The number of empty shops on UK high streets is rising every year, and Wandsworth seem to be another London borough that is slowly but surely losing its high street favourites across the town centre.
The closure of shops on our beloved high streets is due to various contributing factors – inflation, parking problems, rising business rates and lower salaries, but mainly due to the increase demand for online shopping, particularly during the pandemic.
The Wandsworth Times visited Wandsworth town centre and counted the empty shop units in the high street.
On the way, we counted empty barbershops, takeaway businesses, clothing stores, restaurants and empty apartments have that been isolated for so long they become eroded.
We began counting from the L’Affaire pub and continued until we reached the Wandsworth Council Civic Suites – approximately a nine minute walk.
We counted a grand total of 14 empty buildings along the high street.
We found the majority of empty buildings along the high-street were vacant takeaway businesses, with nothing left except the sign above the shop and dated newspapers scattered across the window.
Sadly, there was a common occurrence of unoccupied buildings with merely ‘to let’ advertisements inside – with no business names in sight.
These particular buildings were completely empty, except for the handful of letters posted through the obsolete post box.
There seemed to be more empty units located towards the west of the high street, facing the L’Affaire pub – but this is likely due to the increase of buildings, compared to the east side of the high street.
Some of the empty buildings won't be closed off for long, as they have a positive future ahead with refurbishment plans.
The building below, directly next to the Spreadeagle pub, will soon be home to the new Young’s hotel development and is part of the Spreadeagle pub refurbishment.
Although there seemed to be a great deal of empty buildings, Wandsworth high street isn’t all doom and gloom as it has the glorious Southside Shopping centre, which is currently the fifth biggest shopping centre in London.
Southside Shopping Centre is home to the biggest names in fashion, alongside the action-packed entertainment centre, Gravity.
It’s always great to experience new things such as tasting the delicious street food located on Wandsworth’s piazza, or perhaps a quick lap of the E-karting track inside Gravity, but what do you miss on the high street the most?
You can see what exciting plans are being made for Wandsworth town centre here.
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