Forest Road has some very famous buildings on it and several fine businesses, but it also has the odd stretch which people are so ashamed of they won't let Googlemaps show their presence on the internet. The stretch from Wellington Road up to a few yards short of Waterman Pharmacy at Palmerston Road is one of these. There are a few theories about why it is so unlovely; the rubbish on the East-bound side of the road has accumulated for a long time on the plots of building-less ground and no-one cared; the building less plots themselves ensured a lack of footfall for businesses; the advertising signage has blighted the district; the bus lanes and parking restrictions killed off the passing trade; the locals are too poor and the 'churn' in the rented accommodation too great; 'developers' and other crooks were allowed to race to the bottom. There are many reasons.

What we have, in any event, is a row of terraces many of which have living rooms and bedrooms on the gound floor where once there were shop fronts. This is a place where some of the area's poorest people live isolated lives in 'houses of multiple occupation'. A few buildings have signs on them advertising marginal businesses, like the one for "Create and Build" renovations at number 186A. This is a few doors up the hill from George Gents Hairdressers. It is hard to tell if this is an advert by someone doing work, intending to work, having done work or working out of the building. In most of these scenarios, the prognosis is grim. The exterior does not make a good advert for anyone in the renovations business, whether this is their base or a place they have completed work on. If they are intending to spruce the place up, that would be great as well as brave, but time will tell if it is a clever investment. The firm itself seems untraceable as a legal entity from the information provided on the sign, but for the record, this building firm has the telephone number of 0208 279 0799.

Next door, at 188 is the black shuttered premises of another firm called Keith Brown Ltd, with an estate agents sign saying that this is a shop to let. Who would rent here? Nearly all of these houses and shops have petulent signs in their windows warning off people from parking out front, while the bus-lane deters anyone from just pulling over for a minute to call in on anyone trying to pursue an enterprise. But then again, who would buy?

Number 190 is the Walthamstow branch of Amex Associates, not a credit card conglomerate but a firm which aspires to have its hand in the pies of Accounting and Taxation, Web Designing, Human Resources Management and Business Consulting. Veritable jacks of all trades. I personally would be wary of getting strategic business advice from a firm which has planted itself in such an unpromising spot. Their customers can't even park their cars safely or comfortably. The firm seem to be seeking trade from the internet.

I shall pass over some of the sad and run-down dwellings which this once fine section of road now boasts, mentioning only that it is astonishing how many people can be crammed into some places when a 'developer' sets his mind to it. There is some optimism here, of course. There always is where human beings come from abroad to try and make a better life for themselves. At number 208 there is a sign for Tom's Bakery, a hand-written sign saying 'open soon' below a shop front of red and white annnouncing the premises to be a Polska Piekarnia, Sklep.

A few doors up, at 216 we have the premises of Sefi Law Associates. I can't comment on how good they are. I do know they have managed to get enough boxes ticked somehow to earn the right to use the OISC logo over their door. For people who are trying to tick all the Home Office's boxes, this may be of some comfort, or it may not.

The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner was set up under Tony Blair's government to fulfil a number of regulatory functions. An important one that was spun was that they were supposed to be driving rubbish immigration firms out of business. You know the type - the ones who exploit the poor and gullible. How successful OISC have been since their inception is a matter for legitimate debate: there are people who believe that by allowing such firms the cloak of respectability of their registration scheme, the OISC have merely allowed the government to claim that there are sufficient reputable firms in existence to meet the desperate needs that there are. There will be a few failed asylum seekers in the crowd at Mission Grove or selling dvds in the High Street who would dispute the proposition that OISC have cleaned up the field. As this post is about Forest Road however, and I have no intention of having anyone associated with Sefi Law Associates try to sue me by pretending I am in any way implying I have any evidence that they are anything other than kosher and competent, I shall say no more.

I merely mention in passing that in all the years since OISC's inception, only three people or firms have been permanently shut down and put on the OISC blacklist, in the whole of the UK:

African Legal Advisory Services, Samba Mwani-Gambamba and Jacob Moyo.

I will therefore cease these tangental and irrelevant generalisations which do not relate directly to Sefi law Associates and 'move on'. As they used to say a lot about uncomfortable truths in the time of Tony Blair.

There are a few more places on this bit of road which may or may not have once housed businesses, some with signs over the shopfronts and some without. Some are not clear what they are. At 218 the black sign is in urdu. There are often anough kids and pushchairs hanging around place for it to be a creche, though it could just be another over-crowded home in a now defunct enterprise. I can't tell.

There are plenty of defunct businesses around here. The most recently failed one, (judging by the state of decay of its frontage) seems to be the Lahore Take-away at number 222. There is a green red and white signage to the property, saying they sell curries, naans and kebabs (Tel 0208 520 0782) but I have not seen the place open myself. But then again, like many people, I do not often think of this stretch of Forest Road as an inviting one for an evening stroll, so I could be wrong. Maybe I should just draw a veil over this business, like googlemaps have done.