Twickenham – 44 King Street
20 March 2026(2026 March) In Twickenham, 44 King Street – next door to TG Jones (ex WH Smith) – my client bought the freehold investment at Allsop auction in April 1984: joint auctioneers, Langley & Taylor, London WC1: a ground floor lock-up shop with part-covered yard, and separate storage (ex-stable) at the back, all on one lease for 15 years from 1981 at current £6,800 pa, review in 1986, and a self-contained residential upper part on two floors above sold on long lease. I have acted for the landlord regularly since purchase.
To begin with, the ground floor was used as a sports shop until the tenant went broke in 1985, when relet at £12,000 pa to a hairdresser, an individual with several branches. When that hairdresser retired, he sold the business to another hairdresser that in turn sold to another until finally another in 2006; by then I had gotten the rent to £30,000 pa. Meanwhile, my client had bought in the lease of the residential flat for refurbishment and reletting on an AST. The last hairdresser succeeded for a while but in the end surrendered the lease.
Time for a change – in more ways than one. I reckoned the ex-stable at the back had potential for residential. The property in a Conservation Area, my client obtained planning permission in November 2020 – I provided a feasibility report on letting the shop without the store – the development completed and let on an AST.
The shop, refurbished, was let as a shell to a kitchen designer at £22,500 pax. After a while the tenant wanted out, so to avoid liability for business rates surrender not accepted before simultaneous re-letting in March 2026 to a franchisee of Cakeco, an expanding company, at £26,000 pax. Sneller Commercial were agents for both lettings. Advising my client generally throughout, I drafted Heads of Terms and liaised with my client’s solicitors on documentation.
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