The supermodel Yasmin le Bon has weighed in on a topic close to many Putney residents’ heart and slammed Putney High Street as a “wasteland” in an interview in the national process.
The mother of three and wife of 80s pop star, Duran Duran frontman Simon le Bon, was described as “launching into a rant about the wasteland Putney High Street has become and how the Boots on her local shopping parade has closed down,” in The Daily Telegraph.
Unfortunately, the Telegraph journalist was not as invested as her in the state of our local shops and didn’t record much more about Yasmin’s views, focussing instead on her life, challenges of being a supermodel and mum, and what she does with her time.
But the exchange is nevertheless telling. The article lets us know that Le Bon and family have moved out of their home on Upper Richmond Road but moved into rented accommodation nearby while new construction – including a new 28-square-metre brick building with solar panels, a 15-metre-log swimming pool, and a new conservatory in the back garden – is carried out.
The le Bons have previously spoke about how much they love Putney and their house here but even the wealthy and famous head to their local high street to do shopping and, like everyone else, Yazmin is clearly unimpressed by the state of Putney’s.
In a recent survey by Save The High Street, there are an extraordinary 22 closed shops on Putney High Street, a further six on Upper Richmond Road between East Putney tube and Putney Leisure Center, and another four in the Putney Exchange.
The number of closed shops is actually larger than another other type of business and the second most common is – you guessed it – fast food restaurants, with a staggering 16 of them on the High Street alone. There are 14 estate agents, 9 restaurants, 8 tech exchange/vape shop, 7 hairdressers/barbers and 6 nail bars. In other words, a pretty unimpressive High Street for a town like Putney.
As for other Putney details, Yasmin was described in the article as popping into the cobbler’s and meeting up at a cafe – which we have some degree of certainty was the wonderful J Poole and Son (you can read our interview with Trevor Poole here) and the delightful Harvey’s Bakery – whose owner Chris Carey we spoke to a few months ago (it could admittedly, also have been Artisan Coffee, who we have yet to interview).
Apart this that, it is a very interesting and honest interview with one of our long-term Putney residents discussing fame, money, raising kids and the downsides of ageing, including the hell that is the menopause. You can read it in full here.
