There’s another closing down sale in the Whitgift Centre.
Empty promises: Christmas was supposed to be the busiest time of the retailing year. But not in the Westfield-owned Whitgift Centre last month, when there were more buckets than customers
And this time, the exiting retail business, toy store The Entertainer, has made it abundantly clear that their decision to quit the increasingly empty Croydon shopping centre was entirely down to the management of Westfield.
The Entertainer, which has 160 branches across Britain, will permanently shutter its branch in the Whitgift Centre on February 1, and so follow the likes of Sainsbury’s (which had been a permanent fixture of the centre since it opened more than 50 years earlier), The Body Shop and Camden Coffee House, who have all given up on the run-down mall in a growing exodus of businesses the past 12 months or so.
And in a national newspaper report published yesterday, the company’s regional manager said that the closure was as a “requirement of the landlord” for the “proposed redevelopment of the Whitgift Shopping Centre”.
That “proposed” billion-pound redevelopment scheme has been promised – by Westfield – since 2012, the lengthening delays creating damaging development blight in the Whitgift Centre and throughout central Croydon for more than a decade.
Their latest public “consultation” was held late last year, but Westfield’s “masterplan” for the redevelopment of the town centre, which was supposed to be submitted to the council planners in 2024, now won’t be seen before 2026, at the earliest.
Everything must go: The Entertainer is closing its Croydon store on Feb 1
We are told to expect an application which has a few retail units and hospitality venues, centred around 3,000 flats, including some office-to-residential conversions.
Westfield themselves have said that their redevelopment could take another 15 years to complete.
Meanwhile, Croydon residents and business-owners are expected to suck-up the neglect and run-down nature of the town centre, accept crumbs from the multi-billion multi-national Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield giant in the form of some artwashing, a handful of “kiosks” in the long-vacant Allders building, and a few modest grants to voluntary groups.
All of this, of course, has the enthusiastic support of Croydon’s £82,000 a year Mayor, Jason Perry, as well as unaccountable, unelected organisations such as Develop Croydon and Croydon BID.
Mayor Perry is a director of Croydon BID.
There has been grumbling criticism of Westfield for several years, increasingly so since they bought out the interests of their Croydon “partners”, Hammerson, in 2023 and took control of the management of the Whitgift and Centrale shopping centres that straddle North End.
Gullable: Croydon’s £82,000 per year Mayor showing his support for the multi-national developers who have trashed Croydon and the town’s reputation
Car park closures, that deter potential customers, and increased parking charges, also deterring customers, have been imposed without a word of warning to traders.
The manager of Bishops Wine Bar at the Whitgift Centre says their business has been pushed to the brink as a consequence of being cut-off from their customers – yet the Westfield management of the shopping centre won’t even put up any signs to direct visitors to their own tenant’s premises.
This week’s admission from The Entertainer confirms that it is deliberate policy by Westfield to drive its tenants away and make the place even bleaker than it already is. And by their reckoning, we will have to put up with this until 2039…
Meanwhile, piss-poor Perry, elected to serve the people of Croydon, acts as cheerleader for big business.
“Exciting times ahead”, Perry said a year ago, when Westfield stuck out a lame press release about how they were signing up new tenants. “Growing confidence in Croydon.”
As if.
The shopping centre is on its arse, with reduced rental income for ultimate owners the Whitgift Foundation, and reduced business rates being received by Croydon Council.
Business after business is walking away from a death-spiral that Perry helped initiate when he was council cabinet member for regeneration 13 years ago. Perry has failed to recognise or admit his error since. You have to wonder why.
Read more: Westfield wants to build five times as many flats in town centre
Read more: Waiting for Westfield leaves us Urban Room for improvement
Read more: Town centre traders struggle on to serve up the good times
Read more: Westfield boss says Croydon scheme could take 15 more years
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URW will fully submit their plans a few months before the local elections next year to much fanfare from Perry and co who will spin it that they are somehow the saviours of the town centre. In reality it means that they will have made no progress over 4 years, only further decline. They will also gloss over the fact that the plan will heavily focus on flats over retail, entirely defeating the purpose of the original project. Maybe the planning committee will fast track approval, only for the GLA to once again reject the plans. Perhaps Reform will stick some paper candidates in Croydon splitting the Tory vote and Labour get in via the backdoor. If Rowenna and co take charge will they break this endless cycle or do they plan to be taken in by URW as well?
The GLA has never rejected any of the previous Westfield planning applications, Carl, although the 2017 one, which included almost 1,000 homes, may have struggled to meet London Plan and Croydon Plan quotas for affordable housing.
What, exactly, does the Entertainer’s comments about the landlord’s requirements mean? Is he, or she, the only business to get a letter? What did it say? Can Walker Cronxite get his investigative team on the case?