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What do we know about fried-chicken G Morley’s? 1) It sells chicken: delicious, deep-fried, post-pub, hacked-up bits of unsuspecting fowl in a box. 2) Stormzy is fan. 3) It’s a SOUTH LONDON institution. So what the devil is it playing at now opening branches north of the river? What’s next? Black cabs taking you to Lewisham with a cheery ‘Hop right in’?
To be fair, Morley’s has already got some outliers, in Southend and Enfield. But the two newest additions to its translucent-with-grease portfolio are in Finsbury Park (well, Stroud Green, technically) and on Brick Lane. One on Holloway Road is also in the pipeline. These are easily the most visible signs that the big M is straining at the SE leash. According to i, this could presage a nationwide roll-out, including, in a kind of coals-to-Newcastle scenario, taking late-night junk food for pissed-up lads to Newcastle.
We’re big fans of Morley’s here at Time Out. Our former video editor D Clack even wrote this oddly aggressive paean to it, back in 2015. It genuinely is a London icon, in a city where if you stop in the street for five minutes someone calls you an icon. We’ve followed it through the junk-food-shaming years, the ironically-into-junk-food years, the poshed-up-junk-food years and the lockdown-we’ll-eat-anything-including-junk-food years. We wish it well with its, er, expansion.
Anyway, while we’re here, here are some things we didn’t know about Morley’s: 1) It has a mascot: a giant tatty bear called, perplexingly, ‘Shorely Morely’, seen in pictures sizing up children as an alternative to his all-chicken diet. 2) It has a merch store: get a snug hoody to wipe your sticky paws on. 3) That’s it.
Mmm…
Morley’s Brick Lane, 60-62 Brick Lane, E1 6RF. Open now. Morley’s Finsbury Park, 121 Stroud Green Rd, N4 3PX. Opens early Dec. Get updates via Morley’s Insta @morleysuk.
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