BJ Fashions

BJ taught herself how to sew. In her shop are four industrial size sewing machines and in the window mannequins dressed in brightly coloured outfits. BJ works six days a week, listening to a Nigerian Muslim station and has been living just off Chatsworth Road for more than 18 years.

Kashmir Kebabish

Nadeem is from the Pakistani side of Kashmir, which he explains is a beautiful part of the world, half in India, half in Pakistan. The food he serves is Pakistani, which tends to be spicier than Indian dishes. On the menu are samosas, kebabs, curries, steaks and sweet lassi. “Our customers are from everywhere – they are Chinese, White, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi” When I ask him what he thinks of Chatsworth Road, he shakes his head: ‘I work here 12 hours a day, so I don’t ever get to see it.”

Hop

One of the more recent additions to the street is Hop Toyshop hoptoyshop.co.uk, owned by local Maria Chalidze.

Chatsworth Laundry

There has been a launderette on this site for 50 years. Before that it was an Off Licence. 22-year-old owner Zak, originally from Gujarat, India, has been running things since he was just 18. With a penchant for expensive sports cars, when the smell of marijuana began to permeate the premises last year, all the old ladies doing their laundry assumed it was him. The police then discovered that his neighbour was growing and harvesting a plantation of 100, human sized specimens. Open until midnight every day, Chatsworth Laundry serves the local population as well as businesses throughout London, with pick ups from commercial premises throughout Hackney and the West End. 'We get everyone here really, but at one time there was nothing much here; now it is becoming really trendy.'

Book Box

The owners of the bookshop, the Book Box, live above the shop. Downstairs is a ceramics cafe, where customers can paint their own pottery while indulging in ice cream, cup cakes and milkshakes. It was an old fashioned barbers before it became a book shop and before that was Vanderbilt, the butchers.

'It's Dead in Here'

Pam from the Cooperative Funeral Parlour at 80 Chatsworth Road has a good sense of humour. 'It's dead in here', she cackles, enjoying the pun. 'Even here we are suffering from lack of business. People have to register their deaths at the Town Hall in Mare Street where there is a co-op so we get left out. We do have a chapel of rest here but it is rather damp. The council planted a tree outside – we didn’t want it – it went through a gas main.'

Chatsworth Supermarket

Asif is the manager of the 24-hour Chatsworth Supermarket, which has an Eastern European Social & Snooker Club downstairs with a huge TV screen showing Turkish programmes and sport. “I used to run Altun across the road with my family. We did it for four years but it just became too hard, because of the long hours and too much competition on Chatsworth Road with so many shops selling the same thing. We were working 14, 15 and 16 hour days. I still work 12 or 13 hours six days a week.“