The ever-changing face of Surbiton

12 years ago...

I note with a certain degree of bewilderment that 'Southern Brew' is now boarded up. I also note that the charity shop that morphed out of C'Est Bon has now been gutted. What will this morph into (does anyone know)? Will it be another **hair dresser/charity shop/estate agents/coffee shop. Could this be the break we need for a traditional (non-chain) Spanish restaurant?

With Excellar moving to the site where mobin/dolphin shop used to be. What is going to happen with the space vacated by Excellar? Rumour has its going to be a Tesco Express. Is this true? Surely we don't need another supermarket chain.

** Delete where applicable

Comments

And what about those 2 empty shos either side of Zizzi

What will become of them? Anyone know? Or guess?

Another phone shop?

....And what about the one at the bottom of the high st. Opposite Excellar new site?

Opposite the new Ex Cellar site? Ah, you must mean KFC. Yes it looks like a slum but it is apparently a food outlet. :)

I meant diagonally opposite

Oh. Dunno. Likely an estate agent or Indian takeaway. Preferably neither.

My husband asked the builders and they said it would be a phone shop ... as if we need one of those.

Oh bl**dy h*ll.
Not another one of those things. Another useless waste of Surbiton shop front. This will bring no more value to the high street or the town IMHO.

Yep, and it is Phones4U as well, which is one of the most tacky ones.

I can't understand what is going on in the shop where Southern Brew was. The two previous cafes that were there (l'Amandine and Cafe Mooca) both still have branches elsewhere, so it is not as if they have gone bust or anything.

It makes me wonder if it is a troublesome landlord or particularly high rent, as I'd have thought this would be a great location for a cafe.

Tesco Express is going to be a bit of a blight in that location, especially if it is 24 hours opening, but the new Ex-Cellar store/deli on the Brighton Road junction sounds quite good.

Overall, I still think the recession hit at a particularly bad time for Surbiton town centre. It was always much worse than it should have been for such an affluent town, but the opening of Waitrose/M&S Food and others in the early 2000s sparked some real improvements.

The recession stopped that development in it's tracks and there has been some regression since with the only openings being chain stores. If you go back 5 years, Surbiton had no chain coffee shops and no mobile phone shops. It now has all of the main players in both of those markets. Still, they are better than empty shopfronts.

Is it too late to stop Tesco? I cannot stand that company.

I hope it is not a Tesco as they will be opening one at 177 Hook Road soon, they have one at the garage on the Ewell Road, they are going to be at the new development at Ellerton Road and then they own the site on the A3 roundabout as well as the 24 hour one in new Malden up the road. WHY do they need so many in this area?

Nothing stops Tesco. They offer the best backhanders.

They didn't win in Tolworth.

You can't win them all I guess.

The same Tolworth that does already have a Tesco Metro though right?

;)

I think Tesco is just speculation at this point. Nothing concrete to suggest they've bid for the site AFAIK. Hopefully there is a well funded, interesting, independent business lurking in the wings to wow us all in this unique location. Hopefully!

I'd hope so as well. The Tesco takeover of Kingston has been swift. It wasn't so long ago that the only store they had in the borough was the large one in New Malden.

In the past few years they have acquired the petrol station site at Tolworth, opened stores in central Kingston and New Malden, narrowly failed to open another superstore in Tolworth and are now looking at Hook Road and central Surbiton.

How many is too many?

One.

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