Palm 2 – My local shop

Clapton

Palm 2 is the shop on the corner of Lower Clapton Road and Millfields Road, overlooking the pond, it’s legendary in the area as a great store with friendly staff. I made a tumblr about it http://palm2.tumblr.com

35 Comments

  1. It is a great shop, I will try and use it more in the future – certainly deserves to survive more than the planned Tesco’s.

  2. Deli counter – the goats cheese is pretty good”

  3. I’m looking for Palm 2 anecdotes – does anyone have any Palm 2 related stories to tell?

  4. The LCR edge of Plam 2 is a real mess, and although they’re putting tables there, it’s not a great place to sit. They’re on a really good corner, and although the Millfields Road edge is quite good, it faces north so gets less sun. I think there are two things that they could do that would attract more people:1. Get rid of these phone boxes. They’re not used, they seemed randomly placed on the footway and there are 3 of them.2. Get rid of it’s loading bay on LCR, it would make the footway in front of it much wider and nicer to have tables on.

  5. Palm 2Palm 2 in Time Out this week.See the bigger image here“

  6. Hurrah for Palm 2 and Abdul! Thanks for this @ewebber, is this from the current issue or the one just gone?

  7. @saladefolle not sure, Abdul has a copy in the shop

  8. @saladefolle from the current issue.

  9. @mattg – thanks. I’m going to rush out and get a copy for posterity!

  10. I agree with @euan about removing the phone boxes. Although, to be fair, I did see one being \used” as a urinal the other evening.Whilst the proprietor of Palm 2 is obviously raising his game recently I can’t help but feel that he’s wasting an opportunity with all that fabulous window space he’s got. It just seems to be used as another wall to put things up against rather than an opportunity for people to see into the space. He’s obviously got some high-quality delicatessen goods in there but you wouldn’t know unless you ventured inside. Windows should entice customers in. Palm 2’s don’t do this.”

  11. The street furniture was mentioned during the Tesco planning application meeting, there was talk of part of the deal being that Tesco pay to remove street furniture, but it was brushed aside by the committee, which is a shame as the the phoneboxes don’t seem to serve a purpose.It would also help if the hoardings around what used to be Don’s cafe was finally removed, it must be at least 4 years that they have been like that.It seems the biggist issue is that TfL are responsible for redroute pavements so the council won’t even think about them and TfL don’t seem to really care, so basically no one will do much about it.

  12. Not to give anyone any ideas, but I’ve heard there is a group of DIY Urbanists that go round in the cover of darkness and deal with problems that the authority don’t – like obsolete street furniture. 😉

  13. As a hypothetical, the idea had occured to me. But I would have thought phone boxes, with all their cabling (including electrical mains), would be too challenging, and potentially dangerous.

  14. Mrs21 is a new convert to palm 2, wanted some nice bread, thought she’d go to the organic place – which doesn’t seem to open early enough, so checked out palm 2, and had a coffee while she was there. She took a picture from outside, which I will try and find again, but the view from the shop to the pond looked very continental in the sun. They’ve gained another customer!

  15. Palm 2 are now on twitter http://twitter.com/Palm2Shop and facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002550034087 🙂

  16. I Love Palm 2, they are so friendly and the shop is excellent. I spoke to Abdul when the Tesco opened and he said that they (Palm 2) had actually got busier since which is great. Bloody Tesco… I walked past there and its so cold and souless, its a wonder anyone goes there.

  17. The staff are amazing in there. If you can’t find something they’ll go out of their way to find it for you. Plus every time I go in it feels like they’ve done something else to improve the shop. As @boaty said, it’s no comparison to the dismal Tesco next door.

  18. I love Palm 2. It feels like The Peoples Supermarket but you don’t have to work there!

    Does anyone know where the name came from? Was there a Palm 1?!

