Business owners ignored as Whitgift closes car park entrance

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Shopping center managers have pushed ahead with the closure of the old Allders car park – making it even more difficult for people to visit the increasingly dilapidated site.

Ghost Town: There must be a reason why there are fewer shoppers visiting the Whitgift Center…

The management of the Whitgift Center ignored the calls of the traders – its tenants – and closed the entrance to the Allders car park and with it the pedestrian access to parts of the much neglected shopping center and the few businesses that remained there.

Business owners in the Whitgift Center only discovered the intention to close the car park by accident when the signs were placed in the car park barely a week before the May 31 deadline. The management of the mall, now owned by Unibail Rodamco Westfield, did not even bother to warn the affected businesses – their tenants and customers – in advance.

A merchant said Inside Croydon that they were “incandescent with anger” because, despite assurances from the center’s managers that there would be new signage to indicate a pedestrian walkway and increased security, including night-time watchdogs, none of these promises were kept .

Allders, the department store in a shopping center that was once the pride of Croydon, has been closed for more than a decade. But downtown shoppers and visitors still used the parking lot, and pedestrians used its entrances as a means of access to the shops, bars, restaurants and other amenities that remain, despite the steady decline in downtown visitors.

In 2012, Westfield were announced as developers for a £1.4bn project in Croydon town centre, which would include a new shopping centre, offices and hundreds of new homes. It was supposed to be completed by 2017.

Hostile environment: strewn rubbish, closed entrances and an empty car park behind what was once the pride of Croydon

But no brick was laid and no part of the Whitgift Centre, built in the 1960s, was demolished as the mall was allowed to slowly deteriorate, driving away many of its stores and customers.

Closing off some of the remaining businesses from public access by closing the Allders car park without providing a safe and well-lit walkway is feared to discourage even more customers from visiting.

The footbridge across the car park is, it is now suggested, to remain open for another month.

Angela Ferrara, who has run Bishop’s Wine Bar for 13 years, says they received no notice of the closure in the adjacent parking lot and only found out when the window cleaner at the bar pointed out the signs.

“This bar has been here since 1982, it looks like it won’t be around much longer because what little passageway we have is going to be destroyed,” Ferrara said. Inside Croydon last month.

The barriers at the entrance to the car park went in over the weekend.

“The parking lot is now closed,” Ferrara said.

Not by the way: it’s as if the management of the Whitgift Center want to make visiting the center as difficult as possible

“There’s a small door around the corner that you can still go in and out of on our level, but it has absolutely no indication of its existence, inside or out.”

Mall managers told Ferrara there would be signage. Now they are going to install their own signs.

“There were none of the promised security or guard dogs,” she said.

Even at weekends, the Whitgift Center no longer stays open until its supposed closing time of 7pm – an important detail for hospitality businesses such as Bishop’s. “They seem to shut down whenever they feel like it,” Ferrara said.

“The surface car park is, as always, empty. The once busy Allders car park is now, as you would expect, empty.”

Customers have already canceled reservations at the wine bar because they were unable to navigate the increasingly hostile and depressing mall environment.

On Sunday, Ferrera observed, “The passage downtown today was a fraction of what it was, and this is just the first day of this madness.

“I am incandescent with rage.”

Croydon’s part-time mayor Jason Perry and the council have remained silent on the matter.

Read more: Businesses on the brink as the Whitgift Center prepares to close its car park
Read more: The much-loved Whitgift Center cafe will close on Saturday
Read more: Barwell, Brexit and Croydon’s troubled Westfield dream

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