Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Parking controls: the need for some relief for our High Streets

MANY longer-term Haringey residents will have patronised, or at least know of Thomas Brothers, the big hardware store near the Archway junction.

This shop has supplied the community with advice, knowledge, hand & power tools, machinery & gardening equipment and dealt in timber, hardware, brass foundry and ironmongery – since 1920.

At 798-804 Holloway Road (N19 3JH), it's in Islington Borough.

After 93 years of service, this traditional store will close its doors shortly after the London local elections.

I saw the shopkeepers on Friday.

Draconian parking restrictions, enforced with a nearby camera have, almost literally, driven customers away. Now, the shop is closing, not because of a lack of demand for DIY material, but principally because of parking policies, where local councils appear to care nothing for small businesses.

Unlike say a coffee shop or a restaurant – or betting shop – DIY customers need to park close-by to take away and load large and/or heavy items. Some relief would be afforded by a policy allowing for the first 30 minutes of parking to be free.

After more than nine decades, the shop is now in the last days of its Closing Down Sale. It is sad and a couple of customers have separately told me its a tragedy.

Traditional businesses on our High Streets are being strangled and local councils do not care.

Disclosure:
I am a prospective councillor candidate
Highgate Ward | Liberal Democrat Party

Tags for Forum Posts: DIY, Thomas, brothers, hardware, parking

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Permalink Reply by Cllr Emina Ibrahim on May 20, 2014 at 13:06

I really think there is a gradual move away from massive "bulk shops" where we by loads of food in one go thereby needing a car to carry home. People are perhaps starting to see that it leads to a lot of food waste especially with fresh food. I worked on a supermarket checkout in my late teens and used to see people loading two trollies, I really don't see that as much anymore. The express checkouts in supermarkets with large car parks still often have longer queues! I have shopped at both branches of Yasar Halim the one in Harringay and Palmers Green which has of street free parking outside. They are both just as busy in fact during the week I would argue that the Harringay one is busier.

Emine Ibrahim
The Labour Party Candidate (Harringay Ward)

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Permalink Reply by LSquared on May 20, 2014 at 13:21

I think some of the bulk shops are still happening but are now being done online. Certainly we get two weekly deliveries (Sainsbury and Abel and Cole) then top up locally, and I know the same is true of various neighbours, and on the wider picture I'm pretty sure I read analysis that all the big supermarkets see having an online offering as essential to their survival.

Probably not common for households of less than two people though.

Another factor is whether people are moving their bulk shop to Aldi or Lidl. The one I use most is Lidl in Tottenham Hale where it looks like a lot of people are buying big loads so presumably driving. Then again the Lidl by Finsbury Park is always busy and I can't imagine it gets a lot of car customers.

Pulling together two of the most active threads, the decreasing size of people's accommodation is going to push more into little-and-often shopping because there's just nowhere to keep bulk stores of food.

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Permalink Reply by ant on May 20, 2014 at 13:16

Is that Hornsey garden shop still going? Went past on the past the other day and it looked like it had closed down...

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Permalink Reply by LSquared on May 20, 2014 at 13:26

The website's still up and I thought I saw it from the bus the other day (pointed it out to the other half "look that's where we got the plants from") - but I could have got it wrong