The City of London Corporation is trying to terminate the leases of cafes at Parliament Hill Lido, Queen’s Park, and Highgate Wood Pavilion and hand them to new operators.
The are run by Kentish Town couple Patrick Matthews and Emma Fernandez under their brand Hoxton Beach.
When the cafe tenancies were remarketed last year, Hoxton Beach applied to continue running its businesses.
But the Corporation, which manages Hampstead Heath, Highgate Wood and Queen’s Park, decided Aussie-inspired chain Daisy Green put in a better bid for the Lido and Queen’s Park cafes.
Daisy Green was also awarded the Parliament Hill Fields cafe and Golders Hill Park cafe – while the long standing operator at Golders Hill was handed the lease for Highgate Wood Pavilion.
Hoxton Beach claim the City of London Corporation’s remarketing process was unfair and say it was given just four weeks notice to leave the cafes they had run for almost eight years.
It has raised a petition of 25,000 signatures calling for the decision to be reversed – and crowdfunded a High Court legal challenge.
Following news this week that Hoxton Beach’s lawyers had applied for a judicial review, a spokesperson for the City of London Corporation pledged: “We will defend this case vigorously.”
They added: “Our decision followed a fair, open, and independently supported process assessing 30 bids, with the relevant consultative bodies involved in the process.
“The winning bidders had the strongest proposals, showing the best long-term plans for our charities. This legal action is diverting charitable resources away from protecting our open spaces.
“Our priority remains delivering the best possible services for the millions who use these sites.
“We are reviewing the papers submitted and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”
A judge will now decide whether there’s a case to answer before permission is granted for the review.
In the meantime it’s likely that Hoxton Beach will remain operating its three cafes, which were operating under a short term “tenancies at will” which provided no long term security or long term investment in the cafes.
The remarketing weighed up factors such as cafe concept, prices, social value and strength of business plan but Hoxton Beach’s bid wasn’t recommended for approval to the Hampstead Heath, Highgate Wood and Queen’s Park Committee when they made their decision last December.
