Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Tesco-backed “artisan coffeehouse” brews up trouble in Crouch End
The Harris + Hoole brand could be landing in Crouch End soon.
Crouch End seems poised to get something like its twentieth coffee shop as news has leaked out that Tesco-backed “artisan coffeehouse” Harris + Hoole could open on the Broadway
Apparently the new chain is eying up a number of former Clinton Cards premises around the country including the one next to Starbucks in central Crouch End.
It's a fascinating story both for the local reaction it seems to have provoked and for the insight it offers of how local high streets are surviving.
If the local feelings portrayed by one of the local newspapers tells the whole story, Crouch End is not at all happy about this latest development. It seems that for some, this is just one froth merchant too many
Feyzan Ulker, who opened My Kind Of Coffee just a year ago, was quoted as saying
“I think we are special, we are a step further on than those kind of places, but there is not enough business – it is too much.”
“I do not know what their strategy will be, but if they are trying to kill smaller businesses like us, I am going to do something.”
Cllr David Winskill was also dubious. He said:
“Crouch End is really lucky with the range of local and family-run coffee shops in the town centre. They really bring a lot to Crouch End life but with nearly 10 per cent of our shop fronts selling coffee we must ask the question, have we reached saturation point?”
My Kind of Coffee and chain artisan bakery/coffee shop Gail's both opened within the last eighteen months and I don't remember any negative reaction to either of them. So what's the story here? Is it that Crouch End just feels like it's reached saturation point or do certain brands just have the power to invoke particular reactions in certain places.
Whatever the case may be, with high streets threatened up and down the country, there does seem to be a certain trade off required to keep a high street alive. It's not hard to see that successful high streets are becoming much more entertainment focussed rather than places to buy day to day necessities. Often that entertainment quotient also needs to specialise. In Harringay, Green Lanes, has been fashioned as a place for London's Turkish population to socialise, eat and shop. In Crouch End it's coffee shops.
Styling high streets to suit our particular wishes is a tough one. I'm not sure how possible or desirable it is. in the meantime, I accept that I live in an area with high street that's far less diverse than I'd like. But take a trip to Willesden, where house prices are higher than in Harringay and in the depressing high street you'll see one of the alternatives. So, until I've mastered the trick of waving my magic wand to create the Disneyfied high street of my dreams, I'll carry on enjoying the cornucopia of great fruit and veg, baklava and Turkish food on offer at the end of my road.
I hope Crouch End can live at peace with its twentieth coffee shop. If it all gets too much, of course they're welcome to join us for baklava and çay.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rachella on
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Perhaps if Crouch End is oversaturated, the coffee shop would consider coming a bit further east to Wood Green High Road. I'd much prefer 10 per cent of the shop fronts to be selling coffee, instead of 10 per cent of shop fronts being taken over by betting shops.
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Permalink Reply by Milda Rami on
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Cannot agree with you more! I cannot believe there is no limit on the number of betting shops 'saturated' in one street.
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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Is there not a limit on how many you're allowed in a given area? I would have thought there was :-/
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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No, no limit. The last (2005) Government passed legislation removing the ability of councils to control this. Disappointingly, David Lammy was the Minister in charge of the legislation at Department of Culture, Media and Sport when this change went through. He and other Labour ministers have since realised the huge mistake they made and have now back pedalled and are campaigning for a reversal of the law they implemented. No doubt we'll see a mirror image of this situation with some issue or another once members of the current government leave office.
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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I think people generally tend to be both anti-chain and anti-Tesco-dominance - although CE already has Starbucks and Costa. (There was a big outcry recently in Totnes about Starbucks opening up there.) High streets are the last bastion of independent retail, but I do wonder how many cafes the place can support. I guess we'll find out!
I really like Giuseppe's Italian coffee shop on Tottenham Lane - the coffee is lovely and the food is really good value. But it never seems particularly full, except on a Saturday morning when seats in any CE coffee shop are at a premium.
What's wrong with Willesden? Haven't been there for years and it used to be a dump.
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Willesden High Road is not thriving. Given property prices, it's suprising. But then high streets don't always develop to serve the people who live there. Ours is perhaps an example.
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Probably depends on how many people work from home or are home during the day with kids. Otherwise, it's just a commuter town.
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I used Willesden as an example of a high street in trouble. Judging by propertty prices alone, there's a wealthy resident population served by a high street in trouble.
I knew Willesden well in the mid eighties. I was back there a couple of months back and was astounded at the massive increase in property prices to near Crouch End levels. However I was also struck by how the high street had remained, stubbornly grim. There are a few nicer shops and cafes around WG tube, including a few pop-up shops put there as a result of a community initiative, but the rest isn't doing well.
As it happens I was there attending an unconference on high streets. (Marry Portas joined us for lunch - along with her dog. She told me that she'd walked up from her Maida Vale pad. She was late, she explained because she hadn't realised quite how far Willesden was from her home.)
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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So, until I've mastered the trick of waving my magic wand to create the Disneyfied high street of my dreams, I'll carry on enjoying the cornucopia of great fruit and veg, baklava and Turkish food on offer at the end of my road.
Of course Dr Samuel Johnson's favourite coffee house was the Turk's Head. Any local Turks overdue for a beheading? I'll be your Boswell.
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Meh. If they're so unhappy at the prospect of another lovely coffee house in their midst, we'd gladly welcome it into N15, "Tesco backed" or otherwise.
Honestly. I'm so deprived of a decent local coffee establishment I've been reduced to mainlining intravenous Carte Noire these past two years...
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