What’s a mathnasium? New tutoring business replaces Crouch End’s Muddy Boots butcher

High streets change, but when the old Muddy Boots butcher in Crouch End shut up shop, who would have predicted that its replacement would be a “mathnasium”?

The new business is the brainchild of Martin Heaton Cooper, 50, who has opened up a franchise of a maths tutoring club that has taken off in the US and Canada.

He told this newspaper: “The model is that it’s like a club membership. Kids come along and they do their work in a stimulating environment. The response has been great.”

Open after school and on a Sunday morning, tutoring staff at the Mathnasium in Broadway Parade – Martin was able to re-use and recycle lots of the fittings from Muddy Boots, even the awning – will assess the maths needs of children before giving them a tailored programme of help.

Martin, who lives in Muswell Hill, added: “I think ours is one of the first five in the UK. It’s a really exciting thing to be part of.”