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How Brixton’s community took on a major developer – and won [1]

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Date: 2023-07

Nestled between two railway tracks near the famous Electric Avenue, Brixton’s Pope’s Road street market is bustling with activity. Sisters Natalie and Marie-Claire prep for the day, chopping fish heads and stirring stew at their stall selling cuisine from across West Africa. Opposite them, Didas and his team of traders unpack boxes of Jamaican herbs, vegetables and spices, arranging them on the stall he’s held here for years. It’s an everyday scene, but this morning the traders have cause for celebration.

Since 2020, a major threat has loomed large over the area – controversial plans for a 20-storey office block in Pope Road from Hondo Enterprises, a developer owned by Texan millionaire Taylor McWilliams that has already bought up significant swathes of the south London neighbourhood, including Brixton Market.

The proposals sparked a passionate Fight the Tower community campaign and, over the last 12 hours, news has been filtering through to stallholders, campaigners and locals that the plans are no more – they have won. Last night, four days before a scheduled hearing with the mayor of London at City Hall, Hondo withdrew its planning application.

“I’m so happy this has happened, because this is really aggressive capitalism,” says Natalie, clapping her hands together on hearing the news. She’s had a stall in the market since January, yet says she was only contacted once, a week ago, for a meeting about the proposed tower.

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In a letter to City Hall, Hondo’s planning consultant DP9 said: “The very long period of gestation over the past two years has had a profound impact on the ability to deliver this much needed jobs and skills boost in Brixton.”

The letter added that Hondo hoped to return with a revised proposal “that is able to deliver lasting benefits for Brixton’s businesses and residents”.

For now, though, it’s a victory for the community following a near three-year battle with both Hondo and Lambeth Council. It began in November 2020 when the council granted planning permission for the tower despite more than 8,000 people signing a petition opposing it, including heritage groups Historic England and The Brixton Society.

Since then, it’s been in planning purgatory: Sadiq Khan backed the plans and then reconsidered his decision, Hondo missed deadlines to consult with the local community, and just days before a scheduled hearing in June last year, the company requested a postponement.

This period of limbo has had a major impact on the community and left business owners and residents worried about their livelihoods. It’s a feeling people in Brixton are all too familiar with, having spent years fighting against the gentrification of their neighbourhood; one that has been shaped by migration and is intrinsically connected with the stories and experiences of the Windrush generation.

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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/brixton-hondo-offices-developers-community-victory/

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