Kings Mall's Feast Canteen Closes After Seven Months
Shopping centre says 'destination space' will have new names joining soon
Feast Canteen, the 'modern food court' at the centre of Hammersmith's Kings Mall has closed after seven months.
The canteen opened in February this year amid much fanfare, replacing the previous family friendly food area with a more upmarket concept.
Run by Incipio Group, it offered food ranging from Vietnamese noodles to tacos, produced by five separate kitchens from up and coming guest restaurants.
A spokesperson for Kings Mall, which has been owned by Schroder UK Real Estate Fund for the last three years, says: "As part of the substantial asset management strategy introduced to transform Kings Mall shopping centre into a new standout retail and leisure hub, extensive refurbishment works have been carried out to introduce a new destination space into the scheme, in what was previously a underutilised, back-of-house area.
" Initially the area was used by Incipio Group for a pop-up communal dining concept, as they tested a shopping centre location, and it is now primed for exciting new retail and leisure names that will be joining the scheme soon."
Incipio Group, which has recently launched a new rooftop venue, Pergola Olympia London and also runs Feast Bar and Kitchen in White City, says on its website: " The Feast Canteen pop-up ran from February – September 2018 in a bid to create a food court for the modern age. It offered eat-in, take-away and home delivery - re-inventing the canteen concept and dialling it up a notch!
" We had five restaurant partners and seating for up to 300 people, as well as an added partnership with Deliveroo. Watch this space for updates on new pop-ups in the pipeline!"
Though Feast Canteen was widely praised, its concept never seemed to fit in with the rest of the centre and it often appeared to be empty. Its critics included dismayed local resident Barry Woodward, a long time visitor to Kings Mall who asked on Twitter: "What on earth happened to the central food court area?
"The open plan, vibrant, beating heart of the Mall has been ripped out and replaced with an uninviting, dark, horrible lifeless enclosed space that quite clearly nobody wants to go into : it seems that any of the food outlets that bravely opened in it have now closed up because of the lack of footfall daring to venture into the desolate interior.
"It used to be a great place to go and have lunch from a multitude of really nice eateries - including a rare Burger King, which really should have been encouraged to stay. It looked modern with up and down escalators that came down right into the centre - but these have been replaced with a drab concrete staircase.
"The Mall use to open up in the middle, varying the space and giving it a bit of character - but now looks like a really boring, unimaginative corridor.
"Such a shame. I hope whoever was responsible for this and thought it was a good idea has been asked to leave, and plans are afoot to rip out this monstrosity and open it back up again? If not then it won't be long before even more retailers leave and the Mall becomes just a desolate walkway."
Kings Mall has also been hit by the closure of Patisserie Valerie, after its lease was forfeited for non-payment of rent. You can read this full story here.
However, the King Street centre is getting a major facelift this autumn and another innovation, a new pop-up shop called Made in H&F has just opened. It will showcase the work of local artists and craftmakers, and host a series of festive events during the run-up to Christmas.
What do you think about closure of Feast Canteen? Are you sorry to see it close, or do you agree with Barry's verdict? Share your views with other local shoppers on our Forum.
October 26, 2018
