Having first visited Chapel Market in October for its appearance in The London Nobody Knows (1967), we are back for more for a slightly different kind of post. As anticipated at the end of that post, on Monday 28th October, making the most of the only day non-market day of the week, a film crew had taken over the street, set up a mini Christmas market and even brought in a snow machine!
On 25th November, fast-food giant Mc Donald’s unveiled their Somewhere Near You festive TV ad for Christmas.
I know what some of you may be thinking. Like many chain outlets that we can find everywhere and anywhere across the UK, retail outlets are pretty much the same wherever you go. Asides for the first opening seconds, the Christmas 2013 advert takes place mainly inside the restaurant which makes it tricky to identify it.
However, it is not the first time that Mc Donald’s UK uses this Islington outlet. They have done so on a number of occasions and, on those TV adverts, it is possible to spot that we are indeed in Chapel Market, albeit using the ‘pause’ button. Here are a few of those adverts and the clues.
You may remember Mc Donald’s First Day advert. A young man turns up for his first day in a new job and is taken around the office at Mach 2 speed, bombarded with information, names, passwords, etc. When finally he has some time for himself, to recover from this frantic and traumatic experience, he pops in the local outlet…in Chapel Market!
Another campaign you may remember is the Great Tastes of the World one. A man, comfortably seating at home reading the paper, suddenly tells his girlfriend: “Jane I have decided to travel the word.” The adverts were there to support a ‘5 weeks – 5 Burgers’ campaign to invite you to try out tastes from Australia, Mexico, Spain, South Africa and Switzerland. Nonetheless, every single time his exhaustive journey ends up in…you’ve guessed it, Chapel Market again!
In all these adverts, the clues are the black parking post outside the restaurant, the white mark above the company’s name and the windows in the top right angle.
I know, it is not as obvious as Tower Bridge or the Houses of Parliament but this is also what McDonald’s is after: to make it look familiar to all of us independently of where we are in the country.
To sum up, out of their 12,000+ UK outlets, Mc Donald’s is Loving Chapel Market!
Fade Out
Enjoyed this post? Feel free to comment, share it with your friends and come to Islington to discover our locations! Don’t forget to send me your pictures.
And if you do know any Islington location used for Film, TV, photo shoot or have been involved in the process, drop me a line at TheUnbelievableMrX(at)gmail.com or via Twitter
How to get there?
Chapel Market N1 9ER
Angle Tube Station: (Zone 1)
Many buses to Angel
Lights, Camera…Islington! 
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