Planning threat to last shop in Upper Brockley Road parade

The owners of the last shop on Brockley's historic high street, Upper Brockley Road, have applied for planning permission to convert it in to a maisonette.

91 Upper Brockley Road was formerly Moore Grocers, a general store that had fallen in to a state of disrepair. All of the other retail units on the street have already been converted, with this shop the last remaining link to the street's historic role.

We might be sympathetic to the argument that there is no market demand for a shop in this location - Upper Brockley Road is no longer a major thoroughfare - however, we know that isn't true. As we wrote here, it so happens that Brockley Central made an offer for the lease. We offered the asking price and the standard rent free period, we also offered to invest thousands of pounds to repair the retail space and make the basement usable. During the bidding process, we were told by the agents that there were two other parties sniffing around, before the property was withdrawn from the market. We were forced to look elsewhere to create what became Homemade London. As we said here, we have been waiting for this application to appear, ever since.

There is a market for a shop in this location. To allow this shop to be lost would be wrong. We hope the Council will bear this in mind and we will be submitting our account in response to the planning application.