The move comes after Hampstead Heath managers the City of London Corporation (CoL) handed the leases of five cafes to Aussie-inspired chain Daisy Green following a remarketing process.
Existing owners were told by phone on December 19 that their bids to keep running their cafes were not successful.
But Patrick Matthews and Emma Fernandez, who have run cafes at Parliament Hill Lido, Queen’s Park and Highgate Wood for the past seven years, must be out of the sites by February 2.
They say six weeks is too short notice to leave.
“We’ve been given notice to quit all three cafes by February 2 and told to have everything out,” Patrick told the Ham&High.
“It’s super short notice – it feels like they are trying to bundle us out quickly. We are going to appeal.”
Alfonso D’Auria, whose family has run Parliament Hill Fields Cafe for 43 years has also been served notice to quit by February 2.
The fifth cafe affected is in Golders Hill Park.
The move follows a five month campaign to save the cafes, with demonstrations, thousands of petition signatures collected, and the backing of big names – from local MP Tulip Siddiq, to actors Benedict Cumberbatch and James McAvoy.
In a joint statement Patrick Matthews and Doug Crawford, of the Real Cafes Campaign, said: “We are disappointed that the City Corporation has doubled down on its decision to remove the business owners who have run five much loved cafes in favour of the Daisy Green chain, and has now contacted the cafe owners giving them notice to quit by the end of Monday 2 February.”
They felt that CoL had “failed to acknowledge the overwhelming support in north London for keeping the present cafes and their independent ownership, as shown by a new petition that today reached 15,000 signatures less than three weeks after being started”.
They said there was ample evidence that the public did not want a chain brought in to run the cafes.
“This is a point our solicitors will be making forcefully in a formal response to the corporation in which they will lay out our basis for legal proceedings.”
CoL yesterday (January 7) issued a statement insisting the cafés run by Daisy Green would continue to be community havens, with significant investment planned for their buildings, and that all retained staff would receive the London Living Wage.
They added that the decision to award leases to Daisy Green would secure the long-term future of the cafés following a fair, competitive, and open remarketing process.
Chair of the City of London Corporation’s Hampstead Heath, Highgate Wood and Queen’s Park Committee, Alderman Gregory Jones KC said: “Daisy Green is an independent, London-based business, not a national or multinational chain. And while it operates more than one site, each café will retain its own identity.”
