Wednesday 8 September 2010

Brand new Tesco due to arrive at 38 - 40 Kennington Park Road

Further to my speculative posts, here and here, I can definitely announce the arrival of a brand new Tesco at 38-40 Kennington Park Road.  Tesco have taken a 15 year lease on the building from 19th April 2010 so I imagine that they'll open it as soon as the refurbishment is finished.  Tesco do not own the freehold.  I'm afraid I don't know whether Shakra services will remain (maybe someone else has more info.), but I suspect not.  Considering that we're now nearly 5 months into a relatively short lease, I imagine Tesco will be trying to open it ASAP.  Oddly, (but this is probably what attracted Tesco), it looks as though the land also has a right of way (including vehicles) over Opal Street.  That means (I suspect) that delivery to the building will take place at the back (which may well disturb residents of Opal Street) and it's close to a children's ball court.  What I'm not clear is whether the Opal Street residents will be able to enter the supermarket from their street or whether they'll just face the inconvenience of extra traffic without being able to gain easy access.

If Tesco manaage to open the proposed 216 Kennington Road branch, that will make 3 Tescos in SE11, which must be something of a monopoly, considering that we're a tiny postcode.  Still, Tesco is one of those shops that everybody likes to complain about and then inevitably ends up purchasing from.  It should benefit local residents at the north end of the road, and there's a dearth of shops in SE17 near Penrose Street, so I'm sure they'll receive plenty of custom.  Perhaps it will increase business at the Old Red Lion too, and I'm hopeful that Mansion House pub might be either re-opened or used by another business.

There's a huge amount of local news and goings on at the moment.  Expect further updates soon.

Update (1/10/2010) - as well as the signage application (see comments below), there's now an application (10/03220/FUL) for installation of air conditioning and fridges etc. so it's moving forward slowly.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting, there's already a marker on Google Maps for this store if you zoom in close enough

Jon B said...

Damn - was hoping for a Sainsbury. Still its just another Tesco for me to pointedly avoid when walking down to Sainsbury Nine Elms...

Anonymous said...

Oops, the Google Maps marker is for the 216 Kennington Road branch, not the one described in the post

Anonymous said...

not sure you will have realised but anyone can add those markers...i don;t like tesco...they suck bad at the current local tesco, so these minomarts are likewise not welcome imo

BA said...

We Opal Street folk will have to walk round to the front.
Not looking forward to big lorries coming and going. Funny we have not had any consultation as Opal St is not a public highway.

SE11 Lurker said...

BA, I'm sorry that you're going to have to put up with all the Tesco lorries and disturbance!

The reason that (I suspect) there was no consultation is that the building already has A1 (shop) use and so there needs to be no "change of use" so the landlords can come to an agreement with any tenant they choose. In addition, unfortunately in the leasehold agreement, some kind of access (a form of easement, maybe) is granted to Opal Way despite the fact that it's not a public highway. (That's my guess, but you could check with Cllr Mark Harrison as he's quite good at coming up with answers).

Adrian said...

They really are building an empire. There's this, the shop in Vauxhall, the existing one on Walworth Road, and there's another further down Walworth Road recently opened. And there is another in the Elephant & Castle shopping centre.

And potentially another on Kennington Road!

6 - wow!

Anonymous said...

http://planning.lambeth.gov.uk/publicaccess/tdc/dcapplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=L8VWYRBO0GL00

signage application for Tesco

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