An Alternative Future for Community Assets -- does Brixton Market show one way to run the Cafés?

The fight for our Open Spaces — and a New Idea

For the last few weeks, Daisy Green has been running the former D'Auria brothers' café at Parliament Hill Fields on Hampstead Heath. But the other four cafés are still being run by the original managers — Golders Hill Park by Cosmin Stuparu, and the other three (Queen's Park, Highgate Wood and Parliament Hill Fields Lido) by Hoxton Beach.

In April, the City of London Corporation said they were about to go to the County Court to evict Hoxton Beach. However, we are still in situ and still waiting for the High Court (Administrative Court) to decide whether to grant permission for a Judicial Review. The courts are now on their summer break until October. The decision could come any time after that — and if we lose, Hoxton Beach will be evicted within weeks. Now is the time to build alternative models and show the City there is another way.

What's at issue is this: is it a good idea for a highly "leveraged" business — one with large borrowings and a lot of investors' money — to take over community assets? A leveraged business is one that has borrowed heavily from investors who expect a return. That means every pound spent by a customer is more likely to leave the community — rather than being reinvested in the café, its staff, or the Heath itself.

There's a tussle going on at Brixton Market in South London that has some parallels. The current owners are looking for buyers for the historic covered market, which dates from before World War II and whose history is linked to Brixton's Caribbean heritage. Traders and their customers fear gentrification — as seen nearby at Elephant and Castle — or that a new owner will squeeze every last penny out of it (see the role of private equity in Camden Market).

The "Buy Back Brixton" campaign is looking to save the covered market by creating a charitable "Community Benefit Society" (BenCom). This would be a body run by trustees, with no commercial overlap with the existing traders, that exists to manage the space and negotiate rents.

Could a BenCom work for the North London Open Spaces cafés?

It would be responsible for:

Managing investment in the physical fabric of the cafés
Negotiating a fair rent with the City of London
Ensuring the cafés fulfil their role in supporting physical and mental health — encouraging use of open spaces, promoting healthy eating, being culturally diverse and representative, and pricing fairly
Most importantly: being fun places where people actually want to go
A BenCom could also help cut costs through bulk buying, maintain good food hygiene, and take care of staff welfare, training, and development. It's not a pipe dream — it's a legal structure that has been used successfully across the UK to save pubs, shops, and community spaces. It puts control in the hands of the community, not distant investors.

What do you think?

Would a Community Benefit Society work for the Heath's cafés? Or is there a better model? Drop us a line at realcafescampaign@gmail.com — and tag us on social media if you're sharing your thoughts publicly.

And finally: we're sitting at 24,999 signatures on the Change.org petition. We need just ONE MORE to hit 25,000. Please share it with one friend today — and if you know anyone who hasn't signed, suggest they do so now.