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It鈥檚 Wednesday lunchtime in the Gramophone and murderous thoughts are filling the air.

鈥淒id you know our Fashion Street office is one of the places they reckon Jack the Ripper could have lived?鈥� says Gillian.

Daniel, it seems, is all too aware of this ghoulish fact. 鈥淎 couple of times recently I鈥檝e been walking down Artillery Passage and it鈥檚 been filled with smoke by people filming down there. I keep thinking there鈥檚 a documentary on Jack the Ripper coming out, but I haven鈥檛 seen anything.鈥�

He then recollects another detail that seems to scupper this theory. 鈥淎ctually, there were also people moving a fibreglass postbox up and down the street, so I don鈥檛 know what was going on.鈥�

DLG鈥檚 east London locale is starting to sound like a place to be avoided by the faint-hearted, so I鈥檓 slightly alarmed when Graham chips in: 鈥淥ne of the things that attracted us to the office was the area.鈥�

But the team at DLG obviously aren鈥檛 the type to live in fear of murder and mayhem 鈥� or even latex.

鈥淧eople do need to take safety more seriously,鈥� says Tony. 鈥淏ut then some bureaucracy can be really stupid and over-the-top.

It鈥檚 a cultural thing at the moment.

鈥淭here was a children鈥檚 entertainer on the radio this morning saying he couldn鈥檛 use balloons because some children have a latex allergy.鈥�

There is an uncomfortable silence while people contemplate the implications of such an affliction.

Finally, Graham asks the obvious question: 鈥淗ow will they get over the problem of condoms in later life?鈥�

The conversation turns once more to the darker side with the revelation that Tim is a member of a Goth band, and is about to tour as a session musician with a Japanese outfit.

It鈥檚 unlikely he will look too sinister on stage, however: 鈥淭he thing with Japanese Goths is they dress as Edwardian children. It鈥檚 OK if you鈥檙e a girl, but if you鈥檙e a guy, you end up looking like a Christmas pudding.鈥�

Christmas pudding or not, it seems Tim has a young admirer. Gareth鈥檚 12-year-old daughter is apparently a Goth in waiting: 鈥淪he鈥檚 not too hardcore yet, but Tim鈥檚 her hero. Her favourite outfit involves a black jacket, but she hasn鈥檛 yet started on the make-up.鈥�

Gareth himself doesn鈥檛 appear convinced: his Gothic tendencies seem to begin and end with architecture.

And as the conversation meanders on to the lost crafts of stonemasons with a specialism in gargoyles, I slip away to take my chances on the fashionably mean streets of Shoreditch.