LONDON VAUXHALL DEALERS

Fitzrovia, north of Oxford Street, has fast grown to become one of London's key contemporary art hubs. More than 30 galleries have opened in the past four years, including five in the past three months. The area looks set to cement its reputation this month with the launch of Fitzrovia Lates. Forty galleries will open until 9pm on the last Thursday of every month, offering a programme of tours, talks and performances.

Yet as more galleries announce plans to open in or relocate there, one of the most successful, Modern Art on Eastcastle Street, is leaving, prompting warnings to other galleries not to flock there "like sheep" in the hope of finding commercial success.

Stuart Shave, founder and director of Modern Art, whose artists include former Turner Prize nominee Karla Black, has earned a reputation of relocating at the right time. Originally based on Redchurch Street in Shoreditch, he was the first gallery to open on Vyner Street in Hackney in 1998, which subsequently became a thriving hub of the east London art scene.

Since Shave moved into Eastcastle Street in 2008, among the first wave of younger galleries to move into the area, it has undergone a similar, if more well-heeled, transformation, with his private views attracting the likes of Claudia Schiffer. Last June saw the opening of Whisper Gallery, run by Ronnie Wood's son Jamie, which sells affordable limited-edition prints rather than the original pieces favoured by Shave's collectors. This year's arrivals on the street include the second London space of the renowned Haunch of Venison gallery, also based in nearby New Bond Street and New York, and the Carroll/Fletcher gallery, opened by two former Credit Suisse traders in March. Explaining their choice of location, co-director Steve Fletcher said: "There are very few profitable art galleries that are destinations on their own."

Jane England, director of England & Co gallery, which relocated to Great Portland Street from Notting Hill earlier this year, said she understood why Shave was moving. "A couple of galleries that are not up his street have moved next door."

Although he will not comment directly about any of the galleries that have sprung up around him, Shave, tellingly, says of his new space in Clerkenwell, due to open later this year, "there isn't the capacity to have another gallery next door".

Shave, whose Fitzrovia overheads are £250,000 a year, also warned smaller galleries moving to the area that the costs could inhibit their programming. "If you're dedicated to working with more challenging artists, putting on an unsellable exhibition can cost £40,000–£50,000."

He added: "There's no mystique or allure that gets added on when you move to the West End. It's all to do with inverted snobbery, thinking that you've grown out of the East End."

Josh Lilley, who opened his eponymous gallery on Riding House Street in Fitzrovia in 2009, is convinced that the area offers more for smaller commercial galleries than the East End. He recalls being introduced to Jerry Speyer, chairman of the New York Museum of Modern Art (Moma), by someone from an East End gallery. When Speyer next came to London, he visited Lilley but did not have time to go out east to the other gallery.

"We've had £1.5m of sales in three years, which is considerable when almost everything we sell is £10,000 and under," says Lilley.

However, Alison Jacques, who relocated her gallery from Mayfair to Fitzrovia in 2007, said she applauds Shave's decision to move from the increasingly crowded Eastcastle Street. "No one really wants someone doing something on your coat tails."

Like Shave, she questions the wisdom of galleries moving from larger spaces in the East End to smaller spaces in central London. Her gallery was specifically designed for her roster of artists: "I'm a gallerist not a shopkeeper."

Jacques added: "Do your own thing. Fitzrovia is full of galleries. I think it's an amazing moment for a gallery to open in the East End or to establish themselves in a new area. You only have to look at Stuart [Shave] or Jay Jopling's White Cube in Bermondsey – you'd never have been able to create that space in the West End. It's those kinds of gallerists that stand out from the crowd."

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