There’s an abundance of lace, glittering diamonds and enough sequins for several series of Strictly Come Dancing: no, this isn’t the Met Gala, but an inconspicuous North London street where a quiet battle is underway to protect a hidden fashion treasure.
Nearly 100 fashion stores, with names like Bien Avenue, Cinderella and the sadly now defunct FFUK (short for Fashion Fashion UK), are housed in about 250 metres of Fonthill Road, tucked away behind Finsbury Park station.
The street was designated a “specialist fashion cluster” by the local council in 2020 to prevent its creeping conversion into flats. But the retailers are struggling to survive as the area around it rapidly gentrifies, putting pressure on rents and making some of their most loyal customers feel less welcome.
This fashion street is home to some of the most eye-catching dresses and suits around and it’s a world away from Bond Street, Oxford Street or even hipster favourites like Brick Lane.
Today, many boutiques specialize in wedding dresses and outfits for galas and other special occasions, but usually at bargain prices.
“Fonthill Road, it’s flamboyant and it’s unique,” says Andrew Paschalis, Islington Council’s local economy officer. “You’re not going to see dresses like this anywhere else.”
“People come with a certain budget and we have to work with a very small margin. They wear a dress for a few hours and then they don’t want to wear it again,” says Suvel Ahmed, the owner of Alia Couture and several other shops on the strip, which sells evening gowns for prices ranging from £100 to more than £600.
According to Vickie Christensen, chair of the Fonthill Road Traders’ Association, bargain prices may be one reason the road flies under the radar of most shoppers. “It’s the best-kept secret in the fashion world. You can buy a blingy dress for £100. If someone else has spent a fortune on the same thing, you’re not going to tell anyone. Women don’t.”
The stores are run by entrepreneurs with roots in a wide range of countries, from Cyprus and Turkey to Africa and South Asia.
Shoppers come from a wide range of backgrounds. People from cultures where glamorous, fancy weddings, formal church attire or modest garments that cover limbs and cleavage are particularly drawn to the street. The sartorial skills to meet those needs are still here.
People from the Caribbean, Africa and Cyprus or Turkey have long been shoppers, alongside people from white British backgrounds, the Irish traveller, the Middle Eastern and South Asian communities. There are also more recent diaspora including Afghans, Uzbeks and Latin Americans who have been scouring the rails.
“It’s a microcosm of London. We have every nationality under the sun and it works,” says Christensen. “You get grandmothers and younger children for ball gowns. You often see the whole family coming back to where they were before.”
Once close to a slum – when local photographer Don McCullin was growing up on Fonthill Road in the 1940s and 50s, he described the area as “a battlefield” – it has been part of the fashion industry since the 1960s.
From its first development in the 1880s, this street was home to shops and light industry. A local writer at the time described the prevalence of fried fish restaurants.
The links with fashion came to light when entrepreneurs fleeing Cyprus in the 1960s and 1970s bought up property for wholesalers and factories. In its heyday in the 1980s, Fonthill Road was full of small manufacturers and wholesalers serving retailers large and small, leading to complaints about double parking and burger vans.
Until the late 1990s, Fonthill was overrun by shoppers on Saturday mornings, when dozens of small wholesalers opened their doors to the public, who could buy the latest fashion at low prices.
“It was really busy. There used to be five people working on Saturdays,” says Paschalis, whose father had a shop on the street since 1985, below a clothing factory where more than a dozen people worked.
“When the transition was made from wholesale to mainly retail, turnover declined.”
John Arpaci, of wholesaler and retailer Love Fashions, which his father opened on the street in 1966, says: “We try to sell stuff you wouldn’t find in M&S, H&M or Zara. We’re more niche.
“We specialize in suits for the office, a garden party or church. Traditionally we export a lot to Africa. The elite came to buy and resell. People buy gifts for mothers and aunts.”
Love Fashions makes a small number of its suits locally and Arpaci says: “I would like to see some more manufacturing in the UK.”
Fonthill Road has suffered a number of setbacks. The first and biggest was when British retailers switched to buying their clothes abroad. This left small local manufacturers and wholesalers, such as those in Fonthill Road, out of the running.
As local production and wholesale have largely disappeared, most retailers in Fonthill source their goods from Turkey, with the focus on wedding dresses being about ten years ago.
According to Christensen, the 2008 banking crisis, the pandemic and the rising cost of living have hit hard.
“Covid has been the nail in the coffin for a lot of people. They are really struggling,” she says, adding that many are being supported by the construction of apartments above their stores, with rental income helping to offset the costs for retailers below.
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Vickie Christensen, the manager of the London Fashion Centre, describes the street as ‘the best kept secret in the fashion world’
“We’ve lost a few people. People are struggling right now and that’s because rents are high but turnover is not high. Banks used to be more flexible in their terms. They’re not so good at catering to smaller businesses and the gentrification problem is everywhere.”
Lynda Tarim, from Lynda’s Boutique, says: “We are working harder with less profit. I speak to most of my neighbours and many cannot pay the rent.
“I used to have three or four shops and now I only have one. I have five staff left and before I had about four in each shop. What is the future of this street? In 10 years it will be finished.”
Her rent has gone up, and others on the street have seen even higher rents as the area has been gentrified, particularly since a huge luxury apartment block opened as part of the redevelopment of the nearby station, with new high street retailers and restaurants including Marks & Spencer and Pret a Manger.
The long-term construction of the complex has also put pressure on boutiques on Fonthill Road, with some business owners saying it has done them little good.
Ahmed says: “Every year we see a decline, turnover and profit are decreasing.
“Everything is changing in restaurants [opening up nearby] but it doesn’t attract the right kind of customers.
“There is so much competition online. Social media like TikTok and Instagram are killing our business. Manufacturers in China are selling directly to customers. Retailers are struggling.”
Loucas Agrotis, owner of the long-standing street fashion store Loriana, is more optimistic about the future. He says the arrival of new flats and restaurants has brought more passers-by and younger people to the area, leading to the opening of different types of retailers.
There’s also a new buzz created by a nearby project, backed by Islington Council and industry group Fashion Enter, to help young designers get into local production. The FC Designer Workspace rents out sewing machines and workspaces, and also runs workshops on upcycling and dressmaking. Some of the work is sold through the FC Designer Collective boutique on Fonthill Road.
Agrotis says he would love to go back to the hustle and bustle of the 80s: “It was hectic, but also fun.”