The Deli on The Green has very newly opened providing the locals with an ample variety of food ranging from meats and cheeses to the simple ‘pick up and go’ sandwiches.

Not only does this opening bring a fresh shaker style feel to the high street of Woodford, but it also brings over a rustic feel and is wholesome with flavour.

The recently opened deli also provides a relaxing coffee lounge where there is a centralised feature in the room, this being a magnificently restored oven from the bakery that had once been there, providing a rural country feeling to the lounge.

Allowing the customers to take themselves back to 1950s' Italy with the brick bake oven surrounded in matt black paint and the fresh herbs such as cilantro and rosemary, bringing out the flavour of each plate of food, causing your olfactory senses to burst and lavish in the authenticity and heart of the atmosphere and food.

The shop that had once been under this very same roof of the a shop which was seen to many as “The heart of the high street,” as said by a student attending Bancroft’s School.

This shop had once been a popular bakery with nearby residents, workers and students entering every morning to buy a simple warm beverage on a bitter icy winter’s day or even a light croissant or muffin when the sun is shining.

This bakery brought out the urban feel of the high street which over time was becoming drowned out by the modernising businesses launching themselves in, and as some say “taking advantage of the local catchment area”.

Before the Deli on the Green had been approved, two nearby shops had applied for planning permission to sell fast food.

This action had aroused and infuriated much of the local community, resulting in them fighting back and refusing the opening of such a shop in the food chain of which would “Undermine the economy in the area through the loss of a diverse range of businesses and have an adverse effect on children’s health”, as put by a local reporter Natalie Glanville.

Much to mine and I am sure many others liking, upon my visit to the Deli, I entered with a sense of sophistication and existed onto the high street with a feel of a small urban town compared to what would have been an overcrowded street with congregations of students in front of the newly built fast  food shops (such as the Late-Night Café which would have taken over what was Gifford’s Bakery) indulging in their stodgy, fat filled food only providing them will a temporary feel of satisfaction and warmth alongside a significant build up of saturated fats.

In conclusion, I feel that the new opening of Deli on the Green has not only had a positive impact on the atmosphere of the high street but also to the community providing them with a depth to their palette and their overall health.

Kiran K Bhangu

Bancroft's School