One topic has really dominated the London Centric inbox this week: The eviction of a group of Caribbean, South American, and African restaurants in south London’s Elephant and Castle by developers in a dispute over unpaid bills .
I suspect savills were instructed to be as opaque as possible with the bills so they could force businesses out with unpaid bills.
This would have been a strategy devised between the landlord and savills. Local cllrs should be pushing to investigate this ok but tbh cllrs are useless
latin elephant have been supporting the traders since the very start. southwark notes have a lot of background information (in-depth research pieces) about regeneration which also may be of interest
I agree - the council has a role to play here. To start with - to find out if Savill’s deliberately let the power bill accumulate then walloped the tenants. If so - for shame …and the council should intervene. Loan the money to pay the arrears - and let the traders pay it back in manageable installments? The goal should be to protect the traders until they get a fair shot at premises in the new development.
Oh. And BTW - Elephant Park has evolved nicely but WHO is responsible for the ghastly naff bronze sculptures? So bad. Laugh? Or cry?
The statues were designed by an artist in collaboration with local school kids. I don't like them either, they'd be more suited in one of the fake Potter gift shops.
Hi Ollie - thanks for that. OK - so maybe there are echoes of a children's collaboration in the grassy park bit - but what about the weirdly stiff cringey bronze guy standing on a bronze felled tree on the plaza outside the Walworth Community Center? Apparently it's supposed to be a monument to those who have suffered in war.... Really???? And the poem fragment makes no sense.... Or am I just grumpy?
the scultpure of man standing on top of a felled tree came after an entire urban forest (on the heygate estate) was destroyed (when i first heard about the sculpture/saw images, i thought it was really bizarre and wtf and not terribly interesting, artistically)
There was another group of traders who were moved to a different site on the other side of the former roundabout, The Elephant Arcade, which has now largely closed as well due to lack of footfall. And we're also about to lose the wildly popular Mercato Metropolitano on Newington Causeway.
Property management, including by the likes of Savills, is generally so awful I would not be surprised if the failure to provide utility bills was just incompetence. Although in an ideal world traders would estimate energy use, even without bills, and put money aside, it's understandable that didn't happen and it would be fair for the landlord to give them all a year or two to pay it off, especially when it's their failure to bill that's created the problem. The Castle Square building couldn't have been designed more effectively to make businesses inside almost invisible.
I suspect savills were instructed to be as opaque as possible with the bills so they could force businesses out with unpaid bills.
This would have been a strategy devised between the landlord and savills. Local cllrs should be pushing to investigate this ok but tbh cllrs are useless
Anyone know of any groups protesting the way the restaurant owners have been treated?
follow @latinelephant on insta
latin elephant have been supporting the traders since the very start. southwark notes have a lot of background information (in-depth research pieces) about regeneration which also may be of interest
I agree - the council has a role to play here. To start with - to find out if Savill’s deliberately let the power bill accumulate then walloped the tenants. If so - for shame …and the council should intervene. Loan the money to pay the arrears - and let the traders pay it back in manageable installments? The goal should be to protect the traders until they get a fair shot at premises in the new development.
Oh. And BTW - Elephant Park has evolved nicely but WHO is responsible for the ghastly naff bronze sculptures? So bad. Laugh? Or cry?
The statues were designed by an artist in collaboration with local school kids. I don't like them either, they'd be more suited in one of the fake Potter gift shops.
Hi Ollie - thanks for that. OK - so maybe there are echoes of a children's collaboration in the grassy park bit - but what about the weirdly stiff cringey bronze guy standing on a bronze felled tree on the plaza outside the Walworth Community Center? Apparently it's supposed to be a monument to those who have suffered in war.... Really???? And the poem fragment makes no sense.... Or am I just grumpy?
the scultpure of man standing on top of a felled tree came after an entire urban forest (on the heygate estate) was destroyed (when i first heard about the sculpture/saw images, i thought it was really bizarre and wtf and not terribly interesting, artistically)
I feel slightly embarrassed that I never knew there was a Guyanese food shop in Elephant and Castle. And now it likely is too late to visit it.
There was another group of traders who were moved to a different site on the other side of the former roundabout, The Elephant Arcade, which has now largely closed as well due to lack of footfall. And we're also about to lose the wildly popular Mercato Metropolitano on Newington Causeway.
https://southwarknews.co.uk/area/elephant-and-castle/traders-evicted-from-elephant-and-castle-shopping-arcade-as-private-landlord-hands-back-control-of-struggling-retail-space-to-southwark-council/
To add some nuance to the story, Miko's was probably the biggest restaurant in the old shopping centre, relocated right next door, and doing well.
Property management, including by the likes of Savills, is generally so awful I would not be surprised if the failure to provide utility bills was just incompetence. Although in an ideal world traders would estimate energy use, even without bills, and put money aside, it's understandable that didn't happen and it would be fair for the landlord to give them all a year or two to pay it off, especially when it's their failure to bill that's created the problem. The Castle Square building couldn't have been designed more effectively to make businesses inside almost invisible.
No
https://open.substack.com/pub/lifeontheokr/p/whats-really-going-on?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=6dxhi1
As I discovered back in May: Missed opportunities and unfulfilled potential are more painful than the hardship that came before - whatever it looked like! https://open.substack.com/pub/lamplighter13/p/regeneration-blunder-the-elephant?r=18rorh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Update - the council swung into action ! We may all get to eat at Kaiteur again!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DPovQoHjGg2/?igsh=MXB4aWJodzZnNzkyZg==
Southwark council don't care, Savills and developers don't care. Average, working residents pushed out.
All according to plan. Many such cases.