TFL greed on display

One of London’s last local newsagents has been forced to close, after Transport for London (TFL) raised its rent by over three times. Brixton News has operated within Brixton tube station for 36 years, until TFL skyrocketed their rent from £40,000 a year to £125,000.

TFL putting profit over people

Pritesh Patel, who owns and runs the kiosk with his brother, told The Londoner that the lease was originally £8,000 a year in 1990. Since then, it’s increased every three years.

Patel told The Londoner:

at some point, in five to ten years, we would have got to a point where we’d have to say, ‘we’ve got to walk away’, because the rents would’ve just kept increasing.

He explained that their profits aren’t enough to keep up with ever-increasing rents. Despite being a newsagent’s, most of their income comes from drinks and snacks. Which is also a sad statement about the decline of print media.

Patel said

You can’t pay stupid rent when you’re taking that.

While Brixton News stood alone until closure, it wasn’t always that way. When they first moved in there was also a record store, a camera and photo shop, a cafe, and dry cleaners within the ticket hall. Upstairs used to be home to an arcade which housed a Chinese supermarket, hairdressers, and a pharmacy.

This all changed in 2000 when TFL kicked out all of the businesses as part of the station’s redevelopment. Though the arcade upstairs has remained closed and empty. Brixton News was only allowed to stay because TFL shut the ticket hall, so passengers needed a place to top up their Oyster cards in person.

Pure greed

TFL have insisted that the rent hike was to accommodate an increase in premises size. This doesn’t appear to be something the Patels wanted or the kiosk needed.

TFL told The Londoner that they:

have the opportunity to increase the size of the retail unit currently occupied by the newsstand, and asked Pritesh in January 2024 if he’d be interested in the larger space. He decided not to stay, and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours and would welcome him elsewhere on our estate.

So basically, rather than keep a longstanding business in the station, they’re going to increase it anyway to see who else they can attract. Probably a big business that can afford the ridiculous rent.

Patel said:

I’ve interacted with nearly everyone in the area at some point: sometimes I’ve done them a favour, and we’ve chatted, we’ve talked. It’s just having somewhere you can come and have a conversation. Something local.

Because it’s more than just a kiosk, Brixton News is a focal point for the community of Brixton. Having been there so long, Pritesh knows the faces and the regulars. In turn, customers told The Londoner about their sadness at the shop’s closure.

Community is an obstacle for TFL

As London increasingly becomes a hollowed-out shell of faceless corporations, local run businesses that the community can trust are vital.

There’s no justification for taking away such an integral part of the community. Except for the fact that for a conglomerate like TFL, community gets in the way of profits. So instead of connection and sense of belonging, they see something that needs to be stamped out. Which is an absolutely vile way to run a company which is literally supposed to connect London.

Featured image via the Canary