Bruce Lyons was up at 6am on Thursday hanging 200 flags around businesses in Church Street in Twickenham. “Everyone had some comment to make. People came up and said ‘I’m backing Ireland’, or said how excited they were.”
Lyons, chairman of the Twickenham Town Business Association, runs a travel agent in the town, so is not set to benefit financially when the biggest tournament in world rugby kicks off on Friday night. But he said he could see the positive impact it had already had for him and other traders. “The council has spent a lot of money making Twickenham look better over the past two years,” he said. “I think there is a good atmosphere in town.”
A recent report by accountants Ernst & Young found the six-week tournament could be worth up to £1bn to the UK economy; as the headquarters of the England rugby team, Twickenham will be at the heart of the action.
The stadium in south-west London will host 10 matches, including the semi-finals and final and two of the home nation’s group games. But, as locals used to international games already know, these bring a certain amount of disruption, including earlier school runs, road closures and packed trains. Not to mention the row about pub opening times when, at a warm-up game in the summer, police announced spectators might not be allowed in to drink after 10pm, a move some publicans said had cost them valuable business. The local council has now said police will work with venues after games to establish whether they need to restrict entry.
Roads around the stadium will be closed for three hours before matches, with residents in what the council has called “landlocked areas” only able to get to their houses if they have applied for a special permit. South West trains, which serves the stadium, is advising commuters who are not attending the game to make alternative arrangements to avoid the normal peak hours after 4pm.
Nelson primary school in nearby Whitton will shut its gates at 1.20pm on Friday, and Gumley House convent school in Isleworth will close at 2.10pm, in preparation for the 8pm kickoff between England and Fiji.
Lyons said that in some quarters there was concern about the disruption. “There is a certain feeling of ‘Are they looking after the residents, will there be a legacy?,’ ” he said. However, there are signs that some residents will reap benefits from the tournament, with driveways, homes and even parking permits all put up for grabs by people living nearby.
The route between the station and the stadium will be filled with stalls selling snacks and memorabilia to fans on their way to and from matches. Some will be run by homeowners, others by traders renting front gardens from residents. Richmond council has approved licences for those on Whitton Road on match days.
The website JustPark said it had seen a surge in the number of residents offering parking spaces on their driveways. It has 969 spaces listed near Twickenham, 117 of which have been added since the start of July. The increase in the number of spaces available means prices have remained fairly static, at an average of £21 a day. So far, there have been 208 bookings worth a combined £5,000 for Friday’s opening match, but spokesman Sam Mellor said many more were expected. “Our average events booking is made one day before the event starts, so most people leave it as late as possible,” he said. Many more spots are listed privately on the small-ads site Gumtree, as well as all-day visitors’ parking permits for the area; one resident is trying to sell these for £15.
Airbnb, which allows homeowners and tenants to rent out rooms or whole properties, said people were asking for an average of £114 a night, meaning if they let them for the entire tournament residents could earn almost £5,000. The average listing is, however, higher in Cardiff, perhaps reflecting the lack of competition. Homeowners there are asking £182 a night for those wanting to stay near the Millennium Stadium.
Chris Swann, who lives in Strawberry Hill, near Twickenham, during the week, will be letting his flat – within “staggering distance from Twickenham” – every weekend during the tournament at £60 a night. He first listed it in the summer of 2014 and has had bookings on match days ever since. “I haven’t got anything free between now and mid-November,” he said. “One couple are flying in from Australia – they’ll land on Friday then watch the game on Saturday before travelling onwards. Another guy is coming from New Zealand, and I have people from within the UK.” Swann said his price was a flat rate year-round. “My strategy is to keep the price competitive and offer what you can see on the site.”
Anna Hamill, who lives about 10 minutes from the ground, will be letting out three parking spaces through JustPark: one on her own driveway and two at her mother’s property next door. She started listing the spaces on Just Park in October 2013, with a view to doing so during the World Cup. “We charge £15 a space and get £12 from the company – we could charge more, I’ve seen some people nearer the stadium charging £30 or £40, but I think £15 is reasonable and I would rather be booked up.”
She said she had turned down a request to park a campervan outside her house for two days, which made her feel “a bit mean”, but she is booked up for the opening game and has bookings for every other Twickenham match. The spaces are booked by fans, and some come back. “We have some really nice people. Often we talk to them before they go off and after the game. It’s not just about the money – it’s good to feel part of it all.”
However, there are signs that the six-week long festival of rugby may not be the goldmine some had hoped. As the opening game between England and Fiji looms, homeowners looking to make money out of hiring out their properties to broadcasters and firms on short lets appear to have priced themselves out of the market. A three-bedroom home a third of a mile from the stadium with an advertised rent of more than £15,000 a month remains unlet, as is a four-bedder offered for a minimum seven-night stay at almost £2,000.
Oliver Pym, lettings manager at the Twickenham branch of Foxtons, said the branch had “just let a house to a well-known corporate company looking to house a group of their employees together, within short walking distance of Twickenham Stadium”. But one local agent said they had heard some corporate clients had found it was cheaper to stay in central London and use a chauffeur every day than to stay near the ground.
