Outside of London, the area in Britain that has seen the greatest settlement of eastern Europeans since 2004 has been Kent, for obvious geographical reasons. And to cater for their needs and provide creature comforts, a multitude of shops sprang up in the years that ensued. But a strange thing has started to happen here in east Kent: all the Polish and Baltic shops are starting to close down.
This struck me during a visit to Canterbury last week, when I noticed that the premises of the ‘East European Food’ store in Burgate Lane has now been vacated and lays empty. This represents a trend. The Polka Shop in Bench Street, Dover, has also closed this year, while its neighbour in that town, previously known as ‘The Baltic Store’, has reinvented itself as the all-purpose store, ’15 Market Square’. The Baltic Store in Ramsgate’s Queen Street has become ‘Victoria Express’ while in Ramsgate High Street another Polish shop has halved its premises (which are now a barber’s) and has renamed itself ‘International’.
Sure, you will still find Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian foods in these places, but the closing or rebranding of these shops represents a demographic shift.
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