Council Blocks Extra Protection for Shepherd's Bush Market
Attempt to make it an asset of community value fails
A visualisation of proposed new entrance to the market. Picture: Yoo Capital
November 11, 2025
Hammersmith and Fulham Council has refused a community group’s bid to list Shepherd’s Bush Market as an asset of community value (ACV) as disagreement over its future continues.
Friends of Shepherd’s Bush Market earlier this year applied to have the site, for which major redevelopment plans were approved in late 2023, granted ACV status in an effort to ‘protect’ its future. The group said ACV status would be the first step towards community ownership of the site amid claims that developer Yoo Capital intends on selling. Yoo Capital has denied it has any plans to dispose of the market.
The redevelopment has seen battle lines drawn with the Friends and their supporters believing it will see the area gentrified and the cultural importance of the market diluted. Meanwhile the Shepherd’s Bush Market Tenants’ Association says the Friends are simply holding up the much-needed regeneration. Both sides say they represent traders.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council has since updated its list of unsuccessful ACV nominations to include the market submission. In its reasons for refusal the council provides three points, including that the application “fails to demonstrate why the markets are considered to be ‘social interests’ and not standard retail services”.
The council also notes the listing would include ‘operational land’. A spokesperson for Hammersmith and Fulham said the main ground for refusal was the inclusion of this land, which features the railway arches and belongs to Transport for London (TfL).
Atila Kirilov, a market tenant speaking on behalf of the Friends, said they are disappointed that the council “has sided with billionaire developers over market traders and the local community”.
Yoo Capital’s plans for the market, which runs between Goldhawk Road and Uxbridge Road, include the introduction of new stalls, 40 council homes on the adjoining Old Laundry Yard, a nine-storey commercial building, and aesthetic works, such as new entrance signs.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council’s Planning and Development Control Committee approved the proposal in December 2023. Critics raised concerns over the support being promised to existing traders, the leases they would be offered and increasing gentrification.
Backers of the scheme, however, pointed to the investment required to sustain the market moving forward and the financial commitments made by the developer to traders.
Following confirmation last year that City Hall would not be calling it in, the application was granted final approval, alongside conditions, in August 2024. While work has not yet begun, Yoo Capital told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the developer “intends to begin construction in early/mid 2026”.
The Friends’ ACV application, submitted this summer, provided a lengthy description of the benefits the market has delivered since it opened in 1914. These range from its variety of traditional foods used in African, Caribbean, Asian and other minority ethnic dishes, as well as goods such as “haberdashery and clothing like hijabs”.
It also referenced research including a report produced by the Greater London Authority on the social value in planning and regeneration, in which the market is mentioned repeatedly.
Jake Simms, a spokesperson for the Friends, said at the time: “The market needs investment, but this must be led by the community, not billionaire developers. After 15 years of developer broken promises and uncertainty, it is clear that only the community can be trusted to safeguard the future of our market.
“We call on Hammersmith and Fulham Council to recognise the market’s irreplaceable social value and work alongside the community to protect its future.”
A spokesperson for the Shepherd’s Bush Market Tenants’ Association, which says it represents a majority of traders, described the application as “another PR stunt and attempt to delay and frustrate the process of moving forward”.
They added: “It would cost millions to buy the market, and Yoo Capital is spending millions more refurbishing the market and compensating traders. Even if the market was for sale, where would the Friends get that money?”
On the failure of the application to demonstrate why the markets are to be considered ‘social interests’, the council wrote: “The primary function of the markets are as centres of retail activity and not primarily to further the social wellbeing or interest of the community and it is not realistic to think that there can continue to be a non-ancillary use that would further (whether or not in the same way as before) the social wellbeing or social interest of the local community.”
The update also notes the inclusion of the ‘operational land’ and “discrepancies between the description of the asset and the map provided in Appendix 2 of the application”.
Mr Kirilov told the LDRS they are “deeply disappointed” by the council’s decision to reject the submission.
“Our application was made by a group consisting of multi-generational traders, from both Shepherd’s Bush Market and New Shepherd’s Bush Market, as well as local people who have lived in the area and used the market for their whole lives. We made a detailed submission supported by extensive evidence, including a recent report on social value in London Markets and Arch-based businesses from the London Assembly as well as academic research.”
Mr Kirilov claimed the council failed to provide evidence supporting the decision and that two of the grounds given are “attempts to find loopholes”.
“By dismissing and ignoring our voices, without even engaging or speaking with us about the application, the council shows a lack of care and an apparent disdain for the community. It is supremely ironic that LBHF Council boasts that it is the first local government to have published a social value statement in 2020, and yet has clearly failed at this critical test of its policy.
“Where the council has failed, Friends of Shepherd’s Bush Market will continue to bring traders and community members together to safeguard the culture, diversity and social value of our historic market. We are considering our options regarding our next steps.”
Zoë Garbett, a Green Party London Assembly Member, said: “I stand firmly with Friends of Shepherd’s Bush Market and their demands. London councils must prioritise communities over developers and properly engage with local people who use and depend on these spaces.”
A spokesperson for the campaign group Protect Our Places (POP) said the decision indicates “a clear disregard for the substantive evidence that Shepherd’s Bush Market — like other affordable retail spaces — plays an essential role both for sustaining the local economy and for supporting local communities’ social and cultural lives.”
“Markets and other affordable retail spaces are under attack across the city. As POP has written elsewhere: London’s true richness lies not in the coffers of offshore and speculative developers and investors, but in the mosaic of people, places, heritages and cultures that define us,” they added.
“The markets and retail sites at the centre of our campaigns are some of our communities’ important social and cultural spaces, especially for those facing ongoing and insidious marginalisation, racialisation and exclusion.”
A spokesperson for Yoo Capital said: “We respect the decision taken by the council. The revival of Shepherd’s Bush Market should be shaped by the market traders, their customers, the [Shepherd’s Bush Market Tenants’ Association] and the residents. Our mission is to work closely with the above groups, sharing the common goal of preserving the market’s heritage and securing its future as a much-loved London destination.”
Yoo Capital is also behind the £1.3 billion redevelopment of the Olympia in West Kensington. The scheme will see the site reimagined as a cultural and hospitality hub, with spaces including a 4,000-capacity music arena and 1,575 seat theatre. It is expected to begin opening later this year.
Ben Lynch – Local Democracy Reporter