Oriental City

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The lobby of Oriental City, around 1997

The Oriental City Food Court

Oriental City was a shopping centre in Colindale, London specialising in various oriental foods and items. It could be reached via Colindale tube station and also directly off Edgware Road. It had a dedicated car park, and 2 floors. The complex is now closed for redevelopment as of 1 June 2008.

1 Shopping centre
2 Future redevelopment
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Shopping centre

Oriental City was previously a Yaohan Shopping Plaza; after the Yaohan corporation collapsed, it changed hands. Many locals and visitors still continued to refer to it as Yaohan Plaza. Its address was 399 Edgware Road, London, NW9 0JJ.

The centre contained a large oriental supermarket, now relocated to Bayswater, and a food court with a range of foods from different areas of South-East Asia; stalls offer Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and Japanese foods including bento boxes and sushi, ramen noodles, and assorted Asian desserts. The food court was immensely popular with surrounding office workers and the North London community; and often became very crowded at weekends.

The food court was complemented by a number of oriental restaurants in the complex, with the majority of them located on the upper floor. The complex contained two Dim Sum restaurants, a Szechuan restaurant, and an 'all you can eat' restaurant. Outside, there was a durian stall and a satay stall.

Aside from the food outlets, the complex also contained a number of small shops. Over its history there was a high turnover of shops, with only one remaining original tenant in the facility, the Japanese tableware store, Utsuwa no Yataka. The centre also previously housed an import game shop, a Sanrio store, and one of the largest oriental bookshops in Europe, called Asahiya Shoten. In the period shortly before the centre closed down, shoppers could find a tailor's shop, a jeweller, a hairdresser, a beauty shop, Chinese medicine shops, a martial arts store, and a large furniture store. Oriental City was also host to a Sega Dome arcade which has been a feature since the complex's opening. The arcade's outer façade was highly noticeable for the large picture of Sonic attached to it, which had been on the complex since the early 1990s.

The centre was a focal point for the Oriental community, often hosting weeks which promote the cultural identity of different South East Asian countries. These events typically consisted of various performing arts, and the promotion of that country's particular cuisine.

The original Yaohan Plaza also featured a small example of a traditional Japanese garden outside the centre, however this fell into disrepair after the change of ownership.

[edit] Future redevelopment

Facade along Edgware Road

Entrance

In November 2006, Oriental City was bought out by the developer Development Securities who planned to demolish the centre and replace it with a B&Q, a housing development and a school. The developers stated that there would be provisions for the current tenants of Oriental City to continue in the new development; however, the tenants objected to this, owing to the lack of consultation. Tenants also noted that the complex took up to 9 years to complete, and whilst Development Securities claimed any redevelopment would take 3 years, most tenants did not believe they could survive the temporary relocation of their businesses.^[1]

Aside from business considerations, the Chinese community feared any redevelopment would mean the loss of an important community focal point. The current tenants shut their businesses for a day to protest to the council at Brent Town Hall on 21 November 2006 feeling that they had been treated like 'second class citizens'. ^[2] The tenants' plight was backed by a long-time visitor of the Centre, ex-Arsenal football player Ian Wright, who met with the then London Mayor Ken Livingstone's planning officials in early December 2006 to object to the redevelopment plans. ^[3]

In February 2007, the Chinese Consul-General wrote to London's mayor to express his "deep concern" about the project, calling for the proposal to be modified. ^[4]. This matter generated so much attention that it featured on an episode of Inside Out (London) broadcast on 23 March 2007 where Liu was featured. Finally, after a petition gathered several thousand signatures, in June 2007 it was announced that the campaign had been successful and Oriental City would remain open until at least May 2008.

Staff at the Oriental City were told to close their businesses for good by 7:00 pm on Sunday 1 June 2008. Business activity was above usual during the day as thousands of people flocked to see Oriental City for the last time. Many shops had drastically reduced prices and bargains to tempt shoppers, with one shop even advertising a Buy One Get Two Free offer. The food court closed at 6:30 PM, followed shortly by other retailers in the complex before the doors were finally closed for the last time at 7:00 PM.

Oriental City traders have been surprisingly circumspect about their plans for the future. Utsuwa-no-Yakata were collecting names and addresses in a book with a view to letting customers know their new address in due course; the Oriental City Supermarket will be reopening later in June at a new location near Whiteley's in Queensway, Bayswater; the Hamazaki Bakery is moving to 82 Totteridge Lane, N.20. Little is known at this stage about the extent of any possible oriental presence in the new development.

[edit] References

^ 'Asian traders protest over plans to demolish "Oriental City"', The Independent, 17 November 2006 [1] (accessed 19 November 2006)
^ 'Campaign to save "'real Chinatown'"', BBC News, 17 November 2006 [2] (accessed 19 November 2006)
^ 'Wright backs Oriental City fight', BBC News, 4 December 2006 [3] (accessed 6 December 2006)
^ 'Beijing enters Oriental City row', BBC News, 8 February 2007 [4] (accessed 8 February 2007)