I will never forget the day Ben Cunningham handed me a tract as I walked down Wood Green High Street with my family. Who could have dreamed that a tract and a brief conversation would set in motion a chain of gospel events that continues till this day?
When Wood Green Shopping City was opened on 13 May 1981 by HM Queen Elizabeth II, hopes were high that this major urban development would ‘transform’ one of London’s poorest boroughs. The six storey high complex – occupied by shops on the first two floors and housing on the upper four floors – promised to bring thousands of shoppers to Wood Green and to improve the lives of the hundreds of people who would live in the development. Without a doubt the former aspiration has been realised as an average of 221,000 customers a week pass through the more than 100 shops and 80 market stalls in the complex. The realisation of the latter aspiration, though, is a bit trickier to measure.
