There is indeed a "pedestrian waiting area" on the opposite side, right by the fish market back wall. I am unsure that a crossing is needed; traffic is single file, one way, 20mph speed limit, and the sheer number of pedestrians means that they generally rule the road there. The hardest bit will be getting anyone to use the waiting zone, since a road-break in the queue simply begs for people to queue-jump, and the pavement in question is pretty smelly to boot. Of course with a crossing the queue might just block the road entirely.

I haven't eaten at the Magpie, excellent F&C are easily found elsewhere in the town as Kitty and Guest03:10pm mention, and at better prices. Was the Magpie streets ahead, Kitty?

As for buying either side, well they did buy up on one side, turning it into the Magpie Takeaway (I believe they may have simultaneously improved their disabled access, which was pretty poor before) they now have two queues obstructing normal useage of the road where there was previously only one. Given sufficient resources they might persuade further businesses to sell up, but neither immediate neighbour is currently advertised as being on the market.

Perhaps if Mr Stein could discover one or two of the other delights of the town his groupies might spread out a bit more?