StreetCube chefs 'forced out' of Southside shopping centre

StreetCube, based at Southside Shopping Centre, is a semi-permanent pop-up kitchen with a mission to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable cuisine in the food industry. 

Since 2019, the mixture of shipping container ‘cubes’ and gazebos have sold organic food on Wandsworth High Street’s Piazza. 

It has fed the community throughout the pandemic and won an environmental “pioneer” award earlier this year. 

SEE MORE: Wandsworth StreetCube wins sustainability award

But a complaint from global coffee chain Costa coffee could see some of StreetCube’s traders forced to leave.  

Founder Pascal Gerrard with Street Cube's sustainability award.

The row was sparked over the gazebo stalls, which Costa allegedly has said detracts from its business by blocking the store’s signage.  

According to StreetCube, the landlord of Southside Shopping Centre has asked for six stalls to be removed by the end of August. 

A StreetCube spokesperson expressed their sadness over being forced out by “one of the worst polluters on the planet.”  

They said they the street food market had brought up to 40% more business to Costa, by increasing footfall to Southside Shopping Centre. 

An online petition, created yesterday by StreetCube chefs, states:  “Street cube asked for us to comply with strict sustainability guidelines, which means using seasonal organic ingredients, locally sourced, without using plastic or generating waste. We were happy to fall-in, but now we are threatened with losing our income because of Costa Coffee, who complained to our landlord that we were stealing their business.” 

One gazebo chef, Zarela Kanter, spoke to the Wandsworth Times about her concern for the future.   

Quinoa Arepa at StreetCube

The 49-year-old has operated Quinoa Arepa Peru, a South American food stall for over a year.  

She said: “We are a small business family. It has taken us six moths to build up our beautiful customer base. We’ve built relationships with clients, some of them come to us because they have intolerances. Who is going to look after them now?”  

The mother-of-two says she gets up at 6am to run the stall every day, rain or shine. 

“We are real street food market traders, we put all our passion integrity, love and care in. We don’t know what we’ll do now,” she added.  

A spokesperson for Southside shopping centre, said: “We have a temporary agreement with StreetCube which covers their original three units and we want to clarify that we have not asked for these to be removed.

“During lockdown, StreetCube added several additional pop-up gazebos without formal consent and outside of the agreement we have in place. Since retail and leisure is now fully open, we must consider the impact that these additional pop-ups are having on our other brand partners. As the landlord, we are responsible for ensuring that all our brand partners are able to flourish.

“Unfortunately the high number of these additional pop-ups are restricting visibility and access to some of our brands which is having a detrimental impact on footfall and ultimately their business. For this reason, we have asked StreetCube to remove those pop-ups that do not form part of our agreement with them.

“Southside has always hosted pop-up food stalls operated by local independent traders and this will continue to be available for the traders to apply, while running in a manner that reflects the constraints of the site and in line with the agreements we have in place with all of our brand partners.”

A Costa Coffee spokesperson, said: “We are proud to be an active member of the local community in Wandsworth, offering a welcoming environment and helping to ensure the area continues to thrive as we emerge from the pandemic. Our local store has not been involved in any conversations around the removal of the StreetCube stalls and understands this is a matter between the landlord and the operators of the stalls.”