The Wards Corner Community Plan
The core aim of the plan is to reflect the almost fifteen years of engagement with traders, local residents and other community organisations. Our community-led development will:
- provide improved trading space for all existing traders and for new small businesses;
- celebrate the unique identity and culture of the market;
- protect the physical heritage of the market, the Wards Corner building and the integrity of the high street;
- create a market that is self-managed by the community; and
- establish the area of Seven Sisters as a community ‘gateway’ to Tottenham.
Our proposal will provide:
- 3,113m² of retail/cafe space at ground and first floor levels;
- 642.8m² of small business office space on the second floor; and
- 233.5m² of community space at first and second floor.
The Business Plan
Eastside Primetimers have prepared a viable business plan for the operation of the restored market on a self-managed basis. Using detailed income modelling, it forecasts a substantial annual profit, while still maintaining existing rent levels for market traders, set against estimated operational costs. These include the salaries of a market manager, a facilities manager, administrative support and an additional post; building maintenance; security; cleaning and waste; advertising and marketing.
Depending on the costs of securing a long-term lease from Transport for London, the business plan identifies the potential to generate a significant surplus every year - following the completion of the project. This will enable future upkeep of the building and its facilities, as well as reinvestment in local community projects and enterprise initiatives, ensuring the ongoing success of the market. Consequently, the scheme will help strengthen the wider local community and economy for the benefit of everyone who lives, works and visits Seven Sisters. In turn, this will generate further financial benefits and encourage social resilience for market traders, local businesses and residents, expanding and extending opportunities for community-led development and self-management.
Who we are
We are a collective of residents, traders and activists working together to promote a community-led alternative to regeneration in Wards Corner, Seven Sisters:
The West Green Road and Seven Sisters Development Trust is an organisation working to promote social, environmental and economic sustainability in the area by supporting community-led development for the benefit of local people, promoting local enterprise, and championing locally owned assets.
Save Latin Village and Wards Corner Community Interest Company is a group aiming to prevent the damage regeneration is causing to the cultural value of Seven Sisters Market and to raise public awareness about human rights violations against the local Latin community. Through the legal defense campaign against the Compulsory Purchase Order, we want to prevent the demolition of the market – a listed community and architectural asset supported by the UN and home to one of the largest concentrations of Latin businesses in the U.K.
Unit 38 is an architectural design and research studio, originally based in the market, responsible for the design of the fourth iteration of the Wards Corner Community Plan. The plan offers an alternative landmark development for Tottenham based on retaining and enhancing the Wards building and Seven Sisters Market.
Consultation
The development of the Community Plan has been an iterative process, initiated in 2007 and informed by around 15 years of campaigning. The Plan emerged from a strongly and widely held desire to retain and enhance Seven Sisters Market and the surrounding small independent businesses that serve low-income and diverse ethnic and migrant communities.
There have been many dedicated consultation events and activities informing the successive iterations of the Community Plan, and the current design incorporates the experiences and views of market traders, local businesses, local residents and many others, while also responding to new knowledge and understandings of local and wider policy changes on local economies and housing.
The Trust and Save Latin Village will be holding a series of meetings and events over the coming months to shape the crucial next steps towards community-led development and self-management at Seven Sisters Market and Wards Corner.