Owner of vandalised Churchill-themed café in Hackney hits back at critics

By Hackney Citizen | Monday 29 January 2018 at 16:24

Criticism: Blighty UK in Finsbury Park. Photograph: Google Streetview

The owner of a Winston Churchill-themed café in Hackney has hit back at recent protests and media attacks accusing staff and diners of “celebrating colonialism” – calling the campaign “pathetic”.

Chris Evans runs Blighty UK in Finsbury Park, which is part of the company’s Commonwealth of Cafés along with Blighty India in Tottenham.

Customers drink from Churchill mugs, and the décor features union jacks and model spitfires.

But a wall mural of the wartime leader had to be removed last week after graffiti reading “imperialist scum” and “warmonger” was scrawled on it.

The café, which says it tries to source all of its ingredients from Commonwealth countries “where possible”, was also stormed by protesters.

‘Garish’: a neon portrait of Gandhi at Blighty India. Photograph: Facebook

In Tottenham, a petition calling on the local branch to change its India theme has reached 71 signatures.

The café features a neon portrait of civil rights activist Mahatma Gandhi.

The people behind the campaign wrote to local MP David Lammy, saying: “The owners are not Indian, and the food is not Indian, but British with an Indian ‘twist’ – which frankly many Indians would find offensive.

“It is a garish colonial view of India, stereotyped and built for English consumption.”

The criticism last week led to an Evening Standard columnist accusing Blighty UK of “wilful naivety” and having “no awareness” of Britain’s colonial past.

But Evans, who described the column as “negative” and “one-sided”, told the Citizen: “Generally, I try to look on the bright side and think well of people.

“We have to celebrate humanity or we’ll go down this dark and negative path of erasing every human being from history.

“If you can’t celebrate Gandhi and Churchill, who can you celebrate? Everyone has flaws.”

Evans is well aware of Churchill’s past, but added: “It’s the same old chestnut – taking a small part of his life and judging him entirely on that.

“It’s irritating, because taking that argument to its logical conclusion would mean we’d never pay tribute to anyone – which is pathetic.”

Evans said the mural – which features Churchill’s famous two-fingered salute along with the words “Double shot” – will stay down for now.

But he added that it could be back once the media furore dies down.

A number of right-leaning publications have picked up the story, with one claiming the woman behind the Blighty UK protest is a “Corbynista”.

And Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson today tweeted to say the Labour leader should “denounce” the protesters, calling their behaviour a “disgraceful attack on our finest ever wartime leader”.

Update: this article was amended at 10:20 on Wednesday 31 January 2018. Following feedback, the word “foibles” has been replaced with “past”.

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