The cockneys’ favourite fish’n’chip shop in London’s East End—where the tradition began 145 years ago—is once again in the frying frame as Britain’s ‘top chippie’.

East London Advertiser: Defending champ Pat Newlands getting ready for the big chippie fry-offDefending champ Pat Newlands getting ready for the big chippie fry-off (Image: Archant)

Poppies chippie-cum-diner and takeaway in Spitalfields has been shortlisted for this year’s London & South East region best chip shop in the 2016 national awards cooked up by Seafish seafood authority.

The seven shortlisted are among 60 across the UK who now ‘batter’ it out to ‘bag’ the Takeaway Fish and Chip Shop of the Year title next January.

Poppies, opened by Pat Newlands just four years ago in Hanbury Street, just off Commercial Street, is already Britain’s top ‘plaice’ for fish’n’chips after winning the accolade last year, judged on its décor, food, getting its fish from sustainable sources and its marketing.

“This is a huge honour after 50 years in the business,” Pat said when he won the title in 2014. “We put so much into the entire experience, from the fish prepared on premises by our own fishmonger to our ‘poppette’ waitresses in wartime Land Girl outfits and our vintage-style décor from the 1940s.”

Pat came out of retirement in the catering trade in 2011 to open a chippie that he’d dreamed of doing for years.

He beat two other chippies in Yorkshire and north Wales in the last fry-off final with his “commitment to the industry by responsible sourcing” and keeping up finger-lickin’ standards so future generations enjoy Britain’s favourite dish, the judges said.

The first recognised fish’n’chip shop in the world opened in 1870 in the Old Ford Road in Bow. Fried fish had been sold on market stalls before then—until the idea emerged among East End cockney traders for matching it with chipped potatoes as a set dish.