TFC Turkish supermarket confirmed for Standard Music Venue
Since the summer the rumour has been that the much loved Standard Music Venue had been bought by a Turkish Supermarket chain, but BAG can now confirm this. Waltham Forest’s only dedicated live music venue – serving the area for over 25 years – is destined to become a TFC supermarket.
Where this leaves the council’s 10 year plan for the regeneration of Blackhorse Lane (now into year 6) with its open plaza on the Standard site, and stated intention to “replace or re-provide The Standard Music Venue” is unclear. The Tesco Express on the site of the former Essex Arms is also due to open in December 2011. Consultation on a new 20 year plan closed a couple of months ago.
TFC (Blackhorse) Limited are the purchasing company, with the wider TFC brand operating around 14 supermarkets in or around London. Their website describes them thus:
“Our first supermarket was established in 1980 at Dalston, under the name of Herbtree Ltd, in response to demand for Turkish foods. In 1995 first TFC branded supermarket has been opened in Edmonton.
Our supermarkets sell products from Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Denmark, other Mediterranean countries and Africa. We bake traditional Turkish and Cypriot bread, Turkish pastries, savouries and sweets all day seven days a week“.
The axe has hovered over The Standard for many years now, as far back as 2005 the council planned to demolish the venue. Amanda and Paul who run it only discovered what was happening when a regular came in to show them the glossy booklet with a big pink splodge where the Standard is. 1000′s of the plans had been delivered to the area but not a single official had bothered to consult the Standard or show them what was in store.
At a later meeting a representative of the company appointed to oversee redevelopment of the area told residents upset at the loss of the gig venue that their research showed “the majority of people going to the Standard Music Venue come from outside the borough“.
The Standard’s stage is set to fall silent for the final time on Saturday, December the 3rd 2011, after entertaining thousands of music lovers each year and providing a platform for countless local bands (along with a covers band or two).
Here’s a video of The Melting Ice Caps playing The Standard at last months “Oxjam Walthamstow” charity gig which raised over £600 for Oxfam.
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Just what Walthamstow needs – a place to buy food. A curse on them and Tesco.
Is this an extension of the dubious investments Yasers (the turkish kebab shop) have made in the area?
They have an interest in or own the chip shop and hair dressers on forest rd as well as their takeaway and restaurant, the dry cleaning shop and small supermarket on the corner of blackhorse lane.
Its now a pretty ugly area, the loss of the standard will only add to that.
Where can I sign the petition against this new supermarket?
This is the TFC feedback page please let them know what you think!
http://www.tfcsupermarkets.com/feedback.html
gosh – how awful for the area, a turkish shop!
if it’s anything like the one by St James Street station then there’ll be lots of fresh fruit and veg at a reasonable price… golly, how can we put a stop to this?
If it is a shop, great? .. the reason people get pissed off is because in Walthamstow (and this area) there a to many shops that act as fronts for laundering crime money – a lot of them are Turkish. They take money out of the country and give nothing back.
You not wondered how all these shop survive with crap customer service and products. I don’t like big chains as much as the next person, but were there is no competition, I say roll on in Tesco – at least I know they pay there taxes correctly and employ people from all sectors of the community.
Yeah cos its really hard to get fresh fruit at a reasonable price in Walthamstow, isn’t it?
God forbid that west walthamstow should have any places that are actually of any interest to the wider public that aren’t gastro-centric. Turn them all into food shops and cafes I say, there aren’t enough on that road.
Blackhorse Road gateway to Waltham Forest?-my arse!
So I guess the kebab shop opposite the Standard (RIP) will now lose much of its weekend customers who came straight from the venue. I don’t blame TFC, business is business but the councillors responsible for failing to keep this venue alive should hang their thick heads in shame. It makes no difference where the patrons came from, the fact is they returned to the venue even though they lived miles away. That in itself should be a good reason to keep it open and supprot it.
But I suppose when you look at the demographic who used the trouble free venue it is no surprise to see that the council had absolutely no interest in keeping it open. I hope a new venue does appear in the area but I won’t hold my breath.
there is nothing delightful about yet another money laundering turkish supermarket!…..
All the best to them, im sure people in the area would see the benefit, id rather have a nice place where i can buy fresh produce than chemical full food from tesco express shelves, there are plenty pubs,bars,cafes,night clubs, also these sort of places bring trouble to your door step, this place in its days seen many trouble how can one forget, dont want trouble in our door steps, we rather have a fresh mediteranian food store in blackhorse. Standard Music Venue is history now, get on with it.
Thank you for your comment Aynur.
I’m guessing that you dont live in the area otherwise you’d know we already have a Turkish supermarket (which is excellent) very close to Blackhorse Road, perhaps your Turkishjobs website has filled jobs there??
You’d also know that there is anything but “plenty of bars, cafes, nightclubs in the area”. If you can think of any I’d be happy to hear of them.
Also The Standard Music Venue operated for decades with very very little trouble outside during that time so it’s simply nonsense to say “these sort of places bring trouble”. In fact it’s been proven that its far safer to have a night-time economy around the Underground station, particularly a place like The Standard which was not a nightclub but rather a music venue.
As I said earlier we value the Turkish supermarkets we have in the area but we have quite a few of those already (along with a Tesco) but what we don’t have is anything for people to do in the evening, whether thats young or old.
All the best
PS If you are going to leave comments under different names I’d recomend doing so from different locations as otherwise we get the IP addresses of 5 different people all miraculously commenting from the same location.
I think we should all just forget about having any local history in the area. I think we should concrete over Lloyd Park maybe turn it into a car park, convert the William Morris Museum into flats, oh and I know, the EMD cinema will make a really good church.
Is there anything else worthwhile that we can destroy while we’re at it? In years to come, our children’s children will be bringing their friends round to see that excellent Turkish Supermarket which serves delicious authentic pastries-lucky them.
History please just get over it everybody.
well said Aynur, good luck to them, im sure it will all work out fine.
Black Horse needs food
Hassan your very funny
))))))))
Thank you jimmy
i read something about this on http://walthamfoest.info this website some time ago, some real issues were talked about
As a customer of the Standard for 5 years I can honestly say I never saw any trouble so for you to say otherwise is utter rubbish, we dont need or want anymore Turkish supermarkets in the area and for the Standard to be turned into such a place would be a crime. Dont come on here and moan about things you know nothing about. I am sick of the area being ruined.