Night falls on the Aussified high road

Ask a mini-cab driver to take you to Willesden, and you might have a problem. It's a lot easier if you just say, take me to The Spotted Dog.



It has three parts, all now Aussified for the large transient community from down under, 35º South, The Dog House, and the Sindrome.



The Sindrome used to be the Gaelic Bar. The Case is Altered further along the road (on the way to Willesden County Court) has been renamed Ned Kelly's.

The craft of signwriting is alive and well here.

Pick up LAM free London Aussie paper and others (not the Herald alas) outside the Down Under Internet Cafe. There are about six internet cafes in Willesden High Road, charging about a pound an hour. There are almost as many cheap telephone call shops, with their rates for all the strange places Willesden people phone.

More shops



I can easily think of 5 or 6 off-licences in the high road, if you don't want to go to one of the dozen or more pubs and squillion restaurants. The old Brady's off-licence used to have a counter with bars on it, like a pawnbroker's. There is a pawnbroker in the High Road too - a little treat for another day, with its traditional three brass balls.



Funny how hungry you get on the way home after 15 pints of lager. We have dozens of fried chicken, kebab, Indian, pizza, you-name-it, take aways in Willesden High Road.

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