The Nightingale Cancer Support Centre blames an upcoming rent rise for the decision

Nightingale Cancer Support Centre's charity shop in Bramley Road — The Nightingale Cancer Support Centre’s charity shop in Bramley Road

An Enfield cancer charity has confirmed one of its local shops will be closing in response to rising rents.

The Nightingale Cancer Support Centre currently has two shops in the borough, in Enfield Town and Oakwood, but says the latter is due to see a “considerable rise” in rent this year and will close in August as a result.

A third shop, in Waltham Cross, will also be closing, meaning only the Baker Street branch will remain open.

A spokesperson for the charity said: “The Nightingale is committed to ensuring that we are here for local people with cancer as well as their friends and families.

“We are sad to be closing our shops based in Waltham Cross and Oakwood in August this year. This was not an easy decision to make. As a charity, we have an obligation to take steps to ensure we mitigate any risk to our services so that we can continue to provide these long into the future.

Unfortunately, all our commercial leases came up for renewal this year with both Waltham Cross and Oakwood seeing considerable rises. This means that we can no longer cover the running costs for these shops making it financially unviable to operate them.

“This is in no way a reflection on our staff who have all been fantastic and we would like to thank them and our tireless volunteers for their hard work.

“Our Baker Street shop and eBay platform continue to operate as normal.”

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