Sumit

The new owners of Oriental City want to redevelop it to incorporate a DIY superstore and a furniture store – a process that will mean moving the existing tenants to “alternative accomodation” for two years. (Exactly what that means for the traders and their customers is unclear.) As usual, the logic seems one of pure private profit untramelled by social or cultural considerations – the area has little need for more big-box stores.

And also as usual, the promise is that the new development will preserve the character of the area and offer social benefits (such as housing and a primary school). Anyone who’s paid more than cursory attention to the way British property investments have been handled over the past decade, however, may share my suspicion that the community will struggle to survive this disruption and the expensive social elements of the plan will conveniently never prove “necessary”.

There doesn’t seem to be much you can do about it online, but if you do visit Oriental City, make sure to sign their petition to Ken Livingstone and record your protest against yet another crass, unnecessary development that will do nothing but further homogenize our city.

I’m almost reluctant to post this, since the place is already heaving in the evenings and weekends, but what’s the point of being on a site like this if you don’t share the love?

Oriental City is a shopping centre specialising in southeast Asian goods and food just off the A5 (Edgware Road) in Colindale, just behind ASDA in an unprepossessingly boxy grey building. The shops are mediocre; the point of going is the food.

If you want ingredients and groceries, there’s a large supermarket which carries an extensive range of Asian produce – including a good selection of my beloved Japanese snacks and drinks. But Oriental City’s real glory is its food court, which consists of about two dozen concessions each offering dozens and dozens of dishes.

All told, there must be literally thousands of choices (to say nothing of combinations), which is somewhat dizzying but also very enjoyable. The food is uniformly good (not great – there are proper restaurants upstairs which might be better) but in combination with generous helpings and reasonable prices, it makes for a very satisfying meal. Long-timers inevitably complain it’s not what it once was, but it’s still a good deal if you’re in the area.

A friend is living in Berlin at the moment; so far I’ve told him I’m coming over three times and failed to make it each time. I need to go before he starts to think I don’t like him any more … so provisionally in September.

and local transport for La Tomatina – now I need to sort out the flights.

Can’t believe I’ve been to Vienna twice and missed out on going here both times. Unfinished business.

Not entirely coincidentally, there was a Meccano exhibition taking place in the museum when I went, which meant the Museum was full of enthusiastic beardies and over-excited children. But the smell of grease, the wafting steam and the Freudian nightmare of giant pistons pumping themselves into a frenzy add up to a pleasant afternoon diversion. What with this, Bekonscot Model Village and the Ruislip Lido Railway I think my inexplicable appetite for model engineering may finally have been sated. But I’d quite like to go back some time and see the massive Cornish engines working.

it’s a tiny railway that runs around a lake. with a beach. and ice-cream. what’s not to like?

everything is small and perfectly formed in bekonscot.
everything is polite and orderly in bekonscot.
everything is neat and tidy in bekonscot.
everything is safe and sound.

i would like to live in bekonscot.

It may have defeated Richard Herring, but I will succeed where he failed. Actually I need to wait until my friend’s baby can walk, to maximise the Goodies-style giant-baby-on-the-rampage photo opportunities.

I thought I’d be able to do this as an excursion from my recent skiing trip to Sauze d’Oulx, which is on the opposite side of Turin to the Hase. But it turned out to be impractical in the time available – it takes a long time to get down from the mountains; public transport would have been too slow and car hire was too awkward to arrange. Still, The Giant Pink Bunny is going to be there until 2025, so there’s time yet …