The final day of trading at the Hampstead Emporium has been scheduled for Saturday – but objectors to the closure say they won’t go quietly

ANTIQUES traders are due to protest with “handcuffs” and placards on the day a popular market in the heart of Hampstead is supposed to shut for good.

Supporters are pushing to stop the closure of the Hampstead Emporium – a plan first revealed by the New Journal back in November.

It opened almost 60 years ago and is considered one of NW3’s hidden gems, but it is now understood to have been earmarked for sale for a price of around £2.5million. Traders have employed the services of a King’s Counsel barrister and are preparing to fight the closure on the final day of trading.

Alexandra Porter, who has had a unit in the market off Heath Street for five years and lives in Belsize Park, said: “We want the sale to fall through. Then we can either try and crowdfund to buy it or find someone to purchase it.”

In a letter on behalf of more than 20 traders sent to the owner of the market, Richard Jaffe, she had added: “A court order will be required to evict us from the property. Please note that any vacancy is not an indication that there is a right to possession. “Any traders who have left their units have done so under protest, and not in accordance with fair terms express or implied in the tenancy agreement.”

The letter added: “We have taken legal advice at a senior barrister level and have been advised that we have a good defence to any claims you might pursue for possession.”

The Heath and Hamp­stead Society, Hampstead Neighbourhood Forum, councillors and MP Tulip Siddiq have backed an application to list the Emporium as an Asset of Community Value.

The ACV would give the site better protection against any attempt to change its use with a planning application and an opportunity for the community to buy the site before it is sold elsewhere. This looked unlikely to be in place, however, by the time a deal goes through.

Alexander Nicoll, chair of the Hampstead Neighbourhood Forum, has said the “emporium makes a unique contribution to the character of Hampstead’s village”.

An online petition against the shutdown has been signed my more than 3,000 people. Protesters have been invited to bring placards and “handcuffs” from 2pm on Saturday, which is the final day.

Mr Jaffe told the New Journal in December how nothing could stop the closure on January 7, adding: “It has become no longer viable to keep trading because of ever-increasing costs, general costs. As an example, utilities bills are increasing.”

He is the director of the company Stapleline, a family business, which took charge of the Emporium in 1981. He had last year praised traders for “stepping up to make sure this place is what it was before the pandemic”.