A beloved Shoreditch food shop and community kitchen faces closure later this year — with the threat from Tower Hamlets Council that if it doesn't pay triple the current rent, it'll be evicted.
Leila's Shop has been a fixture on Calvert Avenue since 2002, when Leila McAlister took over a derelict grocers that'd been closed for over a decade, and set up a food shop with a focus on wholesome, unprocessed produce sourced from small regenerative farms. In its almost quarter of a century, not only has Leila's Shop provided nutritious, sustainable food to the community, but also trained and employed scores of young people.
"At the time," says McAlister, talking about when she first set up the shop, "nearby Arnold Circus was overgrown and neglected, avoided for its violence." But now that the area is trendy and unblemished by chain shops, she claims, the Council wants to triple rents — starting in October 2025. This has been done, claims McAlister, without any consideration for the small businesses that have thrived on the street: "What is happening at Leila’s Shop is also playing out in every single business on Calvert Avenue."
McAlister — who also established the local Friends of Arnold Circus and is a founder member of the East End Trades Guild — says she had hoped to resolve the matter behind the scenes with the council, but "no-one will talk with her", including the mayor, Lutfur Rahman, who has provided no response to her correspondence.
"Tower Hamlets Council have farmed this work out to a private company, Exigen," says McAlister, "The mission statement of Exigen is to help [the Council] 'add value to their property matters'. They have shown no interest in the role proprietor owned and run shops play in communities. It is like Tower Hamlets Council have washed their hands of responsibility."
The dire situation has prompted McAlister to set up a petition, urging people to stand up against the proposed threat to Leila's Shop and others on the street.
Londonist has approached Tower Hamlets Council for comment.
