Art in London Editorial Spring 2010

Welcome to Art in London

Following two years in which small businesses in London have struggled to stay afloat, there are encouraging yet cautious signs of growth. This is a time when local government should offer every incentive to entice business to the capital.

Westminster Council’s input to this process is an attempt to extend parking restrictions from 6:30pm until midnight - a move unquestionably linked to their budget deficit of £22 million. The council shouldn’t need reminding that increasing parking restrictions to raise revenue is illegal and they are quick to claim that the move is not revenue-motivated. However, a leaked memo revealed by the Evening Standard indicates that the council have already determined that the new restrictions will raise an additional £5.8 million in the 2012-13 financial year.

The 6:30pm restriction has worked satisfactorily for decades and does not require review. The majority of West End congestion is caused by a plethora of empty bendy buses and council-approved roadworks, while the West End economy is now built around six days a week of late night shopping. You only have to spend half an hour seeking a small strip of yellow band in the evening to realise just how much additional traffic enters the capital after normal working hours - virtually all of which benefits local business. Extending parking restrictions will drive much of that extra business elsewhere. Art dealers will stage private views in half-empty galleries, restaurants will close and theatres will suffer as no-one will be able to park for a sufficient length of time, presuming it will be possible to find a parking place at all - and I can assure you that it will not. We may as well give up, close the West End and stick up a sign saying ‘Gone Fishing’.

Casting my memory back to 2007, the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea published a document entitled A Balance of Trade - a report into retail conservation, much of which centred on Portobello Road and its world renowned antiques market. The report concluded: ‘Specific functions in specific settings can be protected. We think this is now required for the antiques arcades on Portobello Road...’ (The market must not be) ‘overrun by identikit multiples’. The report suggested ‘Change of Use’ policy could differentiate between antique and fashion retail.

I have to question why the council wasted their time and money producing this document when their efforts could have been put to better use playing dominoes at the Duke of Wellington. Last summer over 150 antiques dealers were ejected from Lipka’s Arcade - one of the largest and most important on the Road - in favour of yet another clothing chain. Some have been accommodated in smaller units elsewhere in the area - many have gone for good. What is now left of the market is rapidly deteriorating. One of my colleagues at this publication ran one of the largest stalls at the World Famous arcade for almost 20 years. He was recently removed to a unit a fraction of the size in order to accommodate a tacky ensemble of cheap souvenir handbags, T-shirts and other assorted trash.

Attempts to turn Portobello Road into another Marylebone High Street will ultimately fail. 40% of local residents live in housing trust properties, claim benefits and rely on the market to survive. Notting Hill might be perceived as ‘cool’ and ‘chic’, but it is the locals and more importantly, the antiques traders who have made it so. What will remain is a blander version of Chiswick High Road. Portobello Investments own most of the arcades in the area and their only interest is how much rent they can extract from each one. For this they cannot be criticised. RBKC had a duty to protect the antiques market - one of the top five tourist attractions in London. They have failed miserably and should hang their heads in shame.

Ed

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