The company is currently recruiting to fill a variety of positions for the new restaurant. As with all Carluccio’s, management positions include incentives such as trips to Italy as part of the package!

The reasons for the closure of Belmont Bakery have recently become clear – the owner has been fined £10,000 for hygiene breaches and ordered to pay £6,000 in costs for the case. The bakeries in this small chain have now been closed after a bankruptcy notice was served in November. Food hygiene regulations were found to be seriously breached after surprise inspection following a tip-off by a resident.

Ellis’s has left the high street and are now concentrating on private catering and cakes for special occasions. This newly launched business will launch in February. This unit won’t be empty for long though because in it’s place “Teddington Cafe” will be opening in 6 weeks.

The lawn-mower shop on Stanley Road has now disappeared as mysteriously as it opened and Midnight Movies on Kingston Road is now also closed. Oakleys furniture store looks like it now has new owners and has been rebranded “Furniture Outlet” – with mostly the same stock on sale.

“Higher Space” has opened in one of Teddington’s oldest buildings, above BoHo boutique, offering various treatments and classes including yoga, meditation, reiki healing, chakra balancing, acupuncture and various types of massages. Contact higherspace@rocketmail.com for more info or to book any treatments.

If you haven’t yet done so, you can visit the Teddington Constitutional Club as a guest. The club is a hidden gem on Stanley Road, just off Broad Street. The private club has many amenities include a large bar, lounge area, function room (for hire), pool table, dart board and three full-size snooker tables. Various events are held regular including DJ Ann Taylor’s Northern Soul Nites on Thursdays.

Restaurant sites are being snapped up by companies including Brasserie Blanc. It is believed however that talks have been underway with Carluccios to take on this premises – more news once this is confirmed.

On Kingston Road, the ever-increasing threat of online movie streaming and rental by post has almost certainly been the cause of Moonlight Movies closing down – a sale is currently helping owners sell any remaining stock of movies and fireworks. On Stanley Road a lawnmower seller has taken residence in the ex-tattoo shop so head over there if you are looking to get the lawn in order for spring.

The latest estimates from Travelodge for the opening date of their new hotel is May 2012 – recently the building changed hands £9.4 million on the basis of Travelodge’s 25 year lease and income from roof-mounted phone masts.

Fielding Gould has now closed to pave the way for Hamptons International to move in. In pub news, the leasehold for The Hogarth is currently up for sale by owners Fullers. Coffee-lovers with kids will be happy to learn that Teeney Weenies ‘kids play cafe’ will be opening on the 23rd January at Teddington Baptist Church.

The January Sales are well upon us – every other shop seems to have a sale sign in the window and big discounts are available. This comes amidst news of supermarkets biggest ever store opening plans in history (could be 50% more trading space created) will only increase the threat to our high streets in the UK.

Richmond has however been named one of the most likely borough’s to bounce back from the recession due to support for local businesses.

Councillor Fleming (cabinet member for community, business and culture) has praised recent initiatives including the creation of the business and retail champion post, Christmas lights investing and help with parking from the RichmondCard and removal of yellow lines in town centres. Although Richmond is in a better position than some, we should all keep supporting our local businesses to help them in these difficult economic times.

Local retail specialist Philip Downer has posted his thoughts on Mary Portas’s high street report here with his take on the recommendations.

Starting this Saturday 3rd December with Stanley Primary Schools Christmas Bazaar (12-3pm), St Mary and St Peter’s Schools Christmas Fair (1-4pm) that will include tombolas, raffle, Santa’s grotto, bucking bronco Rudolph and many Christmas present stalls and finally Collis School international Christmas Fair (2-5pm) with steel band, Santa’s Grotto and tastes from around the world.

This weekend also sees the return of the unusual sight of a multitude of Santa’s running through Bushy Park for the Princess Alice Hospice Santa Fun Run. On Sunday 4th December there will be a morning and afternoon run as well as Christmas activities and treats for the whole family.

If you’re itching to get the decorations up, you can also pick-up a Christmas Tree On Sunday at Collis School 10am-12pm or from the at Diana car park in Bushy Park every day now from now until Christmas Eve 9am-6:45pm.

Late night shopping and 15% discounts will be available at The Loft on Tuesday 6th December from 6pm onwards. The following weekend on Saturday 10th December two local schools will also be selling Christmas trees – St Mary and St Peter’s School (9am-12) and Stanley Primary School (10:30am-1pm).

