Surbiton News?

16 years ago...

Does anyone have any intelligence on what is to become of the recently deceased Somerfield (RIP)?

Or what restaurants/cafés/shops might move into the swankily named Surbiton Plaza?

Comments

And that Chez Julien deli next door is pretty good as well.
Nice freshly baked french breads, pastries, flans etc
Way better than Waitrose's stuff.

The bad thing is that there are now three empty shops in that row. The laundrette has been boarded up for at least a year now.

It makes you wonder - are the rents too high, or is there just no alternative use for these small shops now that we all shop in supermarkets?

I agree. It is like the two shops next to the old Post Office that have been boarded up for as long as I can remember (at least 6-7 years).

It does not look very good in a relatively affluent town when shops cannot be let. As someone suggested earlier, this will only get worse in Surbiton as estate agents start to move out - there must be at least 15 of those in the town centre now.

It is a shame. I went shopping in Surbiton on the weekend for the first time in ages. It is such a pleasant experience being able to walk in to the town, get what you want quickly without too much queuing, and grab a quick coffee before coming home. Granted, you will not be able to get everything you could do in a larger town like Kingston, but it is sufficient for most needs.

drop a bomb on the ymca front steps and put the freak show out of its misery

pizza express in the post???? what do you think?

I think Pizza Express would be ideal for that location. The only problem is that they have two in Kingston, and the original High Street one is less than a mile from Surbiton town centre.

Surbiton has some nice independent restaurants, and whilst I would not want to encourage too many chains into the town, one of the 'nicer' ones like Pizza Express or Strada would seem to be ideal.

It is now confirmed that Zizzi will go into the PO building.

Quite a nice choice as chain restaurants go, but I think I will stick to eating in the Maple Road area until something is done about the YMCA.

The article in the informer says that a dentist and doctors surgery is opening too! Anyone know when this is, i'm looking for an NHS dentist and can't find a decent one. Last one was so young he was just out of nappies

Tis definitely going to be a Mackays. They have signs up and everything!

I live in Surbiton and do not shop there,Tesco in New Malden serves all my needs for food.clothing and household goods.

I cannot recall a Turf Accountant in Surbiton,that would be much better than yet another overpriced coffee shop and is there anywhere to get a nice cup of tea these days?

There used to be a turf accountant on St James Road, next to the goods entrance for Waitrose - not sure if it is still there, though.

For a cup of tea, try Puccinos if you like a cafe style place, or St James Cafe if you favour a classic greasy spoon.

yes that bookies is stil there, they are also building a 3rd floor on st james court

does surbiton have more estate agents per square foot than anywhere else in the uk?

It certainly seems that way. I guess it is quite natural in a London suburb, though. Kingston and London are just down the road for shopping, so centres like Surbiton will gravitate to supermarkets, convenience stores, estate agents and charity shops.

I think that the estate agents must be doing quite well with the level of prices now. The only thing that worries me is that as estate agency moves increasingly online (as it must do), will the agents give up their premises? That would leave half of Surbiton town centre empty!

Mixed blessing if the estate agents do disappear over the next ten years.
Proper shops might reinvigorate the town centre, eg small high quality outfits like that excellent Chez Julien(?) deli.

The only problem is that there mightn't be enough small shop opportunites to fill all the empty estate agent offices. Thats why I think surbiton could do with more larger stores that would benefit from proximity to Kingston, but have cheaper rent, eg furniture stores.

Another problem is that the council / planners seem hellbent on increasing kingston's retail space still further. This is bound to have a detrimental knock-on effect on surbiton town centre.

In other places, eg Upper Street in Islington, they replaced all the empty small shops with coffee shops, restaurants and bars. That's almost seems like admitting defeat and giving up on having a viable town centre at all.

Some of the more interesting buildings on the high street could certainly make very stylish restaurants some day, eg the natwest bank. To preserve the high street, however, this should only be as a last resort. A kind of licensing system for restaurants might be a good idea - allow a maximum number, but allow licenses to transfer to more stylish premises if necessary.

I don't think that there are that many stores that would move into Surbiton because of it's proximity to Kingston. The retail space rent on the outskirts of Kingston is much cheaper than, say, the Bentall Centre, and there is a reason for this - big shops want to be right in the centre.

