Opposite, I stopped off at Dilara, a Uyghur restaurant and takeaway run by husband-and-wife team, Abdul and Rose Axmu. Escaping persecution in Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in north-west China, they came to the UK and opened this business seven years ago.

Uyghur food is a tantalising melting-pot of Central Asian cultures; here you’ll find hand-pulled flat noodles, meat samosas, dumplings, aubergine stew, pilaf rice, chilli chicken and spiced lamb kebabs – “the best!” asserted Rose. “It’s exhausting work to prepare all these dishes. But we like our customers who even come from far outside London.”

After a succession of Algerian and English cafes came Mix, a popular Chinese hardware shop that stocks just about every household item imaginable – many painted on the shutters. Mrs Sau Li opened this Aladdin’s cave in 1979 after coming from Hong Kong, and two of her children now run the shop whenever she’s away.

Although coy about giving their names or being photographed, their knowledge of the stock was as encyclopaedic as their mother’s. Flower pots, wire, screws (sold individually), tools, paintbrushes, wood, brooms, crockery, mouse traps (“a best-seller”) – it was all there.

In this jumble where every inch of space, including the ceiling, was crammed, I asked Li’s daughter how she remembers where things are. “Memory!” she giggled. “If I saw it there before, it must still be there.”