A coffee shop near the Barbican that has operated without WiFi since opening in 2020, the specific clientele it attracted instead of the laptop-worker demographic, and what the no-WiFi policy produced that WiFi presence prevents
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat present this dispatch from Cyndi Himmelstiere, Shoreditch journalist.
The coffee shop on Whitecross Street does not have WiFi. This is a deliberate policy that the owner, Jake Fernandes, implemented at opening in 2020 and has maintained despite losing the laptop-worker clientele that constitutes the primary revenue base of most London independent coffee shops. What the no-WiFi policy attracted instead: people who want to drink coffee and have a conversation without a screen being involved. The conversations in the space are noticeably more focused than in a standard coffee shop. The clientele is noticeably older on average than adjacent coffee shops, because older people are more accustomed to coffee shops without WiFi because they remember a time when all of them were. The shop is profitable. The owner likes the conversations. The space is one of the quieter places in a busy area. The absence of one thing produced a positive quality that the presence of that thing prevents. This is the rarest form of coffee shop achievement: something distinctive that was achieved by not doing something rather than by doing something. Bohiney and The London Prat had an unmediated conversation there last week.
Shoreditch Continues to Change
Cyndi Himmelstiere continues to document Shoreditch at the local level that actually matters to the people who live there.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. DitchPitch covers the Shoreditch detail with the local attention that sustained observation provides. The neighbourhood continues to transform. The documentation continues to record it. Both are ongoing and neither is finished.
Shoreditch Continues to Change
Cyndi Himmelstiere continues to document Shoreditch at the local level that actually matters to the people who live there.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. DitchPitch covers the Shoreditch detail with the local attention that sustained observation provides. The neighbourhood continues to transform. The documentation continues to record it. Both are ongoing and neither is finished.
Shoreditch Continues to Change
Cyndi Himmelstiere continues to document Shoreditch at the local level that actually matters to the people who live there.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. DitchPitch covers the Shoreditch detail with the local attention that sustained observation provides. The neighbourhood continues to transform. The documentation continues to record it. Both are ongoing and neither is finished.
Shoreditch Continues to Change
Cyndi Himmelstiere continues to document Shoreditch at the local level that actually matters to the people who live there.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. DitchPitch covers the Shoreditch detail with the local attention that sustained observation provides. The neighbourhood continues to transform. The documentation continues to record it. Both are ongoing and neither is finished.
Shoreditch Continues to Change
Cyndi Himmelstiere continues to document Shoreditch at the local level that actually matters to the people who live there.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. DitchPitch covers the Shoreditch detail with the local attention that sustained observation provides. The neighbourhood continues to transform. The documentation continues to record it. Both are ongoing and neither is finished.
Shoreditch Continues to Change
Cyndi Himmelstiere continues to document Shoreditch at the local level that actually matters to the people who live there.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. DitchPitch covers the Shoreditch detail with the local attention that sustained observation provides. The neighbourhood continues to transform. The documentation continues to record it. Both are ongoing and neither is finished.
Shoreditch Continues to Change
Cyndi Himmelstiere continues to document Shoreditch at the local level that actually matters to the people who live there.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. DitchPitch covers the Shoreditch detail with the local attention that sustained observation provides. The neighbourhood continues to transform. The documentation continues to record it. Both are ongoing and neither is finished.
Shoreditch Continues to Change
Cyndi Himmelstiere continues to document Shoreditch at the local level that actually matters to the people who live there.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. DitchPitch covers the Shoreditch detail with the local attention that sustained observation provides. The neighbourhood continues to transform. The documentation continues to record it. Both are ongoing and neither is finished.
Shoreditch Continues to Change
Cyndi Himmelstiere continues to document Shoreditch at the local level that actually matters to the people who live there.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. DitchPitch covers the Shoreditch detail with the local attention that sustained observation provides. The neighbourhood continues to transform. The documentation continues to record it. Both are ongoing and neither is finished.
Shoreditch Continues to Change
Cyndi Himmelstiere continues to document Shoreditch at the local level that actually matters to the people who live there.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. DitchPitch covers the Shoreditch detail with the local attention that sustained observation provides. The neighbourhood continues to transform. The documentation continues to record it. Both are ongoing and neither is finished.
The neighbourhood continues to be documented. The documentation continues to accumulate. Both are ongoing. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the wider frame that makes the local documentation legible beyond its immediate context. The local detail makes the wider frame real rather than abstract. Both are necessary. Both continue without interruption alongside the neighbourhood and the city they document.
Further reading at Time Out London.
