Pizza Express’s collapse would be no great loss

It was where we went on our first date. It was where we took our kids for meals out. And it was the one place we always knew we could get something decent to eat when we were stranded in a strange town. As Pizza Express runs into trouble and could ultimately fold, there has been a wave of nostalgic affection for the chain. Twitter is alive with campaigns to come to its rescue, and the tabloids are serving up elegiac farewells. At this point, it would hardly be a great surprise if John McDonnell called for it to be nationalised, or if Boris Johnson stepped in to create a ‘People’s Pizza’ company to buy it out.

True, it was a great business in its day. In the half century after it was founded in Soho in 1965, it introduced the concept of casual dining – smart, reasonably priced, stylish, reliable restaurants on the High Street – to Britain.