The future of Soho and Fitzrovia as the ‘beating heart’ of London is in doubt as offices across the capital remain largely empty – as the Le Caprice restaurant boss has slammed Sadiq Khan over the ‘damaging’ congestion charge.
The locations are known around the world as the centre of British advertising, film and TV production, but workers are still not returning to their offices amid the coronavirus crisis.
While Soho’s pubs and restaurants show signs of recovering from the lockdown, due in part to the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, workers are still reluctant to go back to their desks.
Jeremy King, co-founder of Corbin and King which owns restaurant the Wolseley, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Eat Out to Help Out had been a ‘very positive measure’ amid a ‘lack of confidence’ about going into central London.
But he added: ‘I’m still flabbergasted, absolutely incredulous at the imposition of a, not only a higher congestion charge but extending the hours to seven days a week up until 10 o’ clock at night. There is no measure which could be more damaging, I feel, than that, in collaboration with the others.’
Pictured: Diners in Frith Street, Soho, August 11. While restaurants are seeing customers return, the future of Soho and Fitzrovia as the ‘beating heart’ of London is in doubt as offices across the capital remain largely empty
Mr King, who has not reopened all of his restaurants, added that ‘in time’ other eateries would be able to open but other factors would make it difficult.
‘The rent arrears are piling up and whilst restaurants are safeguarded until the end of September from being evicted, and some landlords are acting with absolute integrity… there are other landlords, and I have one myself who are hell-bent on getting every penny.’
He added: ‘I’d really appreciate if the government could help us with more than guidelines – there are a lot of people who don’t adhere to guidelines.’
Jeremy King said Eat Out to Help Out had been a ‘very positive measure’ amid a ‘lack of confidence’ about going into central London
Mr King added that while many could successfully work from home, now was not necessarily a time of ‘creativity’.
‘People crave the company of others… this is why you even see people take their laptops and sit in clubs, solo at tables, it’s not about sitting at your dining table, you need a sense of community.’
Founder of TV and film audio production company SNK Studios, Seb Juviler, is now calling for extensions on business rate exemptions and Government discounted travel into central London to help bring staff back to work.
Mr Juviler told the Evening Standard: ‘This area has always been part of the beating heart of London from the Sixties onwards, and I hope it will thrive once again and continue to be a creative, special place. If that were lost though, it would be a tragedy.’
Roughly half of the workforce of SNK – which has worked on TV programmes Peaky Blinders and Noughts + Crosses – have returned.
Mr Juviler added: ‘The vibrancy that emanates from the creative industries and people who work in them spreads far and wide into everyone’s lives… It affects the look, the feel, the eccentricity, food, fashion and beyond. We’ll be left with a bunch of banks and (mostly empty) offices. Very dull.’
While Soho’s pubs and restaurants show signs of recovering from the lockdown, due in part to the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, workers are still reluctant to go back to their desks (pictured: People out drinking in Soho)
Raoul Shah, who runs the Fitzrovia marketing agency Exposure, said the area needed its ‘social energy’ back, adding that some of the best creative work takes place ‘over a cuppa, in the pub, or just taking a stroll’ – which working from home does not allow.
Mr Shah says addressing high rents would benefit businesses, while expanding pedestrianised areas to make more covered seating could boost restaurants.
Johnny Hornby, who co-founded advertising group The & Partnership, argues that coronavirus has sped up the trend away from creative ventures and towards corporate businesses dominating the area.
Chief executive of media firm The Outernet, Philip Bourchier O’Ferrall, says Soho’s ‘greatest export’ was arguably its creativity, and now people need an ‘exceptional reason’ to go out.