Businesses in Brixton Village (Granville Arcade) and Market Row will have to pay an extra £300 per month to continue opening in the evening.
Landlords wrote to traders telling them to apply for the ‘concession’ before Friday 10th February. They say the extra money is needed to pay for added security and to get rid of “considerably” more waste.
So far shops and restaurants that want to stay open until 10pm have been able to do so without incurring extra costs to the rent, payable to landlords InShops Retail.
One Brixton Village (Granville Arcade) trader said: “It is, of course, only a matter of time before the Brixton Village bubble bursts. But it seems that InShops are determined to burst it themselves, which is perverse.”
He continued: “It is important that there should continue to be a diversity of trades in the Arcade, and there is no way that fruit-and-veg can support the sort of rents that (say) Honest Burgers could afford. However, penalising late opening seems to me to be exactly the wrong way to go about it.”
All traders should be encouraged to open late whatever they sell, he said, to ensure the diversity continues into the evening.
Restricting trade to normal working hours basically means preventing people with day jobs from spending money there.” Trader
Letters distributed yesterday told those who choose to close at 5.30pm that they would not be liable for any of the costs of late night opening.
Brixton Village was known as Granville Arcade in 2009, when the then owners, London Associated Properties, worked with Spacemakers to “entice new retailers into a location that had suffered over the years from high vacancies and low investment”.
In October last year Brixton-based food critic Jay Rayner described the Village as “the most exciting, radical venture on the British restaurant scene.” Around the same time the Brixton Blog published a debate on the subject of rents.
Inshops Ltd, based 200 miles away in Liverpool, took over Market Row and Brixton Village (Granville Arcade) in May 2010.
They shoould change the time to 7pm – then the trendy places pay for but the traders can still sell into the early evening.
Traders in Graveille arcade have struggled for years and now all these new new posh places are there raking the dollars like nobodys business and they are supposed to pay! Maybe all these new posh places should just pay up out of the profirts they makin from all the clapham trendies ruining our town. Couldnot give a sheet if they all ahve to go home at 9.30
For most of the twenty-plus years I’ve lived in Brixton, the Granville Arcade / Brixton Village was half-empty, with many unlet units. Listing, Spacemakers and above all the introduction – in 2009- of late opening on Thursdays transformed its fortunes. It’s not the money that’s really the problem; if you have a queue of people willing to pay £10 for your burgers, you’ll easily find it. But it’ll only be the popular eateries that stay open – until 9.30, Thurs Fri and Sat only, which is what this £75pw is for. They’ll soon move out, to somewhere they can stay open after 9.30, their units taken by the next person with a redundancy package to invest in a hobby-business, and other units will fail, because weekday footfall won’t make enough to cover rising costs. If you want to see quiet in the market, go on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
Really, they should be encouraging everyone to stay open late, so that all those people who travel across town to try the overhyped pizzas and burgers can also see the other things the market has to offer.
Same as everybody who rents in London,facing an increase every year now. Welcome to London,you are only here for your money. Landlords can name their price and society will always have to pay. Including Brixton market. Already the price of food is ridiculous in Brixton village as it is to the point that the majority of locals can`t afford to eat in this rather smelly pretentious area. Gotta laugh!
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