Foxtons' latest branch "unfortunate" say locals

A proposal by ever-controversial agency Foxtons to open its newest branch in a building that used to be a popular local pub has been branded unfortunate by a neighbourhood group.

The Kentish Town Neighbourhood Forum spokesman Paul Seviour is quoted in a local paper, the New Journal, as saying: We think it is unfortunate that an estate agent is taking the premises in Kentish Town, which already has 13 other estate and letting agents.

The paper claims that Foxtons wants to open a branch in the Victorian pub once known as Auntie Annie's Porter House and more recently as Hoot'n'Annies, which shut in July.

Foxtons is applying for planning permission to alter the four-storey building to have new facades that include floor-to-ceiling height windows, as well as the trademark illuminated name signs.

In the application the agency says: In our view, the proposed shopfront improves the appearance and character of the host building by removing clutter such as the awning and the spotlights and by re-establishing the entrance to the building on the corner of the shopfront which would have been the original location when the building was built in the mid-nineteenth century.

Paul Seviour is also quoted as expressing concern for rival agents. There are estate agents here who are small local independent businesses who [sic] have been in Kentish Town for a very long time he says.