THE historic Elephant and Castle shopping centre will close its doors for the last time on Thursday, leaving some 40 traders with nowhere to go. 

The south London complex, built 55 years ago, is due to be demolished to make way for a massive £4 billion development of almost 1,000 new homes — of which only 116 will be social housing — and a new shopping complex. 

It follows a years-long campaign by local traders and activists to halt the development and protect the centre’s unique community of largely Latin-American traders.