London’s “greatest” fish and chip store has been ordered to take away a Union flag mural by council officers.
The proprietor of the Golden Chippy, in Greenwich, south-east London, was left bemused after a design that includes the flag held by a humanoid fish and a slogan saying “A Nice British Meal” had been allegedly deemed inappropriate for the world.
Chris Kanizi and his employees have had a robust footfall of tourists, together with many abroad vacationers, because the store was deemed London’s top-rated restaurant on TripAdvisor in 2016.
Painted solely a month in the past, at a value of £250, the mural was offering an additional boon to his enterprise by giving social media-conscious prospects a selfie alternative. It isn’t the primary time Mr Kanizi, who arrived within the UK in 1977 from northern Cyprus, has fallen foul of Greenwich council together with his zeal for celebrating fish and chips.
In 2016, the city corridor ordered him to take away a a lot bigger signal – about 17 toes excessive – that includes a really comparable design, from above the door.
He relented after a two-year battle and a petition of help, which attracted greater than 3,000 signatures when he was confronted with being taken to court docket.
“It’s simply one thing to place a smile on individuals’s faces,” he mentioned. “However the council mentioned “it is a preservation space – you’ll be able to’t have that and also you’ve received to color over it. In addition they mentioned individuals had been complaining, however I don’t imagine that. Everybody who has talked to me say they like it”.
Mr Kanzini arrived in London with the ambition of learning medication, however says he as a substitute turned “an professional fish surgeon”.
The 65 year-old has run the Golden Chippy for 20 years and lives two doorways down.
“I’m going to stay it out for so long as I can,” he mentioned. “They haven’t given me a date to color over it but, however they may.”
“I’ve received so many worldwide prospects. All of them like taking a photograph with the mural within the background.”
The store is situated in a Nineteenth-century conservation space.
Nonetheless, Mr Kanizi has beforehand pointed to photos of the nook property from the Forties, when the premises was a restaurant, which included quite a few giant commerce indicators.
On the time of the final furore, a neighborhood residents group described the council’s definition of heritage as “slim and out of contact”.
A Greenwich council spokesman mentioned: “Following a lot of complaints made to native ward councillors, an enforcement case was raised in regards to the mural in query.
“Our Planning Enforcement group is investigating this as it’s successfully an unauthorised advert for the chip store. The proprietor has agreed to color over it.
“We’ll all the time attempt to negotiate with the proprietor earlier than continuing to a proper planning enforcement discover.”
