Restaurants and bars on Stoke Newington Church Street are worried about what the new Tier 2 lockdown could mean for their businesses.
New restrictions include a ban on households mixing in any indoors setting.
Gezim Laci, owner of Primavera, an Italian restaurant on Church Street said that he is “uncertain about the future” as “everything keeps changing”.
The restrictions come on top of the 10pm curfew and rule of six already in place.
Usually open until 12pm, the 10pm curfew has hit Mr Laci’s restaurant hard: “50% of business is gone”, he said, adding that he may even “close down”.
Serkan Dogan, owner of The Caffeine Fix, whose business opened in June, said that he was worried about the future and that his new business was “not out of the woods yet”.
“In this space of four months that we’ve been open, it’s just unheard of, to have another lockdown,” he added.
Although households cannot mix indoors, the rule of six still applies for people meeting outside.
Oya Adem, at the Green Room Cafe & Flower Store, which has an outdoor seating area, said that “more people want to sit outside… with the news looking more bleak this week and last week, more people are scared of coming out to sit in confined areas.”
She has had to cut back staff and is also trying to retrain them for work in both the flower shop and café.
Image credits: The Green Room Café Facebook// Primavera Facebook
