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The Brixton Cycles teamUpdated: Iconic London bike shop Brixton Cycles seeks help to survive redevelopment
Iconic South London bike shop Brixton Cycles is facing a change of premises, and appealing for legal help after being told they have to vacate their current building, which is due to be demolished.
Founded in 1983, Brixton Cycles has been one of the most durable of the workers' cooperative bike shops that popped up all over the UK in the 1980s, when Government help made setting up this kind of business an attractive alternative to the dole or putting a shirt and tie and working in an office.
The original shop was in Coldharbour Lane in the heart of Brixton, and the coop members stayed there until 2001 when they relocated to Stockwell Road, known locally as Brixton Beach.
Now Brixton Cycles' building is to be torn down to make way for a block of flats and the staff could do with some sympathetic legal advice.
On their Facebook page, the shop team posted: "Hey! Our housing is up in the air, and we don't want to hit the road just yet. Any legalistas or property gurus out there in Facebookland? We need some legal help and advice from someone in the family. For love and money please get in touch… here, the shop, or sales [at] brixtoncycles.co.uk."
They added: "They're pulling our building down to build a massive block of flats. We would like somebody to look over our lease to advise us and tell us where we stand if possible."
It turns out this isn't as simple as a greedy developer wanting to build a block of flats for London's ever-growing professional class and squeezing out a plucky workers' co-op bike shop.
The premises is owned by Community Trust Housing (CTH), which has been discussing redeveloping the site for many years. CTH has long charged Brixton Cycles less than the market rent, partly in return for the co-operative looking after the adjacent skatepark, and CTH has offered to provide space for the shop after the redevelopment.
Kath from Brixton Cycles told road.cc: "There is no doubt that CTH wish for us to continue where we are."
But the problem is that in the meantime the shop needs a place to operate from and none of the available options are really ideal.
Since word of the shop's situation hit social media a couple of days ago, Kath says "it has been amazing how many people have contacted us and offered to spread the word and may be able to advise and support".
You might be wondering why, in the middle of London's bike boom, a shop is appealing to the bike community for help rather than just phoning their lawyer.
Kath says the team know they're not going to find pro bono help, but says: "We would like to work with someone who really cares about the situation and the outcome. Hence we appealed to the community."
The co-operative ethos, which involves paying all the workers the same, doesn't leave much wiggle room to accumulate a pile of cash for situations like this. "Although the Co-op has been in business for nearly 32 years, we sadly have no assets or reserves; we break even," says Kath.
Here's the full explanation of the situation she sent us.
I shall try to explain the situation as concisely as I can.
We rent our current space from Community Trust Housing (CTH). We moved here in May 2001, (with a 15 year lease, which expires April 2016) having been invited by the then Tenant Managed Board of the estate.
They had heard that we were losing our space in Coldharbour Lane as the rent was about to triple and thought that we might be able to informally oversee the skatepark and brighten up a bleak bit of estate, the space being at that time underused offices. We have done both of these things very well.
We took out loans to make the space into a shop and they supported us with a very reasonable rent that increased incrementally, and we have been fortunate to have continued with a slightly less than market rent until this present time.
We were informed back in 2007 that there were plans for the estate to redevelop and that our building along with others would be pulled down and rebuilt, and that they wished to ensure that we would have a place somewhere in the new builds. Information and conversations about what was proposed were limited and time passed, the start date for this project being regularly extended.
Finally about 18 months ago we started to have more coherent talks with the then regeneration manager about how we would proceed. They planned to pull down the building and rebuild in a similar footprint and place us back in a very similar spot, so the issue was where would we go in the interim so that we might survive in order to return to the new space.
With the benefit of hindsight, if we had known it were possible, we should have pushed for them to relocate us completely into a new build that they are currently doing on Brixton Road. It could have been perfect. However, we didn't know they were building there until too late and all the plans had been submitted and signed off.
There is a very small retail space in this new build, on Brixton Road, which we were offered as our interim space. It is 75m sq. We currently operate out of about 215m sq (which is at times cramped). We could not imagine how we might work with this space, so were a bit unenthusiastic.
