I believe that, after Butterfly Pharmacy, and a few other shops owned by individuals locally, like Paul’s continental and a handful of others, 99p shop is the best shop in Camberwell.

Tesco are not likely to take over anything remotely in the near future beacuse Co-op have the two Somerfields and whatever happens to these as a result of competition issues (obviously nothing happened under Somerfield’s tenure did it?), then Tesco might get a look in on one of the sites. But do not hold your breath because that won’t be for a couple of years AT LEAST.

Hermits is a bastion of proper solidity. Monosyllanic bar service works well in that context. On pubs, someone told me that Dark Horse was shut over the weekend. Which sounds final. Is this a rumour or verifiable?

On pubs and the community and the American election — The Sun and Doves’ Gay Film Season starts tomorrow night with Brokeback Mountain, followed by a live screening of the American Election — we invested £300 on a new aerial on a 4 metre high mast for this and if it doesn’t work to show Barack Obama winning history I’ll die of shame.

Incidentally there’s a lot of new cocktails being devised for this season, the most immediate of interest is the ‘Burning Bush’ and the most attractive is Silk Chains for the Baby Boomer.

It does boast that curious mixture of arty trendiness, monosyllanic bar service and edgy yet unthreatening regulars that lets the in-crowd think they’ve uncovered something ‘real’, as with Tracy Emin’s favourite boozer, the now insufferable Golden Hart in Spitalfields.

It’ll add precisely 0.02 percent to SE5 house prices, just you watch.

They missed the enviro-hipster memo. The place was roasting hot and the doors were wide open. The exhibit is sponsored by an airline.