Out with the Old... Network Rail tell businesses to vacate Atlantic Road arches
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Brixton Hatter
Home is south London mate
Great work on the art and banners 
In related news, I see Transport for London want a piece of Network Rail's scummy rentier property scam and are set to become a private landlord.
In related news, I see Transport for London want a piece of Network Rail's scummy rentier property scam and are set to become a private landlord.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
The South Kensington situation shown in yr post has been going on for some years - probably pre-Boris even.Great work on the art and banners
In related news, I see Transport for London want a piece of Network Rail's scummy rentier property scam and are set to become a private landlord.
I signed a petition in the book shop there 5 years ago. The proposal is/was to demolish the Victorian terrace containing the bookshop, Medici gallery, and various restaurants and replace with a Victoria Station style plaza above the district lines with shops and entrance on both sides, and 1st floor shopping zone. No doubt now they will be looking to build high with flats above.
Unfortunately the currently low interest rates make such a thing ever more likely.
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
Much like Hong Kong's MTR, which requires no government subsidy due to the developments it owns on and around the stations. I'm not opposed in principle - TfL could do with a more reliable source of funding than the whims of HM treasury.Great work on the art and banners
In related news, I see Transport for London want a piece of Network Rail's scummy rentier property scam and are set to become a private landlord.
Defiant traders in the Brixton railway arches are refusing to give in to the planned Network Rail evictions without a fight.
http://www.swlondoner.co.uk/a-real-...ers-fight-back-against-network-rail-eviction/
http://www.swlondoner.co.uk/a-real-...ers-fight-back-against-network-rail-eviction/
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Ol Nick
beer in Brixton
The democratic whims of the treasury rather than the purely capitalistic whims of a private company. Isn't that exactly what we're all against here?
No, just a more nuanced view of good versus evil. TFL do good things in the grand scheme and better that than less public oriented forces
Everybody says that they renovate these arches and put Pret, Wagamama and Pizza Express in them for the wealthy professionals that move in increasing numbers to Brixton. I am a wealthy professional and I will not set a single foot in any of these food chains. Not out of ideology but simply because the local independent restaurants and shops provide way better quality at a better price for pretty much every type of cuisine or produce. Why would I overpay for inferior quality? I'm not a bloody food chain charity. I really don't know who is supposed togo there.
Wrote the following letter to Lambeth council and Network rail to make it clear that they should not count on the likes of me to make their badly thought out business plans work.
------------
Dear Gentlemen,
Your hopes of attracting businesses able to pay massively increased rents probably rest on wealthy professionals like me who have flocked in increasing numbers to Brixton. I work in the City, earn a 6 digit salary and can easily afford to buy my Earl Grey tea in Fortnum and Mason. But let me be clear: I am totally against your plans and all my friends and neighbours of similar socio-economic background are so too. Let me explain you why.
Despite that I'm only here since 2 years I know my area well. I know that I can get a Pizza in Market Row that is far superior to anything that a chain like Pizza Express could offer - and at a lower price. I know that I get an excellent Cafe Latte and housemade bakery in an Italian cafe in Atlantic road which is in quality way beyond what Pret and Starbucks have to offer - and it's cheaper. The same is true for Japanese food, South American food (I haven't been to recently opened Wahaca a single time yet and don't know any local person who was) and pretty much any type of cuisine, produce and service. The chains who may be willing to pay the increased rents simply can't compete in price/ quality against the local businesses. And if I have the choice of overpaying for inferior food or stashing away some money into my personal pension then I will go for the latter.
The chains make sense in places with a lot of people in transit or from outside who don't know good local places and therefore like to rely on the chains' promise of consistent quality. Consquently there is some space for chains around Brixton tube station where a lot of outsiders transit (which is probably the reason why Starbucks next to the tube entry is doing quite well). But Atlantic Road is no such comparable transit place. Without us wealthy locals these businesses won't do well there and believe me - we have ZERO interest in them because they have nothing of value to offer us.
Brixton is today also a commercial centre for the Afro-Carribean community which adds so much to the buzz and variety of the place and is one of the many reasons I moved here. This will be destroyed in the process and won't be replaced by anything new. Nobody will come to Brixton for the chains. If I want to go to an H&M I would go to Oxford street where I get the bigger and better versions of these chains. If I want hip overpriced clothes I will go to Shoreditch where I will find plenty of these. None of these will succeed here.
