On 19 December, the City of London Corporation told five long-standing, independent park cafés in Queens Park, Highgate Wood, and Hampstead Heath that they would be evicted within weeks. Four are set to be handed to the Daisy Green chain—which already runs over 20 venues across London. The risks they ran to build these businesses would be reaped as profits for Daisy Green.

We do not believe the City ran a fair or transparent process. In particular they did not put out the cafés to tender but insisted this was simply a 'leasing opportunity', like when a council auctions off disused public toilets to become a club or bar. The deciding committee appears to have been denied key information—including positive public feedback about the existing operators from a 2023 user survey.

The community response has been immediate and overwhelming. A new petition launched the same day soared past 10,000 signatures in under ten days. People don’t want another corporate chain—they want to keep the unique, locally rooted cafés that belong to these parks.

We’re now preparing a legal challenge to force a fair, transparent process and test the legal basis for ignoring the wishes of the beneficiaries of the park charities. But we need your help to fund it. We are looking for a high profile top of the range team. When identified we will transfer all monies to them, close this crowdfunder, and the future appeal will be on the CrowdJustice platform which pays directly to the solicitors' account.

Meanwhile we call on the City of London Corporation to:

Halt the handover to Daisy Green.

Release all data from the 2023 café user survey.

Re-run the process transparently, with clear criteria and proper community input.