Only last week, when I first wrote about it, Brick Lane’s Cereal Killer café seemed harmless enough. I even recommended it as the place to go for an enjoyably over-priced combination of nursery food and hipsterdom. But on Saturday night the café found itself in harm’s way: the delightfully named Fuck Parade set out to slaughter the Cereal Killer in protest against gentrification. Protestors scrawled ‘scum’ on the windows, waved flaming torches, hurled paint bombs and threw….cornflakes.
Those wearing pigs’ heads must have been hoping for a chance encounter with David Cameron.
Sorry, but I just can’t take it seriously. On the one hand, a cool twentysomething clientele which likes nothing more than regressing to childhood with a bowl of designer cereal. On the other hand, another group of twentysomethings with an equally childish idea of political protest.
And who exactly are these ‘anti-capitalists’? Horny-handed sons (and daughters) of toil? I think not. More like siblings of successful hipster-types who are raging against the machine because their fixed-term social media marketing contracts were not renewed.
Although I cannot say that either side is exactly a model of maturity, my personal sympathies are with the café owners. Their prices are no higher than you’d pay for a fancy cup of coffee. For a comforting snack and a bit of a laugh, it’s hardly breaking the bank; or destroying the character of the local area.
After living in Bethnal Green for an entire year I can safely say that the cereal café has brought nothing but more tourism, (a few) more jobs, and a little bit more quirkiness to the area, which in my opinion only adds to the uniqueness of the place.
So on balance I’m pleased to say that the only real result of Saturday’s shenanigans has been lots and lots of free publicity for the Cereal Killer.
It’s enough to make ‘anti-capitalists’ choke on their corn flakes.