It’s a difficult time to be in the restaurant trade, whether you’re an independent trader or a large nationwide chain. Amid a painful series of layoffs and closures, it’s maybe not surprising that Pizza Express has been the latest to announce cuts; with plans to close around 67 of their restaurants – about 15% of the total.

They’re one of Lavender Hill’s most prominent tenants, with the big corner unit on the slope down to the station. Reliable quality, a carefully designed customer loyalty programme and helpful staff giving good service mean it’s consistently done a healthy trade, helped along by having established itself as a favourite haunt for children’s parties on weekend mornings. The decor is loosely themed around (of course) the Lavender Hill Mob.

And the good news is that our local branch has been confirmed as being included the first 150 or so restaurants that are reopening – following a successful small trial. It plans to be up and running again on the 6th August.

Both of the Wandsworth branches (Trinity Road & Old York Road) are also included in this first wave of reopenings, although the future of the Battersea Bridge Road branch is more uncertain. It remains closed for now and while it may be in a later waves of openings (there are several hundred more still set to reopen down th eline), it certainly seems that the longer a branch is left closed, the more likely it is that it will be one of those that never reopens.