Finally if you’re out and about on the 17th December you might chance across a sea of red Christmas hats in local pubs – the 5th annual Christmas Crawl will be making its way across the area via 20 pubs in 12 hours whilst collecting donations for Shooting Star Children’s Hospice.

Last year saw road problems with a bus and a car break down by the main roundabout, this year didn’t start well either after traffic was diverted after a bad accident that closed Kingston Road and required the driver to be cut from their car.

The festivities in Teddington were however mostly unaffected and the unseasonably warm weather helped pack out the streets and Elmfield Gardens for the switch on.

Eastenders star Kellie Shirley took to the mic and after some words was joined by Mayor Clare Head in leading the countdown. The lights came on along the whole length of the high street some time after due to a technical hitch (all despite last-minute fixes due to earlier vandalism).

The Mayor and Kellie with the chosen children’s Lights-Up poster designs

An amusing Santa entertained the crowds in the RNLI lifeboat outside of the Kings Head whilst at the other end of the high street Santa’s grotto at Play Inside Out there were huge queues waiting to give present ideas as early as 4pm!

On Church Road Diner’s Delight soon sold out of their supply of Mezes and soup and the spit roast pig at Nearest Cafe was all gone in 90 minutes! Thankfully it wasn’t so cold that the nearby indoor Christmas Fayre was needed to warm up, but it was none-the-less crammed with shoppers checking out the 30 stalls inside.

Music sounded from many venues – the school band outside of Boots, live music at Vidatherapy and Boho Boutique

Lights sparkle after the switch-on. Photo: Brian Holder, Teddington Society

As well as celebrating the lights switch on it was also an evening of celebration for Teds (21 years) and Bottega (1st anniversary).

Comments via Twitter after the event summed up the whole vibe of the evening:

Kindle Stoves: Thank you so much Teddington for your wonderful community spirit and making #Teddington Lights Up such a success! Have a good weekend!

Astrora Coffee: Hope everyone had a lovely evening in #Teddington yesterday. Thank you all who came to say hi. Seems we’ve found some new coffee converts

Milestone Commercial: Huge turn out in Teddington, well done to all involved. Please support your local shops and businesses this Xmas. Use them or lose them!

Miss_Manful: Walked through teddington today as the christmas lights were being put on and the sense of community there is just amazing

Sandi Wood: had such a lovely time at Teddington light’s up. Amazing sense of community, so glad we moved here.

MrTomBaker: Love how #Teddington makes a big deal about turning on it’s Christmas Lights. Makes me feel festive every year.

See also some video highlights from BestOfRichmond.

Switching on the lights this time will be the Mayor, Santa and Kellie Shirley (Eastenders Carly Wicks) as Cindarella – currently in rehearsals to play this festive role at Richmond Theatre.

The main programme of events will include:
5.30pm Carol Singing outside Elmfield House, led by the Landmark Choir
6.00pm Switching on of the Christmas Tree Lights at Elmfield House
6.30pm Churches Together in Teddington sing festive songs with Santa in his sleigh helped by the Lions Club elves

Then in each area of the town centre starting with The High Street, for the kids there will be a high street treasure hunt from 4pm (for children up to 16 years old) – pick up your entry forms from La Casa Del Habano, 76 High Street. Santa and his second-favourite mode of transport (a RNLI lifeboat) will be in residence outside the Kings Head from 6:30pm.

VIA will be offering discounts, canapes and champagnes, William Curley will be giving book signings and giving offering chocolate tasting at La Casa Del Habano. Mulled wine, mine pies, competitions, practice tours and dog treats will be available at Vet4life. Teds will be continuing their 21st birthday celebrations with wine, nibbles, sweets and discounts all Thursday/Friday.

In Broad Street Santa’s Grotto will be at Play Inside Out who will also be selling glow-toys for the evening. Hot Christmas drinks will be on sale at Costa Coffee and Teddington School Jazz band will be entertaining the crowds outside Boots. Coffee tasters and have home-baked cookies will be available from Astrora Coffee.

The Causeway will be closed to traffic – Sims Opticians will be offering mince pies and sweets, reindeer rides will be provided by Park Lane Stables from 4-7pm. “Sounds Familiar” will be playing live music in the Causeway too.

Church Road will also host live music from independent musicians and local schools. There will be complimentary wine and Italian appetizers from Al Borgo, homemade mezes, flat bread and traditional soup from Diners Delight, boozy hot drinks and Christmas nibbles from the Nearest Cafe and £5 mini-manicures and live music at Vidatherapy.

