Lamb's Conduit Street

Lambs Conduit Street is a small, quiet street in London's Bloomsbury. I pass through it regularly as I work nearby. The businesses on the street are idiosyncratic as there are no chain stores. Each store is an independent retailer: there are grocers, bookshops, opticians, hairdressers, restaurants and bars.

One of the street's most prominent outlets is an undertaker and funeral parlour. The blinds are bright red, with a window display of old London maps showing that the street bounded onto a cemetery in earlier times.

The street has a old world feeling - shop-owners put signs in their windows, take holidays, closing their shops for a week. The pub on the corner is called The Perseverance, an apt name.

Window displays are striking. These are in the windows of a naturopathy shop and a sweet shop.

The grocery store sells local produce, freshly picked, made and baked.

There are also residential flats on the street. Period features have been carefully preserved. Lambs Conduit Street feels, a little oddly, like a modern street from the past.

Now, however, Starbucks are about to open an outlet on the street. This chain store potentially threatens the character of the street. The existing retailers have started a petition - it will be interesting to see how this develops.