Well done on the hanging baskets Jonathan they were really nice and well looked after. Looking forward to the christmas trees, especially at night when they re lit up. In daylight i wish there was some other pots for them than these bright blue plastic ones, they re a bit ruining the look.
Looks like Jan will be opening soon finally, looking forward to it it sounds delicious.

"Blighted by the Breadstall" I wouldn't call delivering up to 5000 customers a week outside your door a blight. Dan from Peppermint told me he chose the other shop that my stall obscures for the very same reason and he's never looked back.
I would suggest that the real blight is the £80k per annum rent the landlord is asking, no doubt egged on by the agents who have a dangerously short termist view of the welfare of the street.
Rents have now made it impossible for a fruit and veg guy or a fishmonger or a deli or any other business that could bring people to the Rd on a daily basis. The only people willing to take leases now are dreary mid-level fashion chains or vacuous gift shops who all operate on vast margins and can turn a profit despite rent, rates and wages that mean it costs around 4000 a week just to open the doors nowadays.
Drop the rent to a more reasonable level and I'm sure it'll be let in a heartbeat.

GREAT info, thanks Ballantine - you are my new go-to person for Northcote Road shop info!! It sounds like you have a fair amount of inside information as to the occupiers of the shops so could I ask that if you have the contact details for the new occupants you let me know? As chair of the Northcote Business Network I try to work closely with the shop owners over things like the hanging baskets, summer fete and winter market, however unfortunately most new shops have no idea about who we are or what we do. If you happen to know who these people are and they would like to be involved more in the community then I would love to hear from them (in complete confidence of course). Do feel free to PM me if you wish.

Jonathan

Hamptons International
98 - 100 Northcote Road
020 7924 2170

Good info!

There are a few shops changing at the moment but this is only really "three bus syndrome". Crew Clothing going was surprising but they are closing in many secondary locations and like their competitors are doing more sales on-line. Contrary to popular thinking the type of occupiers and the rents they pay are dictated by you the customers and not landlords. The new tenants will offer a rent to the landlord based on how much they expect to sell to you. The same is true for uses. The average home ownership period in London is 5 years and you will pay your estate agent £10,000 + in commission fees. Are there any local shops where you spend £2,000 per year? That is why you have 20 estate agents in the road and not the "nice local shops" you desire. The old pharmacy at 62 were offered a new lease but had recently acquired another premises (Goys) up the road. There are two prescription chemists at each end of Northcote Road so we are well served compared to many locations. No 62 is under offer but it is not an ice cream parlour - The proposed use is confidential but I think it will be well received by most. No 50 (Printax) will be available after works have been completed and there is interest from a few occupiers. No viewings are permitted yet. No 58 has had interest but is blighted by the Breadstall unit which obscures the frontage. No 144 has three offers so there will be a new tenant soon. Happy days in Northcote Road!

We go there every now and then and find the food quite nice. We always end up ordering either the Beef Bibimbap or the Beef Bulgogi as these are our favourite I personally find some dishes a bit too salty but I generally eat very little salt. Overall, we are very happy to have a good korean restaurant in this area.

I also quite enjoy the Hana (the korean on Battersea Rise)! They have a great lunch deal too and the service, although a bit tricky with a slight english barrier, is great. They are always so nice to me and my family!

I have had 3 quite delicious take away meals from the Korean restaurant, a couple of the times with a lot of other people who knew it well and therefore ordered for me. I reckon I've tried a large part of the menu by now and I really liked it. There were some spicy prawns that were particularly excellent. Ordering was tricky though as the menu didn't have much of an explanation the time I was in charge of ordering it for a group at home so I had to cross reference the dishes with the names and images on the internet! Either way, I understand that some of the sticky sauces could be deemed gelatinous...perhaps they'd gone a bit cold? But I really thought on all occasions it was a great alternative to chinese and Thai food. There was definitely some anticipation to the uncertainty of what we were going to get!

Thanks Mollys.

Juliantenniscoach - I've been to the Korean on Battersea rise ... It was pretty terrible! Flavourless, glutinous (sp?) food. even my husband didn't eat his ad that is saying something!

We seem to be going through a number of changes at the moment - Aspace has gone back to just being online, Dandelion is being redeveloped, Harrys is being redeveloped (the Iris signs on it are just to say that the Iris next door is still trading rather than a second shop), Capsticks is going, Samba has gone, Raj at the pharmacy has reduced from two shops to one (he already owned Goys down near the Co-op, the Holy Drinker is apparently going to be an Italian restaurant (although the fit out appears to be taking forever). Printax is being redeveloped and Crew is closing down. Whilst some of these are being redeveloped, the rest of them are all going because of the cost of running them or because the landlords have hiked up the rents - unfortunately all part of the 'gentrification' of Northcote Road I'm afraid. Rumour has it that Knight Frank are taking one of the shops but I've heard that story for the last three years so we'll see.

Of course you can't stop change (progress??) but it does seem to be such a shame that so many of the shops are just clones of each other. I'm sure it can't be beyond the wit or imagination of someone to come up with an offering that is profitable and interesting!!

Jonathan

Hamptons International
98 - 100 Northcote Road
020 7924 2170

Wow really another ice cream shop? With Odono's already? Tough sell. Not on Northcote but on the old Big Panda site, I had a good meal and excellent service at Valentina. Will definitely return there.

Also has anyone been to the Korean restaurant on Battersea Rise?

Walked down northcote road this morning for the first time in ages. There are so many empty shops!!! I counted 6? Presumably the rents will have to go down with all these empty spaces? The old mayoral shop has had a To Let sign for ages!

Cannot understand how another ice cream shop will survive? It must be such a tough seasonal business!

The old pharmacy is going to be a posh ice cream shop apparently....

I'm really saddened by the closure of the pharmacy - it was so handy, and such a nice shop. I especially like their good range of quality skin care. I've been told it's going to be another coffee shop - well that'll be a comfort next time I suddenly need painkillers on Northcote Road, or a script filled out or plasters. Because there just aren't enough places to get a coffee in Northcote Road...