As many as 55 pubs and bars have closed in London so far this year. We’ve lost almost 1,000 in the past two decades, about one in five. So forgive me for feeling protective of the ones that remain.
Blondies, for example: a decade-old “dive bar” in Clapton for metalheads. I’m not a metalhead and I don’t frequent the place, but I appreciate its importance. This newspaper reported it was at risk of being shut down in April. There was a brouhaha and a fundraiser. The owners, Aussie sisters Sharmaine and Verity Cox, are trying to raise money to better soundproof their little bar. It wasn’t anything financial: Blondies enjoys a roaring trade. Drama over noise levels was what nearly got it.