I bet a huge proportion of people who visit Kingston for shopping don't even realise where Surbiton is, and would certainly not be prepared to walk or drive to Victoria Road to complete their shopping.

that posty is the worst!!

bring on nero + pret to give starbucks and costa a run for their money!

the mac donalds is wierd, i thought i was tripping when i first went in there

as surbitons resident designer - i can tell you that macdonalds new scheme has been somewhat contravetial. The scheme uses egg and series 7 chairs supplied by Fritz hansen who own the design rights to said furniture peices.....Unfortunatly macdonalds failed to understand that one factory in denmark wouldn't be able to cope with a world wide demand/order so maccy d's went elsewhere and used copies to keep to there programme.

this was naughty and fritz hansen have pulled there supply out.....so if you see one of these chairs being thrown out - be aware it could be an original egg chair worth well £1000 - or it could be a copy.

my guess is surbiton's are the real deal

Intigued to know why they went for the military green. It's hardly the colour of Happy Meals.

Mackays was refused permission by the Planning Officer on 16 July.

They must be disappointed as it looks as though they are part way through the fit-out - they have even got signs up advertising the store and job opportunities!

Good to see the planners demanding higher quality shop frontage along the main street - it is supposed to be a conseravtion zone after all.

The only thing is why pick on Mackays when McDonalds new frontage is no better?

Huzzah! I hear nasty, nasty Martins the newsagents has put an application in to reduce its current grubby premises to half its size, sharing the remaining space with a shiny new Café Nero.

I know, I know. ANOTHER chain coffee store. But if it means a refit for Martins then that can't be a bad thing, can it? ANYTHING has to be better those filithy carpets and depressing bargain bins.

Worked in that Martins for years. The only thing more derpressing than looking at the dirty carpet was hearing people moaning about the dirty carpet! The shop would be great if you got rid of the post office. Maybe just move it down to the Y so they can pick up their giros direct!

I totally agree - that shop is like something from a 70's council estate. I hope they do actually refit it, though, and don't just reuse what they have got now!

So they're looking to give us even less room to queue at the post office counter then?

i live in victoria avenue and to be honest as long as the as the somerfeild doesnt become a charity shop or an estate agents then its fine by me. However i wouldnt mind a clothes shop
and surbiton is a great place to live!

What exactly is KFC?

Kentucky Fried Coronary

KFC is now open again just had a re-furb. I was shocked when i saw it being ripped out but its back!

lets have a pret in the high street, i hate starbucks and overpriced costa coffee with its useless students making bad coffee

What a load of rubbish!!! to the person who wrote, 'lets have a pret in the high street, i hate starbucks and overpriced costa coffee with its useless students making bad coffee'. I am so angry that someone wrote that. I am sure you are one of those people who are so proud of themselves and think that you have lots of money to spend, when really everything you buy is with credit! you go and make coffee, i use to! you moan at paying £3 for coffee, and yet you want it in 1 second! well obviously if you pay £3 it will take long to make, and a machine measures it so it can't be 'bad coffee' but obviously, again, you wouldn't know the difference! one last thing, lets take all those 'students' out and then who will serve your coffee??? and one last thing just don't go there, rather than moan about it! simple.

I love Surbiton, it really is the good life! i dislike snobs!!! - 21 from KT6

contact@stevenhiscutt.co.uk

I agree, it would be a nice addition. Unfortunately, I think it is unlikely as there are not enough office workers in Surbiton during the day to make it worth it for them.

Pret only came to Kingston a few years ago, and that has a much bigger office community as well as the advntage of hordes of shoppers on the weekends.

I think a 'proper' sandwich shop, along the lines of Clocks in Kingston would be ideal, but again the demand is probably not there in Surbiton.

Anyone know if anywhere is open at 12.00am for the New Harry Potter book in Surbiton on Friday??

bring on primark!

I moved to surbiton, im still young but it feels like a place you go to die.

I used to live in Surbiton but managed to escape.

Take it from me almost anything can fit into Surbiton now it has been destroyed by the planners even the Sainsburys is built with a sloping floor to allow trolleys to run amok.

I completely agree surbiton has been destroyed by planners and rates.i live here 30 years.use to be nice small shops international stores supermarket was the only supermarket.birdseye fish shop wet fish.electrical shops.shoe shops.bob glass shop outside the station.paper shop.is all that remains.all down to planners.with estate agents charity shops.i can wait to get out myself.

Where are you hoping to move to? The 1950's?

