Selvendran also understands the cultural significance of chicken shops in London and the community they serve.
"Everyone loves the Bossman," he tells me. "We live in a world where everything's going automated in some [fast food] places, and it's going to keep going that way. But your local chicken shop? It's just not happening."
When it comes to the health aspect of fast food, Selvendran says that "you'd never catch me saying that Morley's is for every day."
He continues: "You need to eat responsibly, treat yourself sometimes, look after your health. But people always tell me, 'We don't eat it now, but thanks for feeding me back then.' All of us chicken shop owners understand the influence of youngsters, but it's not about taking advantage of them, it's not that at all. At the end of the day, the margins are small nowadays but we try our best to keep things cheap. Here's something I will say: my dad died in 2002, and until 2009, the management was not very good. During that time it was the customers that kept Morley's alive. The stories about people's childhood? 'I only had a pound and the Bossman gave me enough food' I get so many emails. [It's why] I refuse to put anyone's face to Morley's and I won't put my face out there either, because the face should be the people. Talking about it, singing about it, rapping about it, and now you're writing about it. When I drive around South London and I see a Morley's, I get pride because I think that's my Dad. My Dad started this and the people kept it going."
As the gentrification of areas like Dalston, Tottenham, and Brixton drives so many working class kids from the streets, chicken shops hold even more significance as one of the few places that haven't yet been fully colonised by the white art students and middle classes. However over the past year, many a Bossman has used the rising profile of chicken shops to
hike up prices
. While the low price of chicken shop food has been fundamental in keeping inner city working classes coming back, the new chicken shop clientele can and will pay more.
Chicken shops have long been a symbol of defiance on high streets that are becoming more unrecognisable to the people who live near them. All I can hope is that they don't become another place the black and brown kids who built them up feel unwelcome in.