The Blighty UK café located at the heart of one of London’s most diverse multicultural communities is a homage to Britain and its wartime leader, Winston Churchill.
A dummy of Churchill sits behind a table in the corner of the café wrapped in the red-and-white scarf of the local team Arsenal. A cardboard cut-out of the former prime minister wearing an apron is balanced on the stairs. But his looming presence has disappeared from a large mural on the building’s outside wall after vandals repeatedly attacked his image.
The picture - with the leader’s trademark two-fingered wartime salute – was defaced with graffiti declaring him “imperialist scum”, “warmonger” - and worse - before café owner Chris Evans had the wall repainted.
The episode highlighted how multicultural Britain continues to grapple with its imperial past as it repositions itself following the 2016 vote to leave the European Union – and how establishment icons of the imperial era are being reassessed.
“I’m a proud Britisher and wanted to create a British café,” said Mr Evans. “This type of incident shows that there’s always someone who says you shouldn’t be overtly British.”
The UK’s decision to leave the EU in 2019 has raised the prospect of Britain revitalising its links with former colonies as it re-orients its trading and political relationships. This potential resurgence of the importance of the Commonwealth – a group of 52 nations with historical links to the UK and home to more than two billion people - is encapsulated in Mr Evans’ plans for chain of cafes in London celebrating that association. At the moment, he has two.
The first branch in the Finsbury Park district of north London is focused on the UK and dominated by the presence of Churchill from quotes on the wall, to murals on the wall – to the cooked breakfast that bears his name.
Churchill, an unabashed imperialist whose political decline mirrored that of the Empire, remains a popular and instantly recognisable figure 73 years after he lost power.
A 2002 poll carried out by the BBC installed him as the country's "Greatest Briton" owing to his premiership from 1940 to 1945. The film the Darkest Hour that charts his wartime leadership is playing to packed cinemas.
Yet – as the incident at the café reveals – his popularity has been tempered by his colonial attitudes and accusations of racism.
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Churchill’s statue outside parliament was defaced with red paint and a turf of grass placed on his head during anti-capitalist demonstrations in 2000. A man fined over the incident said he wished to “express a challenge to an icon of the British establishment”.
Churchill’s legacy is not alone in being challenged of imperial-era British statesmen with a vigorous campus campaign calling for the removal of statues of those tarnished by their roles in colonialism. More than 170 scholars last month signed a letter criticising Oxford University’s support for a project named Ethics and Empire, claiming that it amounted to an apology of colonialism.
A second branch of Mr Evans’ chain replaces Churchill with Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence movement, which has also been targeted in a small online campaign because it “insensitively evokes the memory of the Empire”, according to the Times newspaper, and called for the café to be redecorated. The online petition – which was signed by some 70 people - appears to have been taken down.
Analysts said the protest was not supported by the wider public with a poll in 2014 suggesting that nearly 60 per cent of Britons thought that Empire was something to be proud of – and a third of those questioned wanted to see its return.
“The people criticising this café or even vandalising it were not representative of the British public as a whole,” said YouGov political researcher Chris Curtis. When pollsters ask about Winston Churchill the “first thing that would come to mind would be that he won the Second World War”.
Mr Evans, who sources his ingredients from Commonwealth countries, said he had no intention of redecorating and plans further cafes beginning with Kenya and Jamaica despite the cafes theme harking back to past that for many represents an era of brutality and oppression.
“It’s a nonsense. I have every right to celebrate our history and mark what we did – good and bad – rather than become bland. What should I change the name to, Coffee and Cakes?”
Mr Evans says he is not an apologist for empire, or a poster boy for insular Britain – he voted to remain in the European Union – and his employees are representative of the multicultural community.
Alongside the wartime friezes of World War Two air dogfights and Churchill’s most famous utterances, a poster appeals for charitable donations for a microfinance scheme for women in India and Rwanda.
Blighty UK – a slang term for Britain used by troops in the Second World War - opened five years ago in a part of London notable for its multiculturalism. The street includes an Ethiopian restaurant, a halal butcher.
The Finsbury Park mosque is just a few hundred yards away that was the target of one of five terrorist attacks in 2017. An alleged extremist is currently on trial accused of murdering Makram Ali, 51, and mowing down nine others by driving into them as they left the mosque in June last year.
The man on trial, Darren Osborne, is accused to have driven from his home in Wales to carry out the attack.
“It became very apparent to all of us that Finsbury Park is a cohesive community when everyone came out to show love and support after the attack,” said councillor Asima Shaikh, who represents the area. “We are a very diverse, multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-faith community but we are very cohesive in that diversity.”
The sentiment was echoed by a customer at the café, Mark Lalbeharry, a writer and Briton of Guyanese heritage, who said that the café had been unfairly targeted. “They’re trying to be different and it has a community spirit. It brings people together.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
'Midnights'
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
If you go
Flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh with a stop in Yangon from Dh3,075, and Etihad flies from Abu Dhabi to Phnom Penh with its partner Bangkok Airlines from Dh2,763. These trips take about nine hours each and both include taxes. From there, a road transfer takes at least four hours; airlines including KC Airlines (www.kcairlines.com) offer quick connecting flights from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville from about $100 (Dh367) return including taxes. Air Asia, Malindo Air and Malaysian Airlines fly direct from Kuala Lumpur to Sihanoukville from $54 each way. Next year, direct flights are due to launch between Bangkok and Sihanoukville, which will cut the journey time by a third.
The stay
Rooms at Alila Villas Koh Russey (www.alilahotels.com/ kohrussey) cost from $385 per night including taxes.
Honeymoonish
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
The National in Davos
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.
Players Selected for La Liga Trials
U18 Age Group
Name: Ahmed Salam (Malaga)
Position: Right Wing
Nationality: Jordanian
Name: Yahia Iraqi (Malaga)
Position: Left Wing
Nationality: Morocco
Name: Mohammed Bouherrafa (Almeria)
Position: Centre-Midfield
Nationality: French
Name: Mohammed Rajeh (Cadiz)
Position: Striker
Nationality: Jordanian
U16 Age Group
Name: Mehdi Elkhamlichi (Malaga)
Position: Lead Striker
Nationality: Morocco
LEAGUE CUP QUARTER-FINAL DRAW
Stoke City v Tottenham
Brentford v Newcastle United
Arsenal v Manchester City
Everton v Manchester United
All ties are to be played the week commencing December 21.
Avatar%20(2009)
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
More coverage from the Future Forum
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Aaron Finch (captain), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, David Warner, Adam Zampa
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
RESULT
Bayer Leverkusen 2 Bayern Munich 4
Leverkusen: Alario (9'), Wirtz (89')
Bayern: Coman (27'), Goretzka (42'), Gnabry (45'), Lewandowski (66')
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
