The Alliance West Hampstead made asset of community value | Hampstead Highgate Express hamhigh.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from hamhigh.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Lilian Fawcett
Kim Morris, manager of West End Lane Books in West Hampstead
- Credit: Lilian Fawcett
Shoppers and shopkeepers alike are feeling positive about the future of West End Lane in West Hampstead as life slowly gets back to normal with lockdown easing.
Most retailers and venues said they had been busy since reopening and had seen a concerted community effort to support independent businesses.
Kim Morris, manager at the popular West End Lane Books, told the Ham&High: “It’s been really busy, everyone has been super positive and really happy to be back in the shop.
“I feel like a lot of people now realise that they need to use the high street, and if they don’t, they will lose it.
West Hampstead Barclays in West End Lane to close | Hampstead Highgate Express hamhigh.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from hamhigh.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Alliance pub in West Hampstead.
- Credit: Fordwych RA
Regulars at The Alliance pub in West Hampstead are concerned about a planning application which would see the ground floor space reduced.
Mark Reynolds, who owns the building, has applied to convert some of the pub s ground floor into two flats and compensate for this by creating a new community room in the pub s basement.
Drinkers - and community groups who used the pub as a meeting place prior to the pandemic - are worried the latest application could see the pub s viability impacted.
Keith Moffitt, co-chair of the Fortune Green and West Hampstead Neighbourhood Development Forum, told this newspaper: The thing about The Alliance is that it s a pub that does really cater for the West Hampstead community. I have been to funerals, birthday parties, all sorts of meetings there, it s that sort of pub.