A popular Brixton community food shop has been spared eviction after a long campaign against a property development company controlled an American millionaire DJ.
Nour Cash and Carry in Brixton market was handed an eviction notice in January by new landlords Hondo Enterprises and was set to leave its premises in late July - with the business' future uncertain.
The developers, run by well-known DJ Taylor McWilliams, said that the shop's unit was needed for a new electricity substation to power the market.
But after a long community campaign protesting the eviction, Nour and Hondo reached an agreement on Friday that the shop will be given new premises of roughly the same in the market - and will only have to move when the new unit is ready. The unit will also cost roughly the same to run.
"This means security, it means knowing that the products that we need and want will still be here," a spokesperson for campaigners Save Nour told the Evening Standard.
Brixton is home to people from a range of diverse backgrounds, and Nour sells ingredients that are often hard to find in larger supermarket chains.
The spokesperson added: "I think if the eviction had gone through lots of people would have felt far less at home in Brixton so it’s just a sign that if we come together we can have a say over what our community looks like.
The campaign to stop the eviction began a few weeks ago, and gathered support from several well-known figures, including baker and food writer, Ruby Tandoh, grime artist Wiley and comedian Nish Kumar.
Campaigners raised more than £20,000 to help raise awareness further and told the Standard that they would use the money to "challenge the gentrification in the area."
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The spokesperson went on: "Hondo still owns the whole market. We are talking to other traders and trying to build support networks, and we definitely commit to being there if other businesses are pushed out."
Hondo bought the market for around £37 million in 2018. The developers said in a statement that they have a "positive relationship" with all the market traders. They added that they offered a three-month rent holiday to all traders during the lockdown and originally offered Nour a new unit "on favourable terms".
