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Traders Nigel Armstrong and Keith Alford: ‘We’ve got to fight for rights’ |
‘If we have to quit shops will Starbucks move in?’
Traders fear giants will swoop as parade awaits development
TRADERS in one of the City’s last small independent shopping parades have been given notice to quit to make way for a block of shops and offices.
Thornfield Properties, which bought Caxton House, in Farringdon Road, Clerkenwell, from the Corporation of London five years ago, has told the 12 businesses that have traded from the block for 30 years that their days there are numbered.
Thornfield, which is awaiting the result of a public inquiry into its plans to redevelop Smithfield Market, just 100 metres away, won planning permission from Islington Council to redevelop Caxton House in August last year.
But the traders, who have been operating under subsidised rents, were given notice to quit only two weeks ago.
Butcher Nigel Armstrong, who has run Meat City for 25 years, said: “We want to make sure they are doing this fairly and to see if there’s an alternative.
“This is one of the few parades with public services – butcher, deli, barber, fruiterer, shoe repairers – left in the City. I was voted number one butcher in London. I offer the best quality meat at the best price.”
Mr Armstrong, who says his business will fold if he is forced to pay high City rents, added: “Our concern is that they get us out and then re-let the shops at higher rents to companies like Boots and Starbucks while they wait to begin work on the building.
“If it’s going to be developed, we accept that, but we want them to let us stay until this happens.
“Surely, there’s a parade of a dozen shops where they can relocate us. We’re not selling diamonds and BMWs. We can’t afford London rents.”
Deli owner Keith Alford said: “We can’t contest it but we’ve got to fight for our rights. We’re losing our livelihoods. This shop’s been here for 30 years. People don’t want to keep going to Sainsbury’s and Pret a Manger, they want individuality.
“If someone asks us to get a product in, that’s what we try and do. It’s a personal service. You don’t get that from Lord and Lady Sainsbury.”
Thornfield Properties has offered traders a choice – they can either move out in six months or agree to switch to a monthly rolling contract from now.
Jason Marcus, chairman of Thornfield Properties, said: “Most of the shops in the London Central Markets in Farringdon Road have been there for a number of years with low rents and break clauses which have been agreed freely between Thornfield and the shopkeepers, to enable them to stay.
“Some have been put on rolling monthly notice so they can stay as long as possible and over many years we have not increased their rents or tried to force them out. There will be small shops in the new development suitable for existing shopkeepers if they wish to come back.
“The Smithfield and Farringdon area will continue to be full of small, independent shops so there will be alternative and affordable locations for these shopkeepers to move to nearby during redevelopment.” |
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