If there’s one thing that Brixton is desperately in need of, it’s even more licensed restaurants, so the good news is that old Walton Laundry on Coldharbour Lane will soon be transformed into The Laundry Restaurant.
The application notice pinned on the railings says that The Laundry Restaurant Ltd wants to be able to flog booze from 10am to midnight every day of the week.
Looking at Companies House, we note that this newly formed business appears to be headed up by Melanie Brown, who was one of the first ‘local’ businesses to bag a spot at Pop Brixton with her profitable New Zealand Cellar business.
About Walton Lodge
After trading on the same landmark premises on Coldharbour Lane for 119 years, the Walton Lodge Laundry closed its doors for good in June 2014, with the property being snaffled up by all-conquering Lexadon Property Group, owned by husband and wife team Jerry and Jenny Knight.
Lambeth Council swiftly rubber stamped their planning application to build 13 private flats and zero social or affordable housing on the site, with Lexadon promising that
…the proposed restaurant, which would open onto a landscaped courtyard, would animate the street scene and make a positive contribution to the existing active frontage uses on Coldharbour Lane including the adjoining Brixton Village and Barratt’s Brixton Square development.
[The property was briefly squatted by activists in April 2015 before they were violently evicted.]
Publicity-shy Jerry Knight has been quietly buying up vast chunks of Brixton over the decades, redeveloping or building new properties to rent out at premium rents.
With his wealth listed at £50m in 2012, Knight made his fortune converting former council homes in south London, and in Brixton’s Coldharbour Lane alone, his company now owns Walton Lodge, the former Angel pub at 354 (now Mamma Dough), the Viaduct development at 360-366, Clifton Mansions, and the new builds at 435-437 and 419-423.
The company also recently spent £22m acquiring a portfolio of prime residential properties in Clapham Old Town from the London Borough of Lambeth [—].
In 2014, the multi-millionaire property tycoon was fined £175,000 under the Proceeds Of Crime Act after renting out a property as flats, despite having no planning applications to do so and after having planning permission repeatedly turned down by the council.
Discuss the old Walton Lodge laundry on the urban75 forums.