Meet the Marylebone locals

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Survivor: the fishmonger

The Blagden family has been selling fresh fish from a 1890s purpose-built shop in Paddington Street, just off the High Street, since 1954. David Blagden and his son, Joseph, are the third and fourth generation in the business. As well as staple varieties, the shop sells luxuries such as samphire, wild salmon and trout. David Blagden remembers the bad old days: "Rapacious rents caused the place to be decimated with lots of empty shops. There are marvellous shops coming in now, an excellent bakery, a butcher and greengrocer.."

The congestion charge, however, has hit him hard, apparently deterring some well-off shoppers.

"It's knocked 20 per cent off our trade. People who've got the time and money to dawdle in your shop, they're the ones we're missing." But, despite his fury at Ken Livingstone, Blagden is optimistic at heart. "It will get better, the impetus is there." And he has no thought of moving, despite a recent steep rent rise (his landlord is not Howard de Walden). "We can see the area's coming up and at weekends it's buzzing," he says.

Returner: The shop owner

At La Fromagerie they take cheese seriously. It is kept behind glass in an air-conditioned, humidified room at the optimum temperature for maturation and cheeses are turned and brushed or washed regularly. "It's a bit like maturing a wine," says owner Patricia Michelson, who is a member of the Guilde des Fromageurs and Italian Slow Food. The shop also sells coffees, teas, wines, bread, fruit and vegetables and runs a café.

Michelson grew up in Marylebone and her mother still lives there: "It's like a village," she says. "There really is a great community feeling." She recalls being "mortified" by the decline of the High Street, and was thrilled when Howard de Walden invited her to open a shop as part of its regeneration plans. She was able to pick her site and chose Moxon Street, which she thinks has the potential to become a centre for French foods. She hopes to return customers to the presupermarket shopping habits: "But in a in a positive, modern way."

Residents: 'We tried W2, but it didn't seem like home'

Sally-Ann and Ronnie Jacobson moved to Marylebone in 1980 and five years later converted four garages in Beaumont Mews to a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house. "I adored the area," says Sally-Ann. True, the shops were inadequate - "we shopped in St John's Wood" - but there were definite compensations. "It's very central and fabulous for getting to the West End."

But in 1999 Ronnie, a company director, retired and needed an office at home so, rather than make structural alterations, they moved to a "very nice, pretty flat" in Sussex Square, W2. "I cannot give you logical reasons for not being happy there," says Sally-Ann, "but I had been so used to living in Marylebone, Sussex Square didn't feel like home." Last year, Oakleys found them a dilapidated two-bedroom flat back in Marylebone, off Bryanston Square. The couple have renovated the flat, creating a third bedroom.

"We bought it in very poor condition, so at a good price," says Sally-Ann, who runs an employment agency specialising in domestic help. "It's worth about £700,000, maybe £800,000 today." And she's overjoyed to be back. "Marylebone High Street is now wonderful, we've got Waitrose and these lovely places like Patisserie Valerie. And the Sunday market is incredible - everybody loves it because they bump into their friends."

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