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South London Café F***offee Replaces Offensive Signage With Censored Lego Version

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A south London cafe that was warned that it would be taken to court if it did not remove its "offensive" Fuckoffee sign has replaced it with a censored version made of lego.

The Bermondsey Street cafe was told last week that the building’s owners would take legal action to remove the sign unless it was taken down.

Cafe owner Adrian Jones later told the Huffington Post UK that the name was only intended as a joke and said he would re-brand the cafe under a different name.

coffee

The 'offensive' sign

However, he later decided to simply censor the sign. A spokesman for F***offee told the Evening Standard that this was after feedback and looking into the legality of it.

The new design was unveiled on Twitter on Tuesday.

On the new sign the 'u' in the cafe's name is replaced with an asterisk.

Customers had rallied behind the store to hold strong against the threat, and London Mayor Boris Johnson had also voiced his support.

The initial letter, dated October 20, from lawyers acting on behalf of the building’s owner stated, the café should immediately remove the sign. By that point the sign had already been in place for a year.

Fuckoffee responded by tweeting a picture of the letter saying "No humour please, we're British".

The letter said: “We are instructed that you have either erected or allowed your sub-tenant to erect an offensive sign on the exterior of the building… without the permission or authority of our client and this constitutes a trespass."

It demanded that the 'Fuckoffee' sign above the shop front be taken down, or "our client will have no option but to remove the sign themselves or issue court proceedings seeking an injunction requiring you to remove the sign.”

The letter also threatens that the landlords could cancel the coffee shop's lease.

Damian O'Brien, a ward councillor for the area, told the Evening Standard he liked the café but its sign had prompted complaints from people living nearby, including some complaints to police.

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People rallied to support the café, criticising its "humourless" landlords:

A petition was later started to rally support for the cafe.

It read: "There is a small, indie coffee shop in Bermondsey called Fuckoffee. They have had a few anally retentive and gormless people complain about their name and now they have their money grabbing corporate landlord demand they take the sign down as it is deemed to be "offensive".

"We, the undersigned, confirm we have a sense of humour and find the continued attack on our beloved Fuckoffee an insult to freedom of expression, freedom of speech and humour."

Fuckoffee also launched into a series of tweets ridiculing the legal letter, and suggesting other things that might be considered "offensive":

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