Living near London's high streets: Willesden Green up for national award as campaign to revamp high streets continues

Witch Café in the heart of Willesden Green serves fresh Colombian coffee and the best fig tarte Tatin in town. The café is a local favourite and a survivor in a high street that was seriously sinking — blighted by traffic, boarded-up shops and dispiriting takeaways.

However, after some smart thinking, community enterprise, council backing and well-placed help for young entrepreneurs, Willesden Green has turned itself around.

It has even been shortlisted in the Rising Star category of the Great British High Street Awards 2019, run by the housing ministry and supported by credit card company Visa. It’s the only London high street to make the final.

Despite the gloomy outlook for the retail sector (the British Retail Consortium revealed last month that the number of vacant shops in town centres is at its highest for four years and footfall in July fell to a seven-year summer low) Willesden Green is not the only high street in the capital undergoing radical change.

Local retail is being reinvented to fight off online shopping sites, explains Brent councillor Shama Tatler.

“Creating 21st-century high streets is about developing an attractive mix of shops, leisure, food and drink outlets, and co-working and creative space to suit the local community,” she says.

Willesden Green is getting the mix right. The council, residents’ association and Meanwhile Space — a social enterprise which aims to bring spaces awaiting regeneration back into use — introduced a scheme in 2012 which offers entrepreneurs vacant retail units on Queens Parade at subsidised rents while the owner awaits planning permission to develop the properties.

Forty businesses have used the scheme over the past five years, including current tenants Lily King, a lifestyle and jewellery shop, and Hairitage, a salon for women with curly, textured or Afro hair. “It’s important to have diverse businesses with engaging shopfronts to activate the street,” says Jessica Tsang of Meanwhile Space.

Off the high street and a short walk from Willesden Green station is a private close of six new homes by Notting Hill Genesis available through the shared ownership scheme. Prices for a three-bedroom home at BEAT NW10 start from £180,000 based on a 25 per cent share of the full market value of £720,000. Call 0203 815 1234.

The relentless rise of Clapham house prices has pushed many homebuyers into neighbouring Balham, where the high street was struggling.

Wandsworth Council and a collective of local businesses tasked architects Metropolitan Workshop with beautifying Balham.

“We decluttered Hildreth Street, just off the High Road, took down ugly bollards and unecessary signs and old lampposts and pedestrianised it so that cafés and restaurants can now spill out onto the street,” says architect Jonny McKenna.

Hildreth Street now brings a touch of continental café culture to Balham as well as a vibrant street market. Time Out describes it as “a secret south London gem”.

Homes are available in an apartment block on the High Road. Prices in the 41-flat Bedford House start from £655,000. Contact Savills on 020 3430 6920.

More than two thirds (68 per cent) of Londoners agree that the condition of the local high street is a factor when deciding to move to a new area.

Almost eight out of 10 Londoners (78 per cent) say that shopping locally makes them feel happy, with more than a third (36 per cent) citing supporting local shops and knowing where their money is going as the main reason.

More than half of Londoners (53 per cent) say that visiting their local high street gives them a sense of pride in their local community.

(Research by Visa)

There are three types of high street upgrade, according to John Percy, the head of retail development at property consultants Cushman & Wakefield.

First there is “organic growth”, driven by an influx of affluent residents, such as in Tooting or East Dulwich. Then there is “proactive asset-management” — when an estate is improved by its landlord. Percy cites the Howard de Walden Estate which has almost sole ownership of Marylebone High Street. It has created a buzzing café culture with boutiques to compete with Mayfair. Finally there is the creation from scratch of a new high street as part of a larger masterplan.

Lambeth High Street is a high street in name only. This largely forgotten road sits behind Albert Embankment between Vauxhall and Lambeth Palace. Proposals are in from developer U+I to replace the old Lambeth Fire Station and build a Fire Brigade museum, 417 homes, a Landmark Hotel, co-working spaces, gardens and a new high street.

Mount Anvil’s 37-storey, 595-home residential tower is being built nearby. Homes come with a gym and concierge service and prices start from £590,000 (020 3930 4786).

The huge Battersea Power Station development will deliver a little village at its feet, with 250 shops. Designer brands will go into one turbine hall, with an eclectic mix of younger, funkier stores in the other. The main high street, Electric Boulevard, is under construction and will run between the two residential buildings Battersea Roof Gardens and Prospect Place, and will have shops, restaurants and cafés.

Homes are available to buy in the Power Station and Prospect Place with prices from £510,000 for a studio (020 7501 0678.)

In neighbouring Nine Elms, homes are on sale in Embassy Gardens. Prices start from £789,000 in the complex, which has a “swimming pool in the sky” between two of its towers. Call Savills on 020 7409 8756.