The Feathers pub in Broadway. I went there yesterday lunchtime with an old college friend who is now in the police. Not surprisingly it is popular with police who work at New Scotland Yard (“A big group of police got involved in a fight at the Feathers with some squaddies from around the corner - the landlord was yelling I’ll call the police and they told him We ARE the police!”).
Afterwards we went into New Scotland Yard for a cup of coffee in the canteen. I was surprised at how little security there seemed to be - no-one searched me or asked me what I was doing there. The canteen was a big room several floors up, almost entirely empty.
“Canteen culture” is an important determinant of police attitudes to the outside world. Almost uniquely among British institutions, everyone at the top of the police has started at the bottom. The canteen culture now prevalent will decide police policy ten or fifteen or twenty years from now.
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