Modern British towns are largely indistinguishable: each one has the same banks (now owned by us), McDonald's, an abandoned Woolworths, Body Shop, Ann Summers, River Island, H Samuel and the whole tawdry parade of consumerist distractions.
Except for Stoke. The city is a federation of six towns (Hanley, Longton, Fenton, Burslem, Tunstall and Stoke itself. Hanley is the identikit centre, but the others have distinct, if gloomy, characters of their own, mostly centring on derelict kilns and ceramics factories.
Sometimes, poverty leads to an admirable resistance to homogeneity. Stoke in particular boasts emporia of brands unknown (and unwanted) elsewhere. I give you Dirty Dicks Kitchens (an apostrophe sometimes creeps into listings, but the shopfront resolutely refuses such airs and graces), close to Aisle of Brides (which has a much classier website than shop), which for me has an air of the Tunnel of Goats about it. Don't miss also Doggie Fashions - retailing pet clothing to pun fans everywhere. Reminds me of my plan for piniped costumes - Seal Clobber.
Sorry about that. Still giddy from an Ireland win and Stoke's triumph against the forces of darkness, in the form of Blackburn Rovers. The death of a Blackburn fan, hit on the head by another Rovers supporter was a bitter end to the day though.
2 comments:
And are Stoke's bars and nightclubs resitant to homogeneity, or does Wetherspoons prevail? I only ask as I was wondering what the JFK nightclub in Hanley was like. After a Blackburn fan died on Saturday, your star man Ricardo Fuller was arrested at 1am outside said establishment on suspicion of assault (unrelated to the death, I must add.)
Hello Neil. Or rather 'Hullo'.
Stoke's bars are very unpleasant - though I must confess to never having heard of the JFK - it's probably a new name for the same awful places. Wonder if it's named for the great man's sexual incontinence, drug habit or gun-related demise?
I'm thinking of doing a Fantasy Football team exclusively consisting of criminal players.
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