With no end to lockdown in sight, more and more people are taking the opportunity to rethink how and where they want to live and work. We had already heard word of one Savills analyst returning to Liverpool to open a takeaway named Beak Fried Chicken (notable, in part, as “beak” has an additional definition unique to the Scouse dialect), and our eyebrows were raised by the news last week that JLL’s head of retail investment, Nick Hart, is opening a cycle-friendly café in Wargrave, Berkshire.
We were not alone – it was one of our most-read stories online, perhaps indicating that career changes and new opportunities are on our subscribers’ minds. Said café is named H’artisan – which, to quote the adorable Patrick in Diary’s current binge watch of choice, Schitt’s Creek, is “just pretentious enough”. It will join Rapha Cycling Club’s network of partner cafés, and Hart will run it together with his wife Sarah, a qualified nutritionist.
“It’s nice to share some positive retail news on a local high street and not to be a ‘theorist’ adviser, so to speak, and to really understand just how difficult it is to become a retailer as well,” Hart told us.
It got us thinking, maybe we should do the same, so naturally we’ve been plotting what to serve at a real estate-themed EG café. Suggestions include square foot subs, lease break-fast and, Diary’s favourite, the dilapuccino – essentially a deconstructed coffee you have to pay extra to have put back together. But there is only one item we all agree should be top of the menu: proper tea.
Money in the Banksy
It isn’t exactly news that a Banksy appearing on your wall overnight is great for your property’s value, but Diys.com has been in touch with some more focused research, and it’s a good excuse for a photo, so it would be rude not to share. The headline is: “A Banksy mural can add up to £2.5m to a street’s value!” That figure comes from the impact of Hula-Hooping Girl on Rothesay Avenue, Nottingham, where the average property price is a frankly bonkers £2,684,580 – 1,401% higher than the £178,800 area average. Well Hung Lover (pictured right) boosted values in Frogmore Street, Bristol, by 320%, while Tesco Sandcastle added 170% to Pelham Place in Hastings. The average premium of all the Banksy pieces studied comes out at a pleasingly round 100%. We don’t know if this is already a theory, but maybe Banksy is a property developer?
Are you being conversed?
This week we mourn the passing of one of the UK’s truly iconic retail destinations: Edinburgh’s Jenners department store. Amid the outpouring of grief on social media, Twitter user @agnesfrim shared photos of a four-page guide of “Conversational Starters” issued to employees in 2005, adding the fitting epitaph: “We will never know their like again.” Indeed not. The guide – compiled from staff suggestions – offers an array of customer-enticing gambits across such fertile categories as the weather, the product, appealing to the senses and the link selling approach. They include “Isn’t it nice to think about travelling now winter’s coming?” which certainly would have got Daenerys from Game of Thrones talking. Then there’s the more philosophical “You look deep in thought. What can I do for you?” Meanwhile, “Good afternoon Sir, there is a mirror here if you would like to try some jackets on?” sounds like the opening line of a Suits you Sir! sketch. We particularly like this timeless example: “The pashminas are a good buy at the moment, can I help you pick a colour that suits your outfit?” Now, Diary is not saying that the high street would have been in much more resilient shape to weather the storm of Covid-19 if all store assistants across the land had followed this guide for the last decade and a half… but could it have hurt?
OHG? OMG, more like!
Last week’s evening market wraps from EG were dominated by the sudden, soaring, spectacular rise in the share price of One Heritage Group, a developer with roots in Hong Kong that listed on the London Stock Exchange the day before Christmas Eve. Between 18 and 22 January, the company’s share price more than trebled to 49p from 15.5p, and the rise continued: it closed at 61p on 25 January. The reason? Well, no one seemed to know – including the company’s board, which has issued two statements saying it isn’t aware of any specific reason for the hike, but adding that it is confident in its pipeline of developments in the North West of England. That includes One Heritage Tower, which will be the tallest building in Salford once complete – as the share price suggests, the company is aiming high.
