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Title: What is going on?
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Philski
 
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(Date Posted:27/04/2008 2:08 AM)

So, by my reckoning, Clapham has lost three restaurants in about as many weeks - Fantasia, Tabaq and Verso all appear to have closed down.    Along with the Alteration Station, these long-standing Clapham businesses have all disappeared - does anyone know why?  I can't believe their rents have suddenly gone up in these straitened  times, so has business really fallen off so much and so fast?
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RE:What is going on?
(Date Posted:27/04/2008 5:01 PM)

  a real shame..
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RE:What is going on?
(Date Posted:29/04/2008 12:59 AM)

 i spoke with my buddy at Nelsons on the high street... he use to be manager of black katz opposite the side entrence to sainsbury's... rent on the high street for him is 3 times more expensive... businesses are finding it difficult to cope...
i worry for the future of the venders on our beloved patch!!

Tony back from santa monica

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RE:What is going on?
(Date Posted:29/04/2008 10:04 AM)

The answer is that small businesses are being squeezed out by the Council’s high rates. Unlike Wandsworth Council, Lambeth has no business development strategy worth noting to attract new small businesses to the area. There are no incentives to help small businesses stay alive on the high street or within its vicinity. It is also likely that Clapham High Street attracts higher business rates than other parts of suburban Lambeth for obvious reasons. Verso was a brilliant Italian restaurant but suffered from being out of reach of the high street’s passing trade due to its location down Clapham Park road. Clapham Park road has great potential if it is marketed as a business zone within the area and people are sign posted to it, likewise the Old Town. But I think apart from that, the rates are just too high in Clapham and residents are being made to pay West End prices for drinks and food and literally everything else. It is also generally assumed that Clapham is swarming with wealthy folk.      

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RE:What is going on?
(Date Posted:30/04/2008 1:33 AM)

There do seem an increasing number of empty businesses.

Two shops at the top of the Pavement (one a former butchers I think) have been empty for several years. The former "Unwins" wine merchant near me in Old Town closed and has not re-opened as anything. The shop which was rumoured to be being made over as a "Grand Passions" store near Clapham North has been half developed and empty for more than a year now.

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RE:What is going on?
(Date Posted:30/04/2008 2:32 AM)

If excessive rents are to blame (I know some of the businesses in Abbeville Road are being royally screwed by their rents), then that really is annoying - that greedy landlords have such a powerful influence over Clapham's commercial landscape. What's worse, as pointed out above, is that these properties are sometimes left vacant for several years. Who the hell owns the former site of Moxon's? They should be made to do something with it, rather than just leaving a rotting eyesore in amongst all the other businesses there.



(Message edited by Philski on 30/04/2008 2:32 AM)
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