Costa Coffee in Southwark Street (ex Harper's Cafe)

Can't quite believe we have another Costa coffee appearing on Southwark street opposite Borough Market. 2 Costas, 2 Starbucks and 3 Pret's along Borough High Street... Bravo Southwark council, excellent way to ruin what could be a fantastic high street.

there are too many Costabucks outlets in SE1 but these cafes with their ghastly caramel mocha soy frappucinos seem to be what the punters want. with all the talk about "gentrification" where are our shoreditch/hoxton style proper coffee shops?

well the Breakfast Club are moving in...but then other people on this site are having a pop at them!

As easy as it is to blame Southwark Council, they have very little scope to prevent Costa Coffee (or any other chain) from opening.

Costa only needed consent from the council in respect of their alterations to a listed building, not in respect of the fact of them opening a coffee shop.

Whoever is to blame, those Costa signs have ruined one of the last characteristic shopfronts in the area. Makes you sad.

But we do have the lovely new coffee shop on B Square Hej, selling Swedish coffee

i just wish some more interesting outlets (who're serious about coffee) took the "plunge" and opened up (and without the ludicrous "skinny" option- its full fat milk over espresso or nothing). i have just come back from Rome where there wasn't a Starbucks in sight and a latte is what it says it is...a glass of milk!

Very interesting programme on BBC2 last Monday about the growth in coffee shops throuout the UK-Business Boomers. It's still available to watch on iplayer and sums up the might of the coffee chains against the independent. It is staggering that the industry is still worth approx £6.2bn in a tough economy. Alas I fear we may see more of the chains on our patch!

James, that may be the case, and maybe locals need to voice an opinion more loudly (as I see that Stoke Newington has been successful preventing chains from opening in their high street). Its still infuriating...

When I see these proliferating, I cast my mind back about 18 years to when the only Costa Coffee in the l[b][/b]ocale was a kiosk in the station. At the time I worked in Southwark Towers and each morning spent 30 minutes having a coffee on the draughty station concourse (mostly with Australian colleagues) made by the almost exclusively Turkish workforce. I think the Costa family had already been bought out by Whitbread but it hadn't been through the morphing process. What's even sadder than the proliferation and milk based coffees is the inability to provide a palatable cup of tea - Twining's everyday is not even a patch on PG Tips.