The cafes are taking over!

Sticking up for Broadgate... Ive been working here (there) for two months and am suprised to say its one of the best areas of London Ive ever worked in. I too had an initial impression of it as a result of passing through but whereas it may not look much to the occasional visitor (a bit like some parts of SE1) when you scratch the surface and hang around you find all sorts of hidden treasures. Its Great!

Do any members of the forum (apart from Ken aka Carpmaker) work at More London ? I'd be very interested to here the opinion of people who spend a large part of there day there.

Ah, But chain's like nero's and Starbucks are the only ones that can afford the weighted rents that 'more london' will no doubt charge...

Prime location = prime rents!

the only good thing about Broadgade is the ice rink

what hidden treasures, TC?

I loved the ice rink at Broadgate, I loved to watch Mr Stiffy, the nickname we gave the poor sod who was trying so hard to emulate the ice skating instructress. Every year he tried bless him...Then in the summer the events that took place were fantastic.
racing cars, shooting games, golf, jazz singers etc, and the very odd lady who danced....

The firm I worked for moved to canary wharf :-( no ice rink, no cheap benjys..it's like working in a theme park..watching people skurry about heads down in this flipping wind,, reminds me of Lowrys Matchstick Men!

Are there really coffee bars in SE1 offering "coffee and
androgeny" - male parthenogenesis in which the embryo contains only paternal chromosomes due to the failure of the egg nucleus to participate in fertilization.

"coffee and androgyny" might be more interesting - it implies a decadent 1929 Berlin Kit Kat Club sort of feel, but I haven't seen much evidence of this in the current range of SE1 coffee shops!

Jan, I once took some enormous panoramic photographs of the ice-skaters at Broadgate and everybody commented on how Lowryesque they looked. Did you ever see the city types boxing each other there?

Alan how strange! boxing city gents..I missed them :-( I took some great photographs of all the bicycles under the stairs, it was such a contrast between corporate style and reality of ordinary people commuting....my kids went in hysterical laughter and could not see the point of a ' waste ' of film....huh plebs!

It seams many others know of the hidden treasures? What helps is to look past the architectural design because each individuals opinion of that is valid but subjective. I dont particularly like the design of the office buildings but nor do I hate them. Whats more, there are much worse around.

The ice-rink is fantastic.

Someone matching Mr Stiffy's description still practices each lunch time, has progressed somewhat but still takes enough tumbles to make the on-looking builders laugh. At various times of day the rink is used by groups of School kids and toddlers with their mums. Then teenagers come in tootle round holding hands.

There are a variety of sandwich shops and bars that cater for a range of tastes and in the two months Ive been here I have without fail found all the staff in the food shops are really friendly.

I can lock my bike and feel that it will still be there even if I leave it overnight.

Theres lovely solid stone seats for passers by to meet on

.......I'll stop there

In short, its got its own character and a relatively rounded and humorous one at that.

I like the way it look s,

but

on bank holidays its dead

when there ante no one working there there ante on one there