After a number of meetings there arose a slim possibility that we could use an adjacent 40m sq, to that 75m sq (but this is not completely definite, and dependent on planners), and we were also offered some converted garage space (looks a bit better than it sounds) in the estate, about a five minute walk away from the potential mini retail space.
We shall therefore be in a split site. We have only just (literally Wednesday afternoon) got exact plans and dimensions of these spaces, to try and work out how best we can use these limited and challenging spaces. It's going to be challenging whatever, that's for sure.
We have looked around Brixton to see if there might be another option. There is very little on the market that might be half way suitable for our needs, and rents have now rocketed as the gentrification of Brixton is well under way. Unless someone buys us a building, we will have to make this split site offer work somehow.
We are to meet again with CTH about the feasibility and fit-out of these temporary spaces next week. As we have no other possibilities we shall have to make it work and then we will have to negotiate interim leases and costings, and the new lease for the new build. This new lease will probably involve 'market' rents as the new build is going to be predominantly private housing, social housing in Brixton seemingly a thing of the past.
The broad plans for the redevelopment of Thrayle House, where we currently are, have been approved by Lambeth. The detailed plans for the new Thrayle House are still being negotiated and are yet to go to planning. (A few issues have arisen with the skatepark. They were planning to take the new building very close to the skatepark wall. There is a separate campaign taking shape to save the space around the skatepark.)
We have been told that they now plan to pull our current building down in September this year (the dates keep changing). With our lease expiring in April 2016, it will be how best to negotiate the inbetween time and the inevitable rent rises. There is no doubt that CTH wish for us to continue where we are, it's just whether we can afford and survive the whole situation: the cost of 2-3 re-locations (going into the split site), let alone how much business may be affected in a different location and in a much reduced retail space, and how the logistics of a split site might work.
It is great that CTH wish to rebuild with a new space for us, but if we cannot survive as a business in the time between, nor afford the new 'market' rent for our new space, then it's all a bit of a shame.
And so, this is why we have made an appeal for a legal/property professional who might be able to advise us, but who might also feel as passionately about cycling, Co-ops and Brixton as we do!
We appreciate that we need to pay for such advice, and this is as it should be, but we would like to work with someone who really cares about the situation and the outcome. Hence we appealed to the community.
Since that facebook post on Monday afternoon we have been amazed and touched by the many offers of support we have received and we are talking to a few people to see how best we might proceed.
Although the Co-op has been in business for nearly 32 years, we sadly have no assets or reserves, we break even.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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21 comments
I tried to find On Your Bike recently and despite having a good hunt around I'm still none the wiser as to where they put it. Very sad as I was in their two shops all the time in the late 80s.
Not to worry everyone, you'll be getting a new branch of Evans Cycles in the area shortly no doubt!
That's appropriate. Evans started as a local shop and was a long-time family business in south London. It's just been a bit successful.
Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.
If I can't get to my LBS, then I'd rather go to an Evans than a Halfords! And Cycle Surgery sold me brake shoes (v-brakes, on a hybrid) that appeared to be water soluble
I have seen a number of bike shops start up and close during my life time. Some were family businesses, some were larger concerns. Some dealt with relatively low end, some were full on high end shops.
Things change.
Good businesses deal with that change, less good businesses do not.
Bike shops are not special.
Actually this one is. It has been years since I lived in Brixton but this wasn't just a bike shop. For one thing I have been amazed many a time at how they dealt with the local kids. They would teach them basics of bike (or skateboard) maintenance (despite being stupidly busy most of the time). They would teach them a bit of politeness and how to get by in wider society at the same time. They even showed enough faith to lend the kids tools. I don't imagine many of the kids in question were ever much in the way of paying customers but I think it did great things for the community and the kids and went well beyond being just a regular shop.
As far as being a bike shop they were very good at that part to.
well said. brixton cycles is a business and a special one at that, i'd hazard a guess that very few businesses out there have ever done the quantity of pro bono work they've done.
i spend my cash in there frequently (fat rider!) & almost everytime a local lad comes in and borrows a tool or some expertise, often these kids clearly can't afford 'professional fees' and BC have got 'em back on the road.
i can honestly say it's my favourite shop in the world, is that sad?
