WHILST Kew is popular with residents due to its leafy suburban feel and community spirit, it has been nominated among the 100 worst places to live in a bestselling alternative guide to Britain.

Kew is claimed to be over-priced, conservative and populated by ladies who lunch in the book, it was said on the This is London website.

Mr Jordison, the co-author of the book, Crap Towns II: The Nation Decides, said: "The cafs have big piles of the Daily Telegraph and are incredibly expensive. One person told us about an overheard conversation in which two young women were saying wouldn't it be awful to have to work?'"

This comes at a time when Anthony Worrall Thompson has opened a new restaurant - The Kew Grill, near the green.

The opening was delayed after Richmond Magistrates' Court adjourned an application for a liquor licence because he hadn't turned up in person, as reported in The Telegraph spy column.

The restaurant doesn't want any publicity and Mr Worrall Thompson was quoted in the broadsheet as saying: "Ah, these silly little small-minded suburban bureaucrats. Honestly, I've been in the business for years and I was told there was no need for me to attend.

"But after this silly incident I humoured them and showed up, so everything is back on track. Can you imagine this happening in Westminster? I think not. Really, if they had wanted my autograph, all they had to do was ask."