A Costa Coffee shop is due to open at 458-60 Brixton Rd.
The site underneath the railway bridge was previously owned by H Samuel before it closed in 1984.
Since then it has been occupied by budget stores such as Poundstack and Homelook.
Costa will now rent the site from National Rail.
Nick from Federation Coffee, an independent coffee shop in Granville Arcade, said: “in terms of how it will affect us directly, we’re not that fussed. I think what we do and what they do is so different that we won’t actually have any customers in common. People who really love speciality coffee won’t be going there for their coffee fix.
“In general terms, [it is] sad but inevitable. TfL and other big landowners are happy to sit on empty properties until a big business with lots of money offers them the ridiculous rent they want for it.”
Costa is the second coffee store brand to open on Brixton Rd in the past two years, following the arrival of a Starbucks next to the underground station in August 2010.
i totally agree with Nick. I don’t think we have been affected by Starbucks at Rosie’s either. HOWEVER, it does mark the homogenizing of high street.