A bar in Croydon that welcomes "all types" of people has been given six months to leave its current spot at the Whitgift Centre, where it has been based for the past 17 years.
Angela, along with her dad Tony, runs the popular bar Bishops.
It is hard to find a space on the walls that isn’t covered in Croydon memorabilia, photos of former patrons, or more obscure tributes to pop culture icons such as Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and the late Queen Elizabeth.
“Every picture tells a story,” Angela told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) from behind the characterful curved bar on a cold January midweek morning.
While the visit was quiet - they were just opening up - the father-and-daughter pair say the bar has something special that others just don’t have.
She said: “We have a mix of old and new faces here.
"The new faces love it because it feels very human, but what is happening to us is not very human.”
Angela and Tony’s festive period was soured by a letter from the solicitor representing their landlord, Whitgift Limited Partnership.
Delivered on New Year’s Eve, it informed them that the landlord wanted them out within six months under a break clause in their tenancy.
Whitgift Limited Partnership says that Angela and Tony have been “offered the opportunity to discuss relocating.”
The pair told the LDRS they were struck by the letter’s alleged coldness, given the bar’s continued presence in the Whitgift Centre since 1982.
The impact of the notice, asking them to vacate by June 2026, was compounded by the lack of explanation for the decision.
Angela and Tony emphasised that they are not asking for special treatment - just answers.
The landlord, meanwhile, says that it wants to “focus on consolidating and improving public access and experience around the centre, while balancing the need to prepare for more extensive redevelopment in the future.”
Angela added: “If there is something we haven’t done that we can do, please come in and explain it to us.”
"Despite regular attempts at contact, the pair say their future remains in limbo.
Both believe the decision comes ahead of the long-anticipated redevelopment of the Whitgift shopping centre, part of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s (URW) wider plans to redevelop Centrale and redesign central Croydon with retail, housing and community spaces.
However, these plans have been in the pipeline for nearly 15 years, with little visible progress to date.
While the development is yet to be delivered, Bishops’ location means it is at the sharp end of any changes to the Whitgift Centre.
The bar’s location is almost as intriguing as the locals it welcomes.
It sits outside the main Whitgift Centre, in a far corner attached to the former Allders car park, accessible via a secluded entrance leading out to Wellesley Road.
“The bar used to be the old Croydon Information Centre,” said Tony, harking back to a time when the Whitgift Centre drew shoppers from across London and the South.
As Your Local Guardian reported last week, even Keir Starmer recalled fond memories of visiting the centre for a ‘day out’ in his youth.
However, Bishops’ location outside the Whitgift Centre has created problems for the small bar.
Until the break clause announcement, Angela said the closure of the Allders car park in May 2024 had the biggest impact on their business.
Although Allders itself closed in 2013, the bar had relied on the car park for footfall.
Its closure in 2024 meant most passing trade vanished, with the route to the bar now rarely used by pedestrians, who mostly stick to the shopping centre’s ground floor as a cut-through.
As a result, the bar now feels isolated, in a far-flung corner of the shopping centre, with only a handful of shops nearby.
This is compounded by the lack of signage from the Whitgift Centre directing people towards the bar - including one unhelpful sign pointing straight at a wall.
Angela told the LDRS: “They have been the opposite of helpful — actively unhelpful.” She believes their landlord has not assisted them during their long tenure at the premises.
On the day of the visit, Angela had just finished the long and frustrating task of accessing their safe, which is located in the now-closed car park.
Although the safe has always been in the car park, its closure now means staff cannot access it without management assistance.
The business has also previously experienced problems with electricity and food storage, as both the electricity meter and freezer are in the car park, leaving them unable to resolve issues when the building is locked.
“We lost a grand’s worth of food before because we couldn’t get into the freezer,” recalled Angela.
While the pair say they have a good working relationship with a management contact at the Whitgift Centre, they feel the rest of the complex has left them behind.
“We’re in a grey area,” said Tony, referring to the bar’s unusual position, which can now only be reached by a dwindling number of routes following the closure of an escalator leading up to it.
The bar is now one of the few remaining signs of life in that part of the centre and, according to Angela, both regulars and newcomers have continued to find their way there despite the changes over the years.
A petition set up following news of their imminent closure has now attracted nearly 1,000 signatures, with supporters keen to see the bar remain a lynchpin of the community.
The campaign has also attracted the support of Natasha Irons, the Labour MP for Croydon East.
She told the LDRS: “I have contacted Whitgift on behalf of Angela to raise her concerns, and have urged them to work with her to find a solution.
"Supporting businesses like this is important and in the best interests of Croydon.”
Angela also told the LDRS the petition had brought some new faces through the door.
She said: “You walk in and you just get it - if you do, you’ll come back. People have formed lifelong friendships here.”
The bar is also popular with older single women, according to Angela. “It’s not an imposing place,” she said.
“In here, we just talk to each other.”
The bar even has its own Bishops Wine Bar choir, although Angela said performances are led by regulars. “It’s just drunk people singing at the bar,” she joked.
However, Bishops also leans into more structured entertainment, with a regular and varied programme of live music.
Acts range from a band playing rock covers of TV theme tunes to an ABBA tribute booked to celebrate the birthday of Cosimo, Bishops Wine Bar’s resident cat.
When asked to recall more good times at the bar, Angela said: “There are too many to mention
It is little surprise, therefore, that she has been so affected by the potential closure of her beloved bar.
Angela said: “We are all struggling, but it’s just me and him here.
"It’s very, very tiring. I’m feeling a bit demotivated.”
Tony added: “I’ve had enough, but she loves it here.”
When asked what she would do if their appeal is unsuccessful, Angela told the LDRS she did not want to think too far ahead.
She said: “I don’t think we’ll get another bar like this."
A spokesperson for Whitgift Limited Partnership told the LDRS: “Bishops Wine Bar, located at the Whitgift Centre, which sits within our broader development of North End, has been offered the opportunity to discuss relocating as we focus on consolidating and improving public access and experience around the centre, while balancing the need to prepare for more extensive redevelopment in the future.”
