please empty your brain below

Big queues outside Goddard's on Sunday evening as well. Which would be apt material for a just-revived locally-based blog if the person who wrote it didn't find pie and mash vile.

But considering the late-90s fight over the Goddard's site (Cutty Sark DLR station was funded by the shit shopping development around it, and originally the plan was to bulldoze Goddard's), and the speedy death of the place less than a decade later, there's no wonder eyebrows are being raised.

Manze's on Tower Bridge Road remains, mind.

I trust you got a free copy of the Hidden London book, given that there is already a quote from you taking up a goodly proportion of the home page...

And as for Goddards... well, one can always get in a manager to enable one to see more of one's young family (and I'm sure a modest rise in the price of each dish would have allowed that). Alternatively, I would have thought that such an iconic business could have been sold as a going concern. Much more likely that the story is a smoke-screen to cover the fact that they've made a huge amount of money by selling out to McD's (or whoever it is) and can now retire very early. I'm sure the founding members of the family are turning in their graves.

Here's what Jeff had to say about the pieshop closure in last Friday's Evening Standard:

"Our customers seem pretty gutted and a fair few are angry with us but both Kane and I have young children and we found running the business was encroaching on family time too much. We'd been thinking about selling in a couple of years but then Gourmet Burger Kitchen approached us with an offer we couldn’t refuse."

Count me among the gutted.

Some photos from the last evening here.

When I was a child, one of the reasons for a trip to London was a visit to the Geffrye Museum. Did they have dolls' houses?

I'd rather keep the pie shop, but at least GBK makes a very nice burger. The best that I've had in a self-styled burger joint, anyway.
And another recommendation for Manze's.

Re Goddards, this is what's so sickening about real estate: the sellers have to take the best monetary offer available. If they sell to someone else for less because of principles, the new owners will the very next day sell it off for a profit anyway. Very very sad to see something like this happening. Corporations will soon rule your country the way they rule now the US.
Try to stop the monster now, while you can.

Hi Jeff Goddard here!

Just wanted to respond to some comments. First of all, there is no "smoke screen", just a genuine desire for some work-life balance. The way the shop was, there was no life, just work! As for getting a manager, that really would have made my ancestors "turn in their graves" as they were always proud of the fact that our business was run by genuine family members, not a manager who probably only cares about his salary. The same goes for selling it as a going concern - I am proud of what my family and I have built and do not want someone else to trade under my name.

My father and my grandfather were both family men and I know they would have supported us in our desire to have a life with our families outside the pie shop - they did, but the shop was not so busy then.

We do not intend to retire, far from it, but we will be operating our pie business in another way which will allow us to make a living, spend time with our children and wives, and maybe have a proper holiday for the first time in many years! It's that simple.

Thanks to those people who have supported us all these years. We genuinely appreciate how devastated people are, but hope they will understand our reasons.

Jeff

The PSB pics at the NPG are definately worth a visit, in fact DG, did I pass you on the stairs in the NPG on Sunday 5th mid afternoon?

dg writes: afraid not - I went on Saturday.

I bet DG was in a University Challenge team.

I suspect Jeff's next career is in PR or marketing (frozen pies, or pies delivered for your party/office function, or virtual internet pies anyone?).

I note he didn't deny having made lots of money

"As for getting a manager, that really would have made my ancestors "turn in their graves" as they were always they were always proud of the fact that our business was run by genuine family members, not a manager who probably only cares about his salary"

I think it would be fairly easy to find a manager who *would* care about working in such a wonderful shop. But then it would appear money talks, as it always does. One wonders what your ancestors would think about selling out to the highest bidder?? Another gourmet burger bar. Fan-bloody-tastic. Well done there - one more step towards clone town Britain.

Some readers of this blog have no understanding of economics.
Goddard's would appear to have run into the same quandary as other old-established family-owned businesses. The value of the business is in its non-cash assets: its reputation, its location, its recipes. The business itself is probably turning a decent profit but nothing spectacular. This is a modern phenomenon that former family would not have had to face.
The Goddards have worked like dogs and in so doing have added to the value of their non-cash assets but the only way they can enjoy the fruits of their labours is to sell. That's not selling out, that's getting a life.

Some readers of this blog are clearly miserable, patronising dullards, "trad".

I agree with everything

people still eat pies? I thought Jamie Oliver had banned all that.











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