull.

by | Mar 1, 2021 | Community

To cull, or not to cull.

The sight of parakeets flying around certain areas of London is becoming almost as common as seeing squirrels or foxes. In Greenwich, they are very common especially in the parks and along the railway track treetops.
The government has announced that they are looking to cull the wild parakeets as they are not native to the British isle and as such are decimating the natural ecosystem by dominating the smaller native birds.

I personally love seeing the brightly coloured parakeets flying about outside my window especially in the summer. They brighten up the place. I would like to see maybe a partial culling that would not destroy the whole parakeet population but maybe keep them to a level where they do not impact so much on the native smaller birds. I’m no expert, so this may not be feasible.

In a way, I can understand the governments position as these birds are native to mainly Australia, South America, and parts of South Asia and not the UK. During the last century, grey squirrels were introduced to the British isles from North America and this has had disastrous consequences for the native red squirrels, which were driven to almost extinction by the more aggressive grey squirrels.
Similarly, when the non-native rabbits were introduced to Australia they found that the rabbits bred like….well rabbits. This spelled disaster for the farmers crops which the rabbits feasted on like there was no tomorrow.
The Australian rabbit problem got so bad that the Australian army and prospecting bounty hunters were called in to try and eliminate the devastation they were causing. Although the problem is now contained the rabbits are still in abundance on the subcontinent of Australia, a testimony to the endurance of mother nature over man.

In the case of the British parakeet problem, the birds were not introduced on purpose but were caused by numerous escaped parakeets escaping from the confinement of cages to which parakeets are not meant to endure, so they will attempt to escape at any opportunity. These free wild birds then managed to congregate and breed.
I’m still amazed they manage to breed so fast and managed to adapt to our climate so easily but that is just what they have done.
Whether it is accidentally escaped birds or the intended introduction of a non-native species to a country to solve another problem, the final problem of non-native species destroying the ecosystem or the native species is always the fault of humans who do not think enough of the long term consequences of their actions.

All hail the British entrepreneur.

All hail the British entrepreneur.

by | Mar 1, 2021 | Business, Community

All hail the British entrepreneur.

At the corner of Greenwich High Road and Stockwell Street, just outside the Mitre pub sit three old red telephone boxes. To anyone idly passing by that is just what they are but upon closer inspection, you will realise that they are not telephone boxes at all.

These three red telephone boxes are part of a growing phenomenon that is spreading across the land whereby the telecoms equipment is removed, and the units are turned into small businesses. In the case of these three boxes, one is a locksmith key cutting service, one is a mobile phone repair business, and one is a coffee selling kiosk.
At the moment we are still under lockdown trading restrictions so the only business working there at the moment is the coffee selling kiosk.

I can only assume the rental on such a small plot of land must be minuscule and with just basic utilities such as electricity as overheads, this is what you call a win, win business scenario if you want to stay small and is the ideal start-up for the budding entrepreneur.

The advent of the ubiquitous mobile phone meant the demise of the old telephone boxes since almost everyone has a phone with them all the time so the need for the old telephone boxes is not needed anymore. A working telephone box actually being used as a telephone box is a rare sight to behold these days.