Chatsworth chewing gum icon has disappeared

This nice photo of the Chatsworth chewing gum stack comes from here





But this Chatsworth Road landmark has now gone:



Ten years ago I remember these giant packets of Wrigley's chewing gum looking like they had been in this shop window for a long time. They were getting a bit sun-bleached even then. But sad to see them go... must be the dawn of a new era. Apparently the smashed-in door was the police trying to find out what had happened to the aged owner.




And just for a last taste of properly matured window dressing:



(When I first got here I thought the cobblers further down on Chatsworth toward Millfields was another shop that time forgot - it has a spectularly dusty/faded/cob-webbed window display but he's still in there fixing shoes... or was last time I looked)


I've been told that it's not a straightforward business trying to get hold of one of the many defunct properties on Chatsworth Road at the moment. One would be Hackney entrepreneur told me she'd given up trying after one lengthy attempt.

Another shop-keeper next to the bookies due to open on Lower Clapton road said that shop owners in Hackney hang-on in the hope of getting a higher-rate paying bookies to move in. Whether that's true or not, who knows?

Meanwhile the bullet holes in 'Friends' Chinese restaurant window are still there. Will they become the next icon of a long-lost Hackney past?