‘It's Such a David and Goliath Situation’: The Fight to Save Brixton from a Socialite Property Developer

Saja Shaheen first heard about the eviction notice while in Amsterdam on a work trip. Nour Cash and Carry – her family's grocery shop in Brixton Market, south London – has been in business for over 20 years. Her parents, Sundos and Salam, were in negotiations about a potential rent increase with new landlords Hondo Enterprises – a property development company owned by an extremely wealthy American, who likes to moonlight as a DJ, who bought the lease to Brixton Market in 2018. Then, in January this year, with the coronavirus pandemic looming, Hondo Enterprises served Nour a Section 28 eviction notice. Shaheen was shocked.

“I was horrified,” she tells me over the phone. “It broke my heart. I know that sounds really emotional but it was a massive shock. It felt like that was the final kick.”

The news of Nour Cash and Carry's eviction notice was met with immediate backlash from the Brixton community. A group of around 20 locals launched the "Save Nour Save Brixton" campaign, starting with a petition that now has over 8,000 signatures. They refuse to allow the eviction of one of Brixton Market's best loved small businesses.

Founded in 2001 after Sundos and Salam moved to the UK from Iran, Nour sells an affordable and diverse mix of food. Fresh fruit and vegetables ranging from onions and courgette flowers to yam and cassava – as well as Middle Eastern staples like pomegranate molasses and injera, the Ethiopian flatbread.

Nour isn't the first Brixton institution to fall victim to gentrification and property developers. In 2018, Network Rail's regeneration and subsequent sale of its arches forced many local vendors out of business, while POP Brixton, a flagship regeneration project was accused of being “for young, white people.” Meanwhile, house prices in the area continue to rise. In 2017, they had increased by 76 percent in five years. For many Save Nour Save Brixton campaigners, Nour’s potential eviction is another nail in the coffin for an area with a proud Afro-Caribbean heritage.

Hondo Enterprises claims that Nour's shop needs to be vacated in order for UK Power Networks to install a new electricity unit for the market, following alleged complaints of electricity shortages. It is offering to build Nour a new unit in the market, meaning that it would permanently relocate. However, Hondo Entreprises has only just been granted planning permission to build Nour's unit. In the middle of a pandemic, it is unclear how the space will be ready before the Shaheen family is forced to leave in July, as per the eviction notice.

Shaheen says that Nour's unit has never experienced issues with its electricity.

A spokesperson for Hondo Entreprises told VICE: “We are not carrying out any evictions at this time and have been in discussions with Nour for over a year to ensure they stay within our markets. Hondo have invested extensively with regards to heating, drainage and the infrastructure within the markets, however, the lack of power still remains a major challenge with regular power cuts for the 50 traders in Market Row [a row of shops in the Brixton Market arcade]."

"In order to support all our traders, we are required to build a new electrical substation, which UK Power Networks informed us had to go adjacent to the existing substation and therefore unfortunately in Nour’s unit. After exploring a number of solutions for Nour Cash and Carry we are pleased to be in the positive, final stages of discussions to retain them within Brixton Market, in a new unit that is being built for them at the landlord's expense. We hope to make public the full details of this agreement very soon.”

Campaigners are sceptical. “With Nour, it's such a David and Goliath situation, because Hondo is such a huge company and they're backed by so much money,” says Matilda, one of the 20 locals who launched the Save Nour Save Brixton campaign. “I, and lots of people, believe in the power of community resistance, [and] I just thought it would be possible to get Nour to be saved.”

Save Nour Save Brixton has taken aim at Hondo Enterprises' director, an American socialite and businessman named Taylor McWilliams. McWilliams is no stranger to community backlash. Back in 2014, protests took place on the steps of a Hondo Enterprises luxury property, One Commercial Street in east London, when it emerged that the building had separate entrances for rich and poor tenants (VICE reported on the protests at the time). This time, campaigners are targeting Housekeeping, a London-based house DJ collective McWilliams performs in.

“One of the really tough things not only for the pandemic but also when you're dealing with a faceless, gentrifying company, is that it's really hard to target them, because they don't really care much about their reputation,” says Matilda. “What unique about this, is that Taylor McWilliams himself has this public face. Which is Housekeeping.”

Last week, Save Nour Save Brixton staged a digital protest on a Zoom party hosted by Ibiza nightclub Pasha, which featured a performance from McWilliams and Housekeeping. Campaigners joined the Zoom call, waiting patiently for McWilliams' set. When he appeared, they held up signs reading, “HEY TAYLOR, YOU PARTY WHILE YOU TENANTS SUFFER, STOP EVICTIONS NOW!” and, “EVICTING FOOD SUPPLIERS DURING A PANDEMIC? CRUEL BRIXTON GENTRIFIERS.”

“We could see into this incredible house he was in, dressed in a Kimono with his long hair, DJ-ing,” says Matilda. “The idea that you can reach a billionaire like that is amazing.”

Hondo Enterprises bought Brixton Market for £37.3 million in 2018, however VICE was unable to confirm McWilliams' personal fortune.

Save Nour Save Brixton's protest certainly made an impact. It was covered by Dazed and Eater, and gained support from music world figures including Boiler Room and LoveBox Festival, as well as DJs Joy Orbison and Midland. The involvement of such music heavyweights is in part thanks to Hannah Turnbull-Walter, a Brixton local who has worked in the music industry for over ten years, and hosted parties at Brixton nightclub Club 414 until it closed in May 2019. The club had been in the area for over 30 years, running acid, techno and hip-hop nights until protracted legal battles with its landlord forced it to shut. McWilliams’ Hondo Enterprises bought the club in August 2019.

"I was a bit confused at the time when it shut down and felt really powerless,” Turnbull-Walter says of Club 414's closure. “It just felt like very faceless developers. After reading more about the Nour campaign, it became less faceless and realised that [McWilliams] is one-quarter of a house DJ group. That's when it suddenly became so personal for me because I work in music. I suddenly felt like I can do something here, and my voice is relevant.”

Turnbull-Walter believes that Save Nour Save Brixton's battle with Hondo Enterprises represents so much more than the eviction of one food shop.

“For me, it's become a wider story about developers and club owners, and now Nour, which feels so unfair,” she says. “I felt angry at a billionaire DJ shutting down really valuable community assets, and I felt that the community wasn't being listened to.”

Turnbull-Walter, Matilda and many other locals are hoping that their voices will now be heard. For Saja Shaheen and her parents Sundos and Salam, as well as her two siblings – Sam and Nour - it's hard to imagine their shop existing anywhere but Brixton.

“[The fight to save Nour] is so important,” says Shaheen. “It's important not just for us as a business, but [because] Brixton is home for us. It's where we set down our roots, it's where we live. The community are our family.”

“It's somewhere where my dad over 30 years ago came as an immigrant and found home,” she adds. “It's home for us despite the highs and the lows.”

@RubyJLL