New community space regenerates an abandoned department store to provide opportunities for residents and independent businesses
The top floor of a former Debenhams within Hounslow’s Treaty Centre has been transformed into a multipurpose creative hub to promote independent businesses and support local communities. The 2787m2 space, which was officially opened by the Deputy Mayor of London for Planning, Regeneration and Skills last month, will act as an incubator, allowing businesses to gain their first high street retail experience in an affordable, supportive environment. It will nurture businesses, create new local networks and encourage collaboration through a cohort-based, collegiate mentoring system. The Loft’s support work, including a legal advice centre for refugees and creative projects for local communities, will be financed by its commercial offerings. The Loft is supported by the London Borough of Hounslow, the Mayor of London's High Streets for All Challenge Fund, Treaty Shopping Centre, and The Arts Centre, Hounslow.
The Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and Skills, Jules Pipe, said: “This impressive transformation of an empty department store into a multipurpose hub for independent businesses is great news for Hounslow’s town centre and a terrific example of how to transform large legacy buildings. The Loft will attract new start-ups and retailers, creating more job opportunities for the local community and help secure a sustainable and successful retail destination for the wider area. This kind of regeneration will ensure a better, fairer, more prosperous London for all.”
Through launching The Loft, Hounslow high street no longer has any unoccupied large retail spaces. Hounslow town centre is the largest and busiest town centre within the Borough. While population has increased due to it being a Mayoral Housing Zone, February 2022 footfall centre was down 26% compared to pre-lockdown figures. In May 2021, the Treaty Centre lost its main anchor tenant, the three-floor Debenhams. To compete with nearby shopping destinations Kingston and Richmond, Hounslow must develop its own identity and provide unique and broad opportunities. The Loft seeks to increase visitor footfall and dwell time and allow Hounslow to become a destination with creative retail, leisure and hospitality opportunities that attract locals as well as visitors from outside the Borough. Increased footfall will allow local businesses to extend their operating hours to provide residents with goods and services when they need them. The end goal is for locally owned and staffed independent businesses to become synonymous with the Hounslow town centre experience. The Loft offers employment opportunities for the community and will promote social integration within the Borough by offering space and opportunities to its different communities, including long established residents, new residents of recent developments and newly arrived immigrants and refugees.
Councillor Tom Bruce, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Development said, “The Loft is a fantastic new initiative to bring empty high street space back to life. We know from listening to businesses and communities that there is a lack of affordable spaces for start-ups, yet because of the pandemic and cost of living crisis an increase in vacant spaces across the borough. We are committed to unlocking these vacant retail spaces such as the Loft, which not only enhances leisure experiences but provides a boost to the local economy.”
Sat at the entrance to The Loft is The Marketplace, a modern re-imagining of the traditional market. The open-plan collection of market stalls offers crafts and handmade products made by independent makers. The aim is to encourage makers out of their homes and onto the high street. All products are purchased via the Marketplace’s central till system, with weekly sales reports provided to each vendor, and total sales deposited to their account monthly. This lifts the burden of setting up sales equipment and handling cash, allowing makers to focus on the parts of their business that really matter. The Marketplace is staffed by The Loft employees and, although encouraged, there is no obligation for individual retailers to be onsite, which opens physical retail up to those who would not usually be able to commit.
The Kitchen is a new restaurant and bar that sits centrally within The Loft’s space. During the day, The Kitchen serves brunch, lunch and coffee. In the evenings, from Thursday to Saturday, The Kitchen transforms into a restaurant with a rotating menu curated by refugees. Each refugee has a three-month restaurant residency, with the profits from the menu going towards helping more refugees and asylum seekers. The Kitchen will bring together communities and give refugees a voice. The first curated menu is El Jarochito, a taco restaurant curated by Mexican asylum seekers who ran a restaurant in Mexico until August 2022 before becoming victims of the insecurities. They are striving to use this platform to create a menu that can be served in their own restaurant in Hounslow for years to come.
Other areas within The Loft include a games zone complete with pool tables, shuffleboard and table tennis, a quiet space where visitors can work, a refugee advice service, a large workshop where lessons can take place or makers can create their goods, and therapy rooms for physio, osteopath and chiropractor businesses within the former fitting rooms. There is also office space for a collective of mental health organisations and charities, including Key Changes who have built a recording studio in the former Debenhams bank to promote positive mental health and wellbeing through music.
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