And so to the political pastiche that is the coffee house Mecca of north London and Hampstead's attempt to secure autonomy from Camden LBC.

Actor Tom Conti has thrown his almost-forgotten weight behind Hampstead's so-slow-it's-glacial ‘snowballing' campaign for Britain's wealthiest town to break away from those upstarts down the hill in Tufnell Park, Kentish Town and Camden Town.