I take it you'll be having the courage to pop into BC tomorrow and saying that to their faces? The business they've built from nothing from their own initiative and hard work, which, potentially will no longer have decent premises?
I take it you've seen what's happened to On Your Bike in London (a family business) after they were forced to move from easily-found spacious, premises to tiny, cramped, pretty much impossible-to-find new premises.
And you'd wish that on another independent bike shop?
Nice
If city/town environments didn't change, the centre of every locality in the UK would be a core of Neolithic huts. Things change, suck it up.
very interesting article in last night's Evening Standard about the changes that gentrification are bringing to London, Brixton was specifically mentioned.
http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/ben-judah-pricing-londons-poor...
Plenty places not far away that would benefit from BC moving there. Should still be affordable too - try Loughborough Junction way.
It doesn't look like they are determined to stay but that they want more time to find somewhere or perhaps some assistance doing so. I am a bit confused about why it seems they may have had little notice but then,as a Brixton resident of more than 30 years, all sorts of change has been promised and then never happened so perhaps they thought it wouldn't happen and has now caught up with them. I know shop residents under the arches on Atlantic road were only given 6 months notice by Netwrk rail. Anyway, that stretch of buildings there is in my opinion pretty awful so no loss to see it go. It's all part though of wider changes in the area which is really about buisness rents being increased, land sold for building for residential letting opportunities etc. all of which are likely to have a profound impact on the community atmosphere of the area. I am not sure how much of this is objectionable but some of it certainly is though perhaps not what is happening to BC. I hope they can find somewhere suitable locally but it won't be straightforward. It will be sad if they cannot.
Are Brixton Cycles the firm that did the AC/DC style casquettes as worn by Michael Smiley?
*edit* It appears they did, but no longer do that style.
Entreprenurial, tax-paying self-starters like BC need supporting in the current environment... the more businesses like them providing valuable local services, the better our chances of some proper economic growth in the future...
Yes agreed. But they've moved once already so it's not like they mind doing it when it suite them and it's not a "new" business. 1983 was 32 years ago. And there's really not much historic about their location because they've only been there for 14 years And if you have a 32 year old business why not just ask your own lawyer where you stand with regards to the lease? They'll either tell you that the lease terms mean you have to go or that they don't. If you do have to relocate then why spend time and effort fighting the inevitable. Put your effort into finding the best place to relocate. If you don't have to relocate then don't.
This stuff is just pretty normal and commonplace issue for businesses all over the country all of the time. They just need to deal with it.
I know this is a bike shop but it's not really a "cycling" issue. It's a business issue for shop that sells and repairs bikes.
It's a well-known and well-liked cycling shop. The problem is that regeneration of the area and the changing face of Brixton means that rents are shooting up. It could well end up with Brixton Cycles not actually being in Brixton.
The last thing I want is for the area to be another copy and paste of Hoxton. We're already seeing a lot of bearded hipsters supported by affluent parents move to the area while long term residents move away. Brixton is in danger of losing its character and the bicycle shop is actually part of that character.
Like I say same for every business. Presumably they moved there when the rents were cheaper to be in a cheap rent area.
There really is no point asking for regeneration to create jobs and investment in run down areas and then when you get the jobs and the investment to say that you acually wanted it to stay the same.
The jobs and the investment are good things. Regeneration too has its good side. But when a lot of small flats are built that don't suit families, then you tend to have a big change to the age demographic of the area.
There was talk of the skatepark next to the shop also being removed. It appears to have been saved, for now at least.
I used to live opposite and used them regularly. Would be devastated if they couldn't find another premises in the area. I regret not knowing his name but I'd pass the fella with the ginger beard regularly on my way to work and give him a nod. I have to admit that whole block is f*cking hideous though.
Barney you mean? He left a while back. Or do you mean the tall ginger bloke?
The block is pretty horrible.
A cycling lawyer is already speaking to BC. But more help would be appreciated I'm sure.
Regeneration of Brixton is great, but forcing out well established and successful business is not good. Those of us long term Brixton residents do have reservations about how the area is changing and we certainly don't want it to become another Hoxton.
I'm a long time customer for Brixton Cycles and I'd hate to see the shop disappear altogether.