This year for the first time there will also be an indoor Fayre inside Teddington Baptist Church 6-9pm which will be decorated with Christmas drawings by Teddington’s children. Dog walkers will be happy to note that dogs will be allowed inside to visit the fayre!

There will be a lot of local businesses packed into the hall including: Best of Richmond, Cakes by Trudi, Cooper Faure, Desi Fontaine (Photographer), Image Happy, Jo Magdalena Jewellery, LBN Interiors, McDonald plumbing, Messy Mittens, Millie Mac, Miss Captain Clothes, Mumpreneurs, Nargis Ahmad Osteopath, Richmond Birth Preparation Services, Simply Skin, Synchronicity, Teddington Business Community, Teddington Midwives, Teddnet, Toto 4 organic, Vie at Home, Teddington Womens Institute.

Full programme of events can be found here.

[Update 22/11/2011] Waterstone’s will be hosting local Children’s author Karen Inglis in store between 5pm and 7pm. She will be reading from and talking about her book ‘The Secret Lake‘, a magical time slip mystery inspired by the Isabella Plantation at Richmond Park. Her book will enchant adventure loving 8-11 year-olds.

As you might have already noticed another charity shop will be joining the long list already situated the high street – Barnados Children’s store will be open soon next door to Cafe Nero, which is also currently undergoing a refurbishment of its garden area.

For any bride-to-be’s who need to visit Gillion Million but are too busy with their wedding arrangements will be glad to hear that Skype appointments are also now available.

Teddington’s famous Teddies were previously found at Pinnochios (next to Shambles) are now being sold at the Teds. A new addition to the high street is another White Brasserie plaque – the headquarters of Brasserie Blanc has moved into an office opposite The Kings Head. Green Health has however recently closed.

A new menswear shop (the first on the high street for many years) will be opening on Saturday 5th November. Studio 148 is taking the place of Selwyn-smith Studio (at 148 High Street).

This exclusive menswear boutique will be offering contemporary casual clothes and accessories including coloured chinos, knitwear, jeans, jackets, shirts, T-shirts and polo shirts. On the opening day there will be lots of goodies available – complimentary champagne or wine, a prize draw for jeans/shoes and a special 20% introductory discount on your first purchase.

Don’t forget to help support your local high street and local charities at the same time by buying a Peel2Save card!

Richmond Council and traders will be hoping that lots of residents will be taking advantage of the new Richmond Card – this enables parking discounts and free 30 minutes of parking at meter bays and Council car parks.

Finally dog walkers might want to know that there are a surprising number of shops on the high street that allow well-behaved dogs inside so instead of leaving your beloved pup at home or shivering outside during winter, they can accompany you into the following:
As It Is, Astrora Coffee, Boho Boutique, Escape, Teddington Hardware, Jones The Bootmaker, Kitchen Sync, Kindle Stoves, Mela Mela, Nova Fortuny, Play Inside Out, Studio 148, Teddington Essentials, Waterstones (front carpet area) and Via.

As one restaurant from the high street disappears another is rising from the ashes. After just over a year of absence Ristorante Sorrento will be re-opening in a few weeks. Following an 8-year break, Carmelo, his son David and brother Giovanni will return to the newly refurbished restaurant.

Traditional classic Italian cooking will be back on the menu and their famous sweet trolley will be making a welcome return. The restaurant will open at 8am to serve breakfast, followed by a fixed price lunch menu and in the evening the a la carte menu will be available with seasonal daily specials including Lobster, Dover Sole and more.

The Park Hotel recently had planning permission refused to use more of their car park area for additional outdoor drinking & dining space. Richmond Council believe that the hotel already doesn’t provide enough parking space for this business in an area where the pressure on parking spaces is high.

Barnados are hoping to move into the vacant Nicholas wine merchant space but their plans to change the front of the building were refused permission. Selwyn-Smith Studio is now closed following declining sales and competition from stationers elsewhere on the high street.

At the other end of the high street, another new nursery is being planned opposite Nova Fortuny but neighbouring offices are concerned about the lack of parking available for dropping off & picking up children. The nursery would have its entrance on the high street and nearby roads area already busy with parked cars.

Kings Head White Brasserie will soon be celebrating its first anniversary – how time flies! They are hosting a few special events with live band nights and a special menu to celebrate the milestone. This business model is clearly working well – the resaurant continues to receive good feedback, is regularly busy and the group has plans to increase the number of brasseries from the current 9 to 40 in the next five years.