As a result, Network Rail can expect fast changing tenancies of unsuccessful businesses. Lambeth Council can expect a decrease in economic activity in Brixton since existing functioning businesses will be replaced with disfunctional ones. And I myself will have to bear the disappearance of highly appreciated businesses such as Continental Delicatessen replaced with shops that can't offer me anything I could not get better and cheaper and therefore have no use for me.
So in the name of local wealthy professionals I urge you to reconsider your plans as they will not work commercially and will destroy the unique and lively community which was one of the main reasons I moved here in the first place.
Best regards,
A higher rate tax payer
Wrote the following letter to Lambeth council and Network rail to make it clear that they should not count on the likes of me to make their badly thought out business plans work.
------------
Dear Gentlemen,
Your hopes of attracting businesses able to pay massively increased rents probably rest on wealthy professionals like me who have flocked in increasing numbers to Brixton. I work in the City, earn a 6 digit salary and can easily afford to buy my Earl Grey tea in Fortnum and Mason. But let me be clear: I am totally against your plans and all my friends and neighbours of similar socio-economic background are so too. Let me explain you why.
Despite that I'm only here since 2 years I know my area well. I know that I can get a Pizza in Market Row that is far superior to anything that a chain like Pizza Express could offer - and at a lower price. I know that I get an excellent Cafe Latte and housemade bakery in an Italian cafe in Atlantic road which is in quality way beyond what Pret and Starbucks have to offer - and it's cheaper. The same is true for Japanese food, South American food (I haven't been to recently opened Wahaca a single time yet and don't know any local person who was) and pretty much any type of cuisine, produce and service. The chains who may be willing to pay the increased rents simply can't compete in price/ quality against the local businesses. And if I have the choice of overpaying for inferior food or stashing away some money into my personal pension then I will go for the latter.
The chains make sense in places with a lot of people in transit or from outside who don't know good local places and therefore like to rely on the chains' promise of consistent quality. Consquently there is some space for chains around Brixton tube station where a lot of outsiders transit (which is probably the reason why Starbucks next to the tube entry is doing quite well). But Atlantic Road is no such comparable transit place. Without us wealthy locals these businesses won't do well there and believe me - we have ZERO interest in them because they have nothing of value to offer us.
Brixton is today also a commercial centre for the Afro-Carribean community which adds so much to the buzz and variety of the place and is one of the many reasons I moved here. This will be destroyed in the process and won't be replaced by anything new. Nobody will come to Brixton for the chains. If I want to go to an H&M I would go to Oxford street where I get the bigger and better versions of these chains. If I want hip overpriced clothes I will go to Shoreditch where I will find plenty of these. None of these will succeed here.
As a result, Network Rail can expect fast changing tenancies of unsuccessful businesses. Lambeth Council can expect a decrease in economic activity in Brixton since existing functioning businesses will be replaced with disfunctional ones. And I myself will have to bear the disappearance of highly appreciated businesses such as Continental Delicatessen replaced with shops that can't offer me anything I could not get better and cheaper and therefore have no use for me.
So in the name of local wealthy professionals I urge you to reconsider your plans as they will not work commercially and will destroy the unique and lively community which was one of the main reasons I moved here in the first place.
Best regards,
A higher rate tax payer
Beautiful
Twattor
Well-Known Member
Noble sentiments, but am i the only one who sees the irony in this? Someone who moved to the area two years ago; so after the village was populated with fashionable restaurants, after Brixton Square, after Brixton became "edgy" without being dangerous, after property prices had started leaping upwards exponentially wants how it was when they moved in preserved in aspic.
Isn't that what everyone wants? That initial impression? The difference is that a lot of the locals wanted that 10/15/20 years ago.
Ol Nick
beer in Brixton
I moved here from Tooting around the turn of the century and I'm glad not to have the discarded needles and monthly murders anymore. I quite liked Pangea for cheap pizza though.
editor
hiraethified
I don't miss the murders but I miss the people, the small businesses, the pubs and the strong communities that have been elbowed out by nu-cash.
And I don't like the new two-tier Brixton either.
No noble sentiment here, quite in contrary, rather capitalist calculation.
