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Peer urged to protect parade from cafés
AN alliance of 11 influential residents’ and traders’ groups in Highgate have called on the peer who owns a parade of shops to back independent traders.
The groups have banded together over fears that the Swain’s Lane shop vacated by hardware store Cavours, closing next month after nearly 45 years, will become an estate agent or smart café. They have called on the Earl of Listowel, who owns the shop, to find a similar store to take over from Cavours.
The groups, which include the Highgate Society, five residents‘ associations and three conservation area advisory committees, believe they may have found another hardware shop ready to move in.
They are worried that the Earl will renegotiate a shorter lease and that he is gearing up for another attempt to rebuild the parade. In the past six years he has filed two planning applications to redevelop the parade. A third was withdrawn in the face of fierce opposition,
Swain’s Lane Residents Association co-chairman Michael Zagor said Geoffrey and Elaine Lever, who have run Cavours for 44 years, would be greatly missed. He added: “Talks with a potential new business are at an early stage, but it may be suitable. We are looking for another hardware and household goods store to move in.”
Holly Lodge Estate committee chairwoman Pippa Rothenberg added that shoppers were keen to keep out stores that would ruin the feel of the street. She added: “The aim is to keep the variety. We really do not need another estate agent or coffee shop.”
Surveyor Charles Osbourne, who manages the parade on behalf of the Earl, said there were no plans to redevelop the site.
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