Cafés on Park Street now outnumber people

Lovers of limp, overpriced paninis can rejoice - as of this week, Park Street officially has more cafés than people.

With the gradual replacement of all useful shops by identikit caffeine-peddlers, Park Street now has 59 cafés, bars and restaurants - more than the number of people who can be bothered to go there at any one time.

Users of the street have voiced concerns at the teaspoon takeover, and surprisingly they include some of the café owners themselves.

"It's getting pretty hard to make a living here " said the owner of the Crushed Trilby, a mezze bar themed after a derelict 1980s haberdashery department, which has become Park Street's latest addition.

"At the moment, the main thing keeping us afloat is the freelance writers. There's one who comes in every morning at 11 and buys a flat white, and that gives us just enough profit to stay open. They also tend to move from place to place to make it less obvious that they're just there to steal the wi-fi."