  19. view from Palm2 view from Palm2

  20. view from Palm2view from Palm2“

  21. view from Palm2 [img]http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/713/palm2c.jpg/[/img]

  22. [IMG]http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/2811/palm2c.jpg[/IMG]By [URL=http://profile.imageshack.us/user/martinja21]martinja21[/URL] at 2011-06-06

  23. view from palm2“

  24. keep trying to post the picture mrs21 took, but just can’t work out how to post it – 🙁

  25. Hi @marty21 did you go through this: http://www.yeahhackney.com/2011/04/adding-images-to-your-forum-posts/ – you almost did it, but you deleted the closing brackets of the image

  26. view from palm2“

  27. damn it! :madface

    I can’t upload it from my pc, put it on image shack and still doesn’t seem to work.

    [IMG]http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/2811/palm2c.jpg[/IMG]

  28. right, that was you what did that wasn’t it yeah !! cheers

    I do think that view is quite continental, almost Paris-like

  29. @marty21 check your inbox!

  30. @yeahhackney

    I have, thank you!

  31. Lovely photo @marty21! I love Palm 2 and I agree with @alexpink, it should be a People’s Supermarket. I’d love to give them a hand keeping the pavement displays tidy (I’m a bit OCD).

  32. ah, perhaps the owners – nice as they are – might have a bit of an issue with the idea of a ‘people’s supermarket’. Why not just make some suggestions about how they themselves could improve the look of the outside of the shop.

  33. It’s a fantastic place – and having been in the area for 10 years, the recent changes to the shop have made a massive difference.

    Does anyone else think they could do with a new sign though? I see so many people going into that clinical Tesco who I’m sure have never even set foot in Palm 2. Their budget sign no longer represents the quality of the produce inside.

    I was thinking a nice hand-painted one would go well and might attract a few unadventurous Tesco-types through the door.

  34. I’d second that thought. For ages the scruffy frontage had me thinking it was just another Turkish offy. It’s position is amazing and the produce really good: in short it has bags of unrealised potential and would be additive to the feel of the pond area if it improved the way it could do. Perhaps some of us could do a bit of lobbying with the owner – could try to get him to hold a storefront design competition or something? 🙂

  35. @GavinRedknap that’s sounds like a great idea. The chaps there seem very receptive to ideas from the public. And I’m sure there are a hoard of creative types locally who’d be happy to come up with some kind of branding for them. I’ve no experience of retail, but surely this would make a difference and attract new customers?

  36. yep, branding is one thing. another is the position of the coffee tables – last time i saw they were stuck on the corner of LCR but would be better if they were increased in number (and the offer of goods increased) and looking over the pond. The would in turn require s re-shuffling and tidying up of the fruit and veg areas to either side of the front door, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing – its exactly the sort of ‘fresh’ entrance that the supermarkets always try to create. Hmm, interesting points to mull over…

  37. The owner is called Abdul, he’s very friendly. Just go in and have a chat

  38. Thems Please is a pop up exhibition in the ‘old Wrigleys shop’ on Chatsworth Road. See measure.org.uk for more info. Photos and words from the Last of the Real High Streets project http://chatse5.blogspot.com will make up a small part of it, which documented the wonderful, independent shops on Chatsworth Road.

  39. Details of Thems Please is over on the forum thread here http://www.yeahhackney.com/groups/gallery-shows-in-hackney/forum/topic/thems-please-by-des-hughes-at-the-old-a-e-barrow-shop-on-chatsworth-road/
    Can we keep this thread to Palm2, thanks

  40. Palm2 planning application for new shopfront;
    http://www.yeahhackney.com/palm2-152-156-lower-clapton-rd/

  41. Excited to see samphire at Palm2 today 🙂

    Samphire at Palm2
    From Palm2 tumblr“

  42. yes, and I was even more surprise to see a mammoth lobster wiggle its claws on the same shelf a couple of weeks ago! There’s no stopping Palm2…

  43. Nice article about Palm 2 over on Eat Hackney“

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