A little bit of good news – 303 Lavender Hill (a.k.a. the rather mucky looking shop unit between Whole Foods Market and the Corner Stone bookstore), which has been empty for years and is frankly a bit of an eyesore, is being cleaned up and becoming an extension of the shop next door.

Pictured to the right are the cheerful team who were valiantly scraping off about five years’ worth of flyposting from the exterior.

This seems a good use for the unit, and it’s a sign of confidence on the part of Whole Foods in the store.  It’s worth bearing in mind that the company – which is small in the UK, with half a dozen local stores and one large flagship on Kensington High Street, but a significant player in parts of the US – is now owned by Amazon, who reportedly have big plans for the business, including a large US store expansion and various linksges between Amazon’s online business and the physical stores.  It will be interesting to see how this store evolves.

The proposed new shopfront (c) Dickson Architects

But also some less positive news – the Poggenpohl kitchen showroom has closed.  This is the shop that acquired a certain fame when a double decker bus crashed in to it, fortunately without lasting injuries, in August 2017 (the aftermath pictured below left).