History
The Pentavia Retail Park was built in the
early 1990s following planning consent in 1988 for a scheme comprising non-food
retail warehouses, a garden centre and petrol station. Prior to 1988 the site had
been used as allotments and a sports ground as well as a construction site for the
M1.
Like many out of town centre retail parks in London, the Pentavia site became
outmoded as national planning policy and investment has been directed towards the
renewal of town centres, focusing on making such centres of historic trade more
vibrant and vital places which are accessible by a range of sustainable transport
modes. With an emphasis on car trips combined with constraints linked to the
access to and from the A1 / A41, the Pentavia Retail Park is considered to have
failed as a modern and sustainable development. Up until 2015 the site had been
occupied by major national retailers including Homebase, Comet and Argos
The site had been temporarily occupied by
Kosher Outlet Store untill full site closure sometime after 2015.
In 2019 the site received concent for 844 rental homes
from London mayor Sadiq Khan, who called in the scheme
stressing the “potential to make an important contribution to housing”.
This had followed refusal from Barnet Council, which said the
high-density residential scheme would be overdevelopment of the site.
In 2020 home shopping giant Amazon purched the site and reportedly paid in the region of £65 million.
Amazon outbid a number of residential developers for the controversial site and is
thought to be carrying out pre-planning negotiations with Barnet Council for the development of a last mile logistics hub.
The site was owned by investment and development company Meadow Partners,
which acquired it from Henderson Global Investors for £27.8 million in 2013.
The Explore
Not a bad little explore this 1 and only a short trip in to north london so was fairly close.
Arriving at the site we noted a security car and hut with several mobile camera units dotted around the site.
So whithout unsuccessfully finding a way on to the site avoiding the cameras we just walked straight past them futher up out of eye site from the security car.
At this point those annoying camera units start barking at us " you have been detected in an unauthorised area blah blah blah".
However no 1 appeared but the barking kinda put the wind up my girlfriends daughter so they retreated back to the car and i went off solo.
I found a potential way in to the units and decided to try and squeeze under a palacide gate.
This didnt go acording to plan and i got stuck!, after a couple of minutes i managed to free myself.
Now with my chest covered in cuts to add insult to injuiry i then realised the gate actualy opened!.
So with this embarrassment behind me i made my was inside the mostly empty units.
There all pretty much shells of them former selves with random old bits of furniture scattered around the place.
There is also plently of graffiti inside.
Once i was done inside i headed back out round the front for some externals, once again passing them annoying camera units which started barking once again as i got close.
As i was taking photos i saw the security bloke walking up to me once he got close enough we started chatting and he told me he got a message to go investage the cameras going off.
Why he didnt get noteefied the 1st time we set them cameras off i dont no.
However he was a bloddy nice bloke and we carried on chatting and joking as i walked back to my car.
1 from its heyday
In we go.. vastly empty but not to shabby
plenty of graffit in here
Any 1 need a new mattress?
This is pretty cool. the local youth must hang out in here
Nice bit of graff
Some old bikes just been left
An electrical unit
Out in the service yard
Inside the back of 1 of the units ,Pretty striped
More graff..
Another electrical unit
Looking more like a shop now
This would have been the main customer entrance
A smashed up drywall
Obligatory shopping trolly shot
This piece maded me laugh, looks like its been coloured in with felt tips
Some pretty decent graff
The Pentavia Retail Park was built in the
early 1990s following planning consent in 1988 for a scheme comprising non-food
retail warehouses, a garden centre and petrol station. Prior to 1988 the site had
been used as allotments and a sports ground as well as a construction site for the
M1.
Like many out of town centre retail parks in London, the Pentavia site became
outmoded as national planning policy and investment has been directed towards the
renewal of town centres, focusing on making such centres of historic trade more
vibrant and vital places which are accessible by a range of sustainable transport
modes. With an emphasis on car trips combined with constraints linked to the
access to and from the A1 / A41, the Pentavia Retail Park is considered to have
failed as a modern and sustainable development. Up until 2015 the site had been
occupied by major national retailers including Homebase, Comet and Argos
The site had been temporarily occupied by
Kosher Outlet Store untill full site closure sometime after 2015.
In 2019 the site received concent for 844 rental homes
from London mayor Sadiq Khan, who called in the scheme
stressing the “potential to make an important contribution to housing”.
This had followed refusal from Barnet Council, which said the
high-density residential scheme would be overdevelopment of the site.
In 2020 home shopping giant Amazon purched the site and reportedly paid in the region of £65 million.
Amazon outbid a number of residential developers for the controversial site and is
thought to be carrying out pre-planning negotiations with Barnet Council for the development of a last mile logistics hub.
The site was owned by investment and development company Meadow Partners,
which acquired it from Henderson Global Investors for £27.8 million in 2013.
The Explore
Not a bad little explore this 1 and only a short trip in to north london so was fairly close.
Arriving at the site we noted a security car and hut with several mobile camera units dotted around the site.
So whithout unsuccessfully finding a way on to the site avoiding the cameras we just walked straight past them futher up out of eye site from the security car.
At this point those annoying camera units start barking at us " you have been detected in an unauthorised area blah blah blah".
However no 1 appeared but the barking kinda put the wind up my girlfriends daughter so they retreated back to the car and i went off solo.
I found a potential way in to the units and decided to try and squeeze under a palacide gate.
This didnt go acording to plan and i got stuck!, after a couple of minutes i managed to free myself.
Now with my chest covered in cuts to add insult to injuiry i then realised the gate actualy opened!.
So with this embarrassment behind me i made my was inside the mostly empty units.
There all pretty much shells of them former selves with random old bits of furniture scattered around the place.
There is also plently of graffiti inside.
Once i was done inside i headed back out round the front for some externals, once again passing them annoying camera units which started barking once again as i got close.
As i was taking photos i saw the security bloke walking up to me once he got close enough we started chatting and he told me he got a message to go investage the cameras going off.
Why he didnt get noteefied the 1st time we set them cameras off i dont no.
However he was a bloddy nice bloke and we carried on chatting and joking as i walked back to my car.
1 from its heyday
In we go.. vastly empty but not to shabby
plenty of graffit in here
Any 1 need a new mattress?
This is pretty cool. the local youth must hang out in here
Nice bit of graff
Some old bikes just been left
An electrical unit
Out in the service yard
Inside the back of 1 of the units ,Pretty striped
More graff..
Another electrical unit
Looking more like a shop now
This would have been the main customer entrance
A smashed up drywall
Obligatory shopping trolly shot
This piece maded me laugh, looks like its been coloured in with felt tips
Some pretty decent graff
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