Flake £3.50?!?!?!

The ice-cream vans on Bankside are illegal and with all things illegal you take your chances.
The café in the Oxo make their ice-cream and it is worth every penny.

westofbank wrote:

The ice-cream vans on Bankside are illegal and with all things illegal you take your chances.
.

I didn't know they were illegal, but the noise and fumes they generate are definitely criminal! Ice cream at the new M&S on the other hand is excellent!

Even more ice cream vans than ever this year on Bankside, but I thought the council was trying to replace them with licenced trading pitches. I can't find anything on the Council website - anyone know what is happening?

westofbank wrote:

The ice-cream vans on Bankside are illegal and with all things illegal you take your chances.

The one regularly seen on Tooley street by the dungeon queue happily pays an £80 a day fine, like rich people pay parking tickets.

I too have told the Waterloo Sainsbury that their icecream was melting and now I come to think of it I had icecream from there last week and felt a bit sick the next day - could be just that I ate too much .... Also, I hear that icecream vans are often stored overnight in unsafe places (lock ups and arches) and mice and rats have a bit of a field day lapping up the drips.

beetroot wrote:

The one regularly seen on Tooley street by the dungeon queue happily pays an £80 a day fine, like rich people pay parking tickets.

With the ice-cream van permanently parked there and the Dungeon cordoning off half of the payment for their own queue, all the hawkers giving away their free papers, the bus stop, the pavement advertising boards, etc the gap to walk through is getting smaller and smaller. People are having to walk in the gutter of the road just get to the station.

How much better Duke Street Hill / Tooley Street would be without the Dungeon or London Bridge Experience...

ewar woowar, can you expand on your bad experiences at Nando's ? we've been there a couple of times, and while the food's ok, the service has been a bit odd. both times we've asked (table for 2) to sit up in the pleasant looking seats which are raised up around the inside, overlooking the river - mostly empty on both occasions. and on both occasions we've been told we can't sit there, and have been taken to a slightly dungeon-y table at the back. bearing in mind both times this has been on e.g. a tuesday night at about 6pm (i.e. not busy at all) it seems strange behaviour.

i agree that the Pizza Express ice cream isn't bad. in fact we took some home last night to eat with home made rhubarb crumble. yum.

not sure when it's open, but the Oddono's ice cream sold at the new Italian deli on Park Street should be amazing. i think the stuff they sell at their Jute St shop in Kensington is outstanding - as good as any in Italy in my opinion (i'm half Italian). look out for it.

Jonathan K wrote:

beetroot wrote:

The one regularly seen on Tooley street by the dungeon queue happily pays an £80 a day fine, like rich people pay parking tickets.

With the ice-cream van permanently parked there and the Dungeon cordoning off half of the payment for their own queue, all the hawkers giving away their free papers, the bus stop, the pavement advertising boards, etc the gap to walk through is getting smaller and smaller. People are having to walk in the gutter of the road just get to the station.

The ice cream van that parks daily in the lay-by next to the London Dungeon is indeed a menace. With the LD quueue already swallowing most of the pavement people queuing for ice creams take the rest - forcing people into the busy road to pass.

I can see an £80 fine would be no detterent if business is as good as I imagine.

Either more serious action needs to be taken, or London Dungeon need to leave this section of pavement free as they do at the entrance to bars etc.

How can we progress this? Any ideas?

i believe obstructing the highway is a criminal offence - perhaps someone could report them to the police?

On a separate note and re the exorbitant prices with these vans, I have never paid their ridiculous charges; I merely ask them how much their local rate is and (in particular with the one parked outside City Hall), they just give us a standard cone for about a £1 which is perfectly reasonable to my mind.

Why they choose to rip tourists off I don't know, but in Spain and much of mainland Europe there is a two-tier pricing system - one for tourists and the other for locals and so I'm not that against their pricing (unless they're trying to charge me it and then I'll complain!!).

I have to agree about the illegally parked van on Tooley Street, it's such a busy street it's reaching a bit of a critical mass moment, and the one extra van will be the straw that leads to anarchy and chaos!!

Perhaps Tim McNally could bring it up with someone in Southwark, he's generally quite good on things like this (is it Chaucer Ward, or still Cathedrals, I'm a bit hazy on the boundary there?).

If the van is allowed to stay, perhaps Southwark could make it have one of those 70's style signs warning people to look out when they cross; I'm also wondering if Southwark tow it will the staff at the pound be able to eat the ice cream.