• HAS the whole world been seized by an insatiable desire for pizza? I ask this in all innocence, in the light of what’s happening in Parkway, my home street for over 50 years.

Parkway now hosts Pizza Express, Al Parco Pizzeria and a vast newly expanded Purezza. Add to this the imminent arrival of Pizza Pilgrims in the old Strada premises and you may understand my bewilderment.

Notwithstanding the pizza rush, we can hardly fail to notice the Five Guys burger bar (surely winning the prize for the most garish interior design on the planet) and the curious new Temple of Seitan burger bar.

That’s an awful lot of fast food for a diminutive semi-residential street. You only have to look around the corner at Jamestown Road to see what this can do to the character and fabric of a neighbourhood.

Where will this end? In my darker moments, inspired by the great animator, Terry Gilliam, I imagine a massive cavernous mouth descending on the street, hoovering up an endless stream of pizza and burgers from every available doorway.

Whatever happened to the much-trumpeted policies of Camden Council and Camden Town Unlimited of encouraging commercial diversity in the area?

I see that local Camden Councillor Lazzaro Pietragnoli and Parkway publican Henry Conlon are listed on the board of CTU. Perhaps these eminent gentlemen can explain via your pages where the responsibility lies for this sad state of affairs?

I anticipate the usual bland brush-off: market forces, dear boy, market forces.

COLIN JACOBSON
Parkway, NW1