Although already open for business, The Orange Tree Clinic (above KC Pharmacy) will be hosting an official opening day on 23rd September along with the deputy mayor, Presecco, cupcakes, treatment discounts and demonstrations.

You might have seen these for sale already on shop counters on the high street – businesses in Teddington, Hampton and Hampton Hill have offered 64 discount stickers on this fold out card.

The card costs £10 and each offer can be used only once (peeled off) – £5 of this amount goes to print & admin costs and the rest to charity. Charity shops can stock the card and raise money for themselves and other businesses can nominate a charity to donate their money raised towards.

Teddington offers include:
A G Miller,
Bar Estilo,
Cavan Bakery,
Cook,
Diners Delight,
Fun Factory,
Happy Potter,
Jazz Flowers,
Johnsons The Cleaners,
La Bottega,
Park Lane tables,
Retro Bistrot,
Shambles,
Sims,
Toni & Guy,
VidaTherapy
- these cover everything from free cakes, money-off deals, 25% off food bills and free coffee!

The pocket-sized cards have lots of great offers and will help raise money for local schools, sports clubs, non-profits and charities. Roughly about £300 of savings are to be had with each £10 booklet.

If you are interested in selling the cards then get in touch with Sue at sue@thecafebean.com (this is no-risk, you don’t have to purchase these to be able to sell them).

Regular shoppers will be glad to hear that many improvements are on the way including a hot chicken counter, hot pie cabinet, a new bakery section and a new & improved self-service checkout area (see plan below). Most will however be content with the general updating of store facilities and ensuring that fridges and cooled areas no longer leak.

This particular Tesco is currently quite cramped so it will be interesting to see how well the new layout works – most sections will be swapped around and the aisles themselves will be moved slightly.

As well as interior improvements plans have also been submitted to change the exterior of the store.

Tesco will close as usual at 4pm on Sunday 24th July 2011 then re-open with its new layout on Monday 1st August.

Click for larger plan

Happy Potter Ceramics recently held a hugely successful craft fair at their cafe. All of the available spaces were filled with craft-makers offering their wares to visitors – local talented designers included: Douetil Holistic Therapies, Clare Catherine Kelly, KitzieG, Neeksie and Reinvention Design.

More pics of the evening here.

The recently reformed Teddington Business Community held its first public meeting recently at Teddington Baptist Church. After an introduction from minister Richard Littledale about the strong community spirit that exists in Teddington, TBC chairman Mel Ellis outlined the group’s reasons for creation, its objectives and scope for future plans.

Just under a hundred attendees turned up from varied local businesses – high street shops, restaurants, salons, local office-based businesses and home workers – all of whom were keen to find out all about the new association and how it can make a difference to the business community.

There are now many initiatives and plans underway to help improve the business environment for the group as well as future meetings and networking events – the first of which is a BBQ on the 5th of July at Shambles. Non-members are also welcome and can find out about the group and chat to committee members. RSVP Bhavna on 020 8977 3793 if you are interested – the BBQ (or dinner if weather is bad) + drink is £30.

Richmond Council is listening to residents! The All-In-One events being held across the borough visited Teddington last weekend and 220 locals dropped in to have their voices heard.

The Hampton Wick and Teddington session took place in Elleray Hall and residents could leave feedback about what they like and dislike about their neighborhood – the most pressing items will become the council’s priority in future planning.

A few issues were abundantly clear, a huge number of comments were pinned to the roads, pavements and traffic boards – clearly we are not happy with parking in our town as well as some roads being used as rat-runs and short cuts where speed-limits aren’t low enough. Conversely almost all of the comments about refuse and recycling were positive, we love our refuse collection and want to keep it that way!

It was useful to talk directly to council officers about specific issues, the re-building of the central roundabout that caused so much delay in February was actually due to contractors not carrying out work to a satisfactory standard, twice! In fact 80% of roads dug-up in the borough are actually energy and other suppliers rather than the Council themselves.

The Housing Development Manager was kept busy with questions – displays detailed up-and-coming housing developments including the now agreed Somerset House demolition and new housing build. Many concerns were about the amount of affordable housing in the area for key workers – some of which are included in several planned builds.

If you didn’t have your say and wish to, Richmond Council have made available a new area on their website for this initiative including forums: richmond.gov.uk/my_richmond_villages.