I think you'll find that since the seventies, the sort to changes you've seen have happened in all English towns.

Not true there is, in Parkstone,a true high street called Ashley Road.

It is about 3/4 mile long and contains medium supermarkets like COOP/Waitrose/Iceland plus pubs/cafes/coffee shops/hairdressers/curtain shops/sweets and tobacco/pet/gen hardware/discount hardware/Boots/Woolies/Travel Agents/Peacocks/Bwise/Banks/estate agents/carpet shop/Conservative club.

There are many other indvidually run shops but the secret is having had a Conservative council and MP for many years who have allowed planning improvements but not managed to destroy the area.

Far from being a Pensioner ghetto it is teeming with young people and indeed folks of all ages.

It also has its ethnic population and supports a Mosque and Anglican churches.

I am sure it is not alone and others will know of similar roads and i bet they are all in Tory boroughs

I am not quite sure of your point. Are you talking about Parkstone in Dorset?

Surbiton actually has every one of the establishments on your list on Victoria Road apart from Peacocks/Bwise and a mosque. I think that we can do without those!

I am surprised that poor shops like Peacocks can survive in such an affluent area.

I agree with the sentiment about Tory councils, though. I guess that Surbiton has benefitted from being a 'traditional' Tory council area, even if they did allow a lot of hideous blocks of flats to be built in the 60s/70s!

I REMEMBER IT WAS ABOUT 28 YEARS AGO THAT MICHEAL PARKINGSON SAID ON HIS CHAT SHOW.THAT THERES NO WERE SO DEAD AS SURBITON ON A SATURDAY NIGHT.WEATHER HE LIVE HERE AT ONE TIME I DONT NO.BUT HE'S SO RIGHT EVEN NOW.

That was a very popular cliche with the BBC/media in the 70's, though - Surbiton being portrayed as dull.

It has never been quite true. Surbiton is a London suburb, and is obviously quite dull compared with central London itself, or the large regional centres like Kingston or Guildford.

In reality, though, there is loads going on in Surbiton compared to the average town in the provinces, just not much in comparison to it's proximity to London.

As someone has already said, the beauty of Surbiton is that you can walk to Kingston in 10 minutes, be in the West End in 30 minutes, and have all the entertainment you want. When you get back to Surbiton, it is rare to see any of the fights and chav problems** you get in larger towns, so you have the best of both worlds.

**This is obviously not the case if you stray too close to Wetherspoons or the YMCA.

That is one of the things that drew us here. Quiet, but a stones throw away from the noise and nightlife if you want it in Kingston or Richmond.

me to, we used to live in kingston, the drunk students going home everynight at 2/3am broke us, not forgetting drug dealing near by!

surbiton is fine by us and our 2 young kids, and we can still go to kingston in the day if needed,

some good restaurants would be good, even a pizza express/carluccios would be a bonus,

wasnt the tv show "the good life" set in Surbiton?

Its hardly all doom and gloom on the restaurant front.

The French Table is excellent.
The relaunched Harts Boatyard is now making a real effort on the food front.
That Italian on the Maple Road is good as well.
And the Prithi is well above the standard of an average curry house.

I'd agree that everywhere else is probably a bit bland / dated and isn't making too much of an effort.

Harts Boatyard - about time they improved, it has been pretty poor to dine at since I was a child.

French Table is great, but I do have to try the Italian on Maple Road... lots of people say it is good.

Yes i agree the same changes have happend in ever english town.i find surbiton very force now.people buy property here work in london so near the station.and go home to there roots at holidays weekends.over the christmas surbiton is like a ghost town.i think the only answer for me is a-broad now

I would like a bakers, butchers, green grocers, and a market area in the car park.
I think this is what people want: fresh produce, not a bad quality store/supermarket like LIDL/ALDI. So many clothes shops have opened/closed in Surbiton over the last 10 years, none of them have done very well.
The majority of their target audience is at work during the week and at the weekends they're in Kingston for variety of shops.

I would love there to be such shops. I love Claygate's main street for that reason: fishmonger, bakery, butcher etc......did Surbiton ever have these, or have local residents always gone to Kingston/ The Dittons for this?

I am shocked that MacKay is moving in, I had not heard of it before it moved to Cobham! Pretty grim shop IMHO - does not fit in with the rest of the high st. and I cannot imagine it fitting in Surbiton either.

Sounds just right for Surbiton

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