Retail Units at Red Square

11 years ago...

Anyone heard what will fill the retail units at Red Sq development? I would not have though people will want to commit to buying a flat when not knowing what they will be.

Comments

Does anyone one genuinely know who is going in the retail part?

Sainsbury is definitely one as they have an application on the front for licensing so if you don't want it open 7am to 11pm send in comments. The planning permission is only to open from 8am

Sainsburys are opening lots of new shops in ex pubs, off licenses as its easier to get an alcohol license.

Sainsburys are on a bit of a march around here.

We've just got the ex-Excellar shop at Surbiton Station.
Next will be this one at the Red Lion, and following that will be the conversion of the ex Mad Hatter pub on the Ewell Road (roughly opp Langleys restaurant).

That's just madness, isn't it? Two on Victoria Road in Surbiton and then another two within half a mile of each other as well? The Red Lion one is also right opposite the Tesco that is already there.

I think that this is Sainsbury's expressed policy now, opening lots of small local stores instead of the bigger in-town or even bigger out-of-town ones. All we need is Tesco to start following the same model and there won't be much else left at all!

I suppose having both Sainsburys and Tesco locals in the area is better than just one of them having a local monopoly, but it's bound to have an impact on other stores.

The Mad Hatter Sainsburys will have a big impact on both the Ewell Road and Berrylands Londis. The Berrylands Londis, even though it looks really tatty, is always very busy, but this store cuts right into its catchment area.
I can't see all three surviving long term.

When the development at the corner of 2a Ellerton ( the old police pound) is built there will be another supermarket under the block of flats. It was to be a Tesco at the last planning revision but I cannot see their name on the amended plans currently under discussion.

To avoid any locals getting panicked, I think it's important to point out that the Ellerton Rd development is not a supermarket, but is a shop sized unit.
These "Local" shops may be operated by national supermarket chains, but they're shops, not supermarkets and won't draw in traffic like supermarkets.

how do you know, they are still going to use large lorries ( 8 metres) to deliver goods. The space is bigger than say a corner shop, and will in fact kill off the local shops so lets call them small supermarkets then

That's right, although to be fair, the Maple Road Londis has a weekly delivery by articulated lorry that is so big it has to park parallel to the parked cars outside the shop which causes congestion.

I guess it is only thr non-branded corner shops that aren't supplied like this anymore, and Londis et al seemed to kill most of them off years ago.

I think that is Sainsbury's plan - to smoke out the little stores.

It is not a bad idea from their point of view. I live just off Maple Road, so I can easily walk to Waitrose or the new Sainsbury's, but I still find myself spending quite a quite a bit in the Maple Road Londis.

Quite a lot of other people seem to do the same as it is always quite busy. It is a well organised little store and I'd hate to see it go, but when the big boys attack, they are going to find it hard to live with.

Pizza Express
Bathstore
Sainsburys Local

Let's hope it doesn't add too much congestion to the area as it's getting quite manic nowadays.

Application appears to be up ref 13/1053/ful

So it's 785mm higher than it should be....

If they are unlucky they may remain empty like the ones at the Plaza development at the old Post Office in Surbiton.

It is a massively bold move to build even more retail space at the moment with so many established retailers going bust and others unable to afford the huge rent/rates bills.

My long term view is that a lot of the houses in Surbiton that were turned into shops in the 60s-70s will be turned back into housing and a lot of the other shops will remain empty.

The landlords are unable to reduce the rents as they do not want to erode the capital value of their properties, and until this happens there is only a very small subset of retailers that will actually be able to afford to trade in them!

The initial talk was of a Waitrose and a Pizza Express. If it is a Waitrose it may explain why the building is being built too high as Waitrose may have higher height standards. The Kingston enforcement officer has told Linden Homes that it is in breach of the agreed plans and that they have to put in a retrospective planning application to ask for the increased height to be accepted. Seeing as 4 storeys (next to 2 storey houses) would not get passed today with Kingston's new planning regulations I can only hope residents will object in force when the application finally appears on the Kingston website. Mind you what are the chances of them being forced to remove the top floor!

Waitrose and Pizza Express would be amazing openings for Tolworth, especially considering how long it took them to open up in Surbiton itself.

It would be a good kick start to the regeneration of Tolworth if those two move in.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

By posting content on Surbiton.com, you agree to adhere to the following guidelines.

  • Your username and password must only be used by you, keep them safe. If a posting is made using your username and password it will be considered to have been posted by you. If you have a friend who wants to use our site and post messages on the site, show them how to register.
  • Be courteous at all times, inciting racial hatred, posting abusive, obscene, threatening, harassing, defamatory, libellous or sexually explicit material or any material that is found to be offensive is not acceptable and we may suspend your username and password.
  • Retaliating to offensive posts causes more problems for other users on the discussion boards. Just report such messages to us using the Feedback link which is available at the top of every page or the 'report this' link associated with individual postings. We will act on every report we receive.
  • Please respect other people's work and do not post material that infringes copyright.
  • Do not post information that you know to be confidential or sensitive or otherwise in breach of the law. You should only post material that you know to be public knowledge. If you have any doubts do not post it on the site.
  • Never attempt to gain unauthorised access to any area of the site. This is known as hacking and is illegal.
  • Content posted represents the opinions of the author, and does not represent the opinions of Surbiton.com or its affiliates and has not been approved or issued by Surbiton.com. You should be aware that the other participants are strangers to you and may make statements which may be misleading, deceptive or wrong.
  • Spoofing or posing as another user is unacceptable. Anonymous users' postings should always be considered with suspicion.
  • Help keep Surbiton.com a safe place for information and opinion. Please alert us of any anti-social behaviour as described above.
Please note that Surbiton.com does not monitor the comments posted and we are therefore reliant upon users reporting antisocial behaviour.