Just to say about the council. they do what they can in their "limited" power: it is a juggling act to balance the needs of the community and the needs for positive commercial activites to bring cash in.
So they couldn't stop Costa and they couldn't stop Mc Donald in CJ but for the latter they have refused when they have asked if they could be open until 3am because they said "it would be detrimental to the community as it is in the middle of a residential area".

So bottom line: don't bring your custom to Costa and carry on going to the Pantry or to this lovely girl whose shop is tiny and has lovely handmade cards.

Dave has been running the pantry for about 7 or 8 years, and has one of the longest serving businesses in Old York road. As a local, I know I will be ignoring the Costa and continuing to buy from the Pantry.......

They serve EXCELLENT coffee!

Their beans are from the Monmouth Coffee Company which are freshly roasted at their roastery near Tower Bridge - you could not get fresher coffee and it's this (plus the bean quality) that makes the difference!

The sad fact is we are all guided by brands - be it Costa, Pret, Caffe Nero etc and will walk past an excellent cafe like The Pantry because we are all naturally creatures of habit and frequent the brands we "know".

I'm too polite to comment on the quality of the big chains (*ahem*) but their coffees are not bad coffees - just not as good as a dedicated independent who knows what they are doing.

So the bottom line is - please support your independents - as long as their coffees are good and their prices comparable of course!

I don't like Costa coffee much either. Big buckets of dirty dishwater. But to be fair to them they did start as a local independent - they ground their first coffee in Lambeth in the 70s. These days they are owned by Whitbread, but I wonder at what point people stop considering businesses to be virtuous - a second store, a tenth, when they accept corporate investment?

Also the local authority role here is more limited than is sometimes portrayed. They have a role in determining whether a premises is suitable to be a cafe or not, what hours they can open, whether they can have vents from the kitchen etc. But they can't give planning permission to one cafe business (eg a local independent) which they wouldnt give to another (eg Starbucks).

disclaimer up front: I am not a fan of Costa Coffee, I think the coffee tastes like dirty dishwater. I only drink espresso, so no milk to hide the multitude of sins.

that being said, if the local independents can't do a better product that chains then they don't add much to the community. the market will decide

that said, I've been past the Pantry and few times and it looked very nice, I've not been inside.

I was saddened to see that a new Costa coffe is opening on Old York Road. We already have The Pantry & our lovely pop up kitchen by the station that does great coffees and delicious bacon rolls.

I really hope that our lovely independents aren't affected by an impersonal coffee chain like Costa. It's a shame that Wandsworth Council allowed it as it used to be something else.