11:20am Wednesday 7th January 2009
By Kirsty Whalley
With Marks and Spencer closing its Valley Park store and large chain stores like Woolworths collapsing, Kirsty Whalley looks at whether Croydon’s high street is in trouble
Today Marks and Spencer announced that its Valley Park store in Croydon is one of two main chain stores it will be closing countrywide, along with 25 Simply Food stores.
The oldest surviving Woolworths has closed its doors permanently for the first time in the past 100 years and adminstrators for The Pier in Centrale is even trying to sell off the store’s Henry Hoover at the bargain price of £10.
Rosebys, Zavvi, USC, and the Officers Club are just some of the big names that we are set to lose from our high street. Familiar stores like Turtles, which has already closed and Beanos records which is closing, are lost to the town. I counted 16 empty units in the Whitgift Centre and Croydon Council’s Park Place development looks like a barren wasteland with 34 businesses closed and only 12 remaining open. Two units are closed in Centrale and Starbucks has shut its North End shop in favour of its Whitgift coffee outlet.
Peter Musch, 63, moved to Croydon from the Netherlands and opened up an art shop on the High Street in August last year. He will be closing the doors of Art in Mania soon. “The bills keep coming in but the customers are staying away,” he said. “I have been running an art business for seven years in the Netherlands. There were good times and bad times but I always managed. Here it is impossible.”
He said that he has been crippled by the hefty council tax he has to pay which is as much as the rent on his shop.
“It is completely insane and anti-trading,” he said.
Mr Musch is planning to go back to the Netherlands where he is considering starting up his business again.
“I’m not the kind of person to sit around doing nothing until I die but this has been such a shock. I have lost thousands of pounds moving to the UK,” he said.
Despite the gloomy outlook and some traders leaving the borough, Croydon’s business leaders remain determinedly upbeat.
Brian Stapleton, the chief executive of Croydon Business, said: “I am concerned about the collapse of a number of well known national retail chains, and there may well be more to come. However I think it is an exaggeration to say that North End is in danger of being barren.”
He points to the significant footfall figures recorded for the North End as 2008 came to a close.
Total footfall for November and December 2008 was 2.3 per cent up on the same period in 2007, with December alone up 3.7 per cent. Saturday December 6 featured as the busiest shopping day in the whole of 2008.
David Parham from the Centrale Shopping Centre agrees. “Footfall was up by 4 per cent on last year in the week of Christmas and up by 16 per cent on last year in the past week with shoppers being encouraged by sales of up to 70 per cent off throughout the centre.
“Centrale is a thriving centre with a loyal customer base and whilst retailing will remain difficult in the year ahead, we will continue to attract shoppers to the centre with our strong offering of brands and investment in marketing.”
Andrew Bauer, from the Whitgift Centre, said: “2009 will be a challenging year for all retailers, but we believe the Whitgift Centre continues to provide a competitive retail offer with a mixture of multiple and niche independent retailers.”
Ian Harvey, the marketing manager, said: “The Whitgift is still a viable option for businesses and we are receiving a number of enquiries about tenancy.”
However, now that the Christmas period is over and the January sales have begun the vital question is will shoppers continue to come to Croydon? Only time will tell.
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