When I shop for food or eat out then I am very ruthlessly selecting the best quality at the best price available. The point that I'm making is that in 9 out of 10 cases this is a local independent restaurant or shop in Brixton. I'm a spoilt foodie and have lived in various places in continental Europe and Asia and I can tell you Brixton's independent businesses are world class in providing excellent food at good prices. I just don't see the added value of bland chains like Wagamama, Pret or Pizza Express and how they will make any money here as their products are inferior in both price and quality compared to what we already have.
Now I don't say there could be no scope for change. I am still missing a proper cabaret and an Edgeware Road style shisha lounge. But if Network Rail's plan is to put food chains into the arches then they replace functioning businesses with businesses nobody wants or will buy from and that makes no sense under purely capitalist rules.
Brixton also has a strong market position with the Afro-Caribbean community in all of South London. Again it makes no sense to risk that for some unknown bland mix of shops I don't think will succeed here and won't attract anyone from outside Brixton. Again, no noble sentiment here, just economics: it makes no sense to replace a successful, specialised cluster of businesses with something you already find bigger and better all over London.
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Twattor
Well-Known Member
Ok. So... with your six figure salary, capitalist calculations, and ruthless selection of the best quality at the best price; tell me: which of the three pawn brokers/check cashing/gold exchange outlets in the arches is the best value? How do the prices in Brixton Tools compare to, say Quadrant on Stockwell Green, or Handymans/Diamond on Acre Lane? How do Budget Carpets compare to Carpet Right in Morleys, or Discount Carpets in Streatham? How many of the shops in the arches do you actually patronise?
From your comments above you seem keen on the food outlets, which by their presence and popularity have led to Brixton beconing the fashionable destination that it is, and which have contributed to the predicament that faces the occupants of the arches. You are a symptom of what you purport to despise.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
I appreciate the fact that you made the effort to write to Council and NR about the threatened shops.
As you work in City and know about economics I take issue with your view of Capitalism.
What is happening to the shops- and not just in Brixton- is how Capitalism operates. It not about making sense its about maximising profit.
Just been listening to programme about Trollope novel "The Way We Live Now" ( which I have not read) which is about the, for his time, new world of financial speculation ( railways). It was beginning of the modern world where the "cash nexus" ruled. Balzac ( who I have read) wrote of Paris in 19th C where everything came down to money. All the ideals of the French revolution and the nobility of Napoleonic era to be replaced by money.
This is the world we are returning to after post war taming of worst excesses of Capitalism. Inequality levels going back to 19c levels even though its a richer country overall.
I think you might be right that if all these independent shops go to be replaced by chains that will pay over the odds that it will not work out in longer run. A local shopkeeper said as much to me a few months ago. That Brixton is fashionable now but media will move onto somewhere else.
But Capitalism operates does not work like this. Its an inherently unstable system that goes through booms and bust. Its constantly seeking areas to make a profit. Meanwhile ordinary people are pushed aside- as in the shops in arches.
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editor
hiraethified
I don't use any pawn brokers or gold exchanges and since I'm renting I don't do much DIY in the house and I have no carpets. The shops I use in the Arches are indeed the food shops, Continental Delicatessen for ham, salami and olives, the fishmonger at the beginning and the portugese shop. I get nuts, spices, conserved items and most of my cleaning products in Nour Cash'n Carry in Market Row, my meat from Jones the Butcher in Dulwich road and smaller household items from the market stalls in Atlantic road.
Now I'm obviously puzzled why me shopping in these places contributes to their predicament???
Anyway, the issue is wider: I want to live in an ethnically and socially diverse area. Again nothing noble here, I just see personally the benefit of being surrounded by people with different backgrounds. Even the shops I don't go to create his diversity. That's another reason why I don't want them to go even if I don't use them.
In the end we all have our own selfish reasons why we don't want these arches to go. They are all different and but it doesn't really matter what our background or motivation is as long as we all work for the same goal.
BigMoaner
What A Load of Old Bollocks
lend us a tenner! you can crowd fund source my next pop up millwall away game.
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Twattor
Well-Known Member
Fine. Lovely. But what you have to undestand is that some people have been here for a while. There are some folks who have shoppped at stalls on Atlantic or under the arches for years. People who shop there out of necessity simply because it is the cheapest option rather than because they happen to be foodies.
You've dropped in a couple of years ago and tried to capture a snapshot. A lot of people on these boards will tell you that a lot of bad things have happened to the community over the last few years; what gives you the right to step in now and declare year zero?
