It’s been a gas!

On Monday morning I tweeted about a gas leak in Coleman Street, round the back of Moorgate, and it turns out that the most affected company was Legal & General, who decamped to a disaster recovery facility in Southwark until the leak was fixed. City AM’s description that:
“the road outside L&G’s Coleman Street corporate headquarters was in a state of disarray in the morning as workers frantically fought to deal with the leak, which had occurred during the night”
seems a bit overblown as you can tell in the photo the two-man workforce doesn’t seem particularly frantic and are definitely not fighting anything.

I poked my head round the corner this morning and there’s an even bigger hole in front of the building than there was on Monday and the pungent smell of gas still hangs in the air (even in the rain) but there were people going in and out of the building so I assume all’s working normally in there, though I guess they won’t be going outside for a quick smoke…

It certainly made me think about what I’d do if I got sent to Southwark for a couple of days, far from the familiar cafes, coffee shops and airy markets of the Square Mile. I’d probably end up walking back across the river just to find something I recognise. I’m sure Southwark’s lovely but….

Moorgate Musings – pt 1

The new Starbucks down at the Bank end of Moorgate, which seems to have taken for ever to finish, is now open for business. Whether you do or don’t like Starbucks it should at least demonstrate Alan Coren’s Sainsburys Effect on the neighbouring establishments:
“The only thing I know about Sainsburys is that it keeps the riff-raff out of Waitrose”.

Directly opposite Starbucks Bluu Brasserie is advertising 50% off wine so if you need something to get the taste of Starbucks out of your mouth then a quick crawl across the road can sort you out. I’m sure that “terms & conditions apply” so do read the small print before you crack open the Moet but as I haven’t been in there myself any of your observations are welcome.

Lastly, in the “old news” section I couldn’t resist a mention for the new Pret A Manger on Coleman Street which is not only very nice indeed but is also quite quiet being tucked away behind Moorgate in Coleman Street. They’ve demonstrated to Starbucks, who I hope were paying attention, how to open a nice new establishment without taking months to finish it.