A TOOL shop in Kingston has been forced to close more than a century after it was first set up due to fallout from the collapse of developer Hammerson’s plans to buy the building.

Peter Champion, 71, who lives in Sutton, has run Kingston Tools in Eden Street for the last 50 years, after taking over from his father-in-law, Ben Mayzes.

But he has been forced to sell the shop at auction.

He said: “It’s been in the family business for over 100 years. We serviced Kingston for all their tools and DIY products.

“We’re subject to the development in Kingston. We’ve been let down.

“The original developers made offers for it in 2010, but in the end they changed developers and and decided not to develop that section [of Eden Street].”

Plans to demolish the Eden Walk shopping centre were approved in May, and will see 380 new homes built along with 18,000sq m of shops, leisure and office space.

The plans were drawn up by USS and British Land, and tie into the vision for a renewed ‘Eden Quarter’.

Seven years of negotiations involving Hammerson fell through in September 2010.

The firm had planned to bring 3,000 jobs and 250 new homes to the Eden Street area.

Mr Champion explained that his two children, Andrew, 48, and Karen, 47, who worked for the family business, have been left unemployed because of the changes.

He said: “It’s been really sad. In 2010 we had to lay off the staff and start selling the stock.

“Once the ball starts rolling you can’t stop it.”

The building was sold at a Savills auction on September 12 for about £700,000. The shop as been effectively closed for some time, but this week re-opened briefly for a stock clearance.

Mr Champion said: “I’ve been retired for six years. I’ve had to go in for the last three years to man it because I had no staff.

“We were an alternative to B&Q. The last few months I had hundreds of people coming in saying, ‘I used to come in here with my grandad, I used to come in here for everything’.

“It was a service like in the old days. You got a personal service. People came in for a chat.”

The Champions will host a champagne reception at Kingston Tools on their final closing day on October 15.