‘We’re in limbo’: the garden centre ‘golden mile’ that may be lost to a new town

‘Why am I going to willingly sell up a successful business?’ asks Nina Barnes, who owns the Culver garden centre site first bought by her late father in 1973. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian

On the fringes of north London is an area of garden centres, green spaces and winding country lanes that feel a world away from the capital’s urban sprawl. Tucked just inside the M25, Crews Hill near Enfield has been home to a cluster of horticultural businesses for decades, leading to it being nicknamed the “golden mile”.

Many of these small, family-run businesses – selling plants, fencing and paving – fear they will be closed down and forced to move if the government selects Crews Hill and nearby Chase Park as one of its next generation of new towns.