Highgate businesses suffer after power cut

Highgate was plunged into darkness on Monday (Oct 24) after it experienced a power cut.

Power went off at 4am affecting dozens of businesses.

Traders had to work in candlelight until it was fixed at 5pm.

Daniel Watkins, who works in the popular newsagents Brooksby, in Highgate High Street, said: “It was a tough day. All the businesses & properties on the Camden side lost their power and it goes to show how heavily we rely on our computer system to operate.

“We lost a lot of custom, we think many people didn’t come in because they thought we were closed.

“We printed our newspaper delivery bills over the weekend and a lot of our customers come in on the Monday to pay via card so we definitely lost out.”

A spokesman for UK Power Networks apologised for the inconvenience caused to residents and businesses.

He said: “UK Power Networks engineers worked as quickly and as safely possible to restore power to 61 customers in the High Street area of Highgate following a power interruption.

“A fault on the low voltage network first occurred on Sunday (Sunday) afternoon. Power was quickly restored to affected customers, but there was a further interruption at 4.31am this morning, affecting 61 customers.

“We appreciate how frustrating it is to be without power and apologise for the inconvenience caused.”