Families flocked to Oriental City on Sunday to feast on Far Eastern cuisine like there was no tomorrow.

And for traders at the much-loved Edgware Road emporium there was, indeed, no tomorrow.

Come Monday morning, they were packing up their wares after serving up their last bowls of noodles and selling off their remaining china.

Terumi Tomita, has run Japanese tableware and crockery shop Utsuwa- No-Yakata since the centre opened in Colindale in 1993. "It is very sad because I came from Japan for this business with my husband and my children," she says. "I have worked so hard for this business."

Like so many here, the future for Mrs Tomita is worryingly uncertain.

About 60 per cent of the 800 employees are losing their jobs as Oriental City closes to make way for a £450 million development.

Some 40 businesses have just days to vacate the building before it is demolished and work begins on the 28-storey block of luxury flats, school and shops which will replace them.

B&S Property, which bought the site in December, promises there will be room for traders to return when building work is complete.

But this is at least three years away. For now, many are left struggling to make ends meet.

"We have no relocation plan," Mrs Tomita adds. "I will take a little break, then I need to find somewhere for this business. I have no idea what to do."

The retail centre first opened 14 years ago as Yohan Plaza, under Japanese ownership, but went bankrupt after four years. Soon after, it became the Oriental City known today, eventually welcoming between 8,000 and 10,000 visitors every week.

"When we started trading it was not like this community," Mrs Tomita says.

"It took a long time to build it up. But now it's like a second Chinatown."

Yip Fai Liu owns China City restaurant and spearheaded the campaign to save the centre. He said: "Oriental City is the only indoor Chinese and Far Eastern centre in the whole of England.

"It's not just about eating, it's about our culture, it's where east meets west. It's always packed."

Mr Liu set up Oriental City Tenants' Association (Octa) in November, 2006, to fight the development plans, but the campaign came too late and planning permission was granted later that month.

The restaurateur, who has had to lay off 80 per cent of his 60 staff, believes the closure will affect about 1,000 families.

He campaigned for Brent Council to conduct a social impact assessment to give a true idea of the effect of redevelopment. But no such assessment was ever carried out.

As a result, he says, many employees will have to claim benefits to survive the upheaval.

"I told them you paid your taxes, you have the right to get Government benefits because this is what the council has done to us and it's pay back time, " he adds. "They didn't listen to us. All we asked was for an assessment, but they haven't done this and the effects are going to be serious."

There is a glimmer of hope for the cast of Oriental City, however.

A 21,000 sq ft site was found last month, close to the original premises, which could provide a temporary home for traders.

Peter Virdee, managing director of B&S Property, was unwilling to divulge its whereabouts, but said: "We have identified a space for the traders and we are just going through some housekeeping to get a full proposal together."

Mr Liu is hopeful a deal can be clinched.

"It cannot hold the whole of Oriental City but it will save about 300 jobs and about 40 businesses," he says. "That is better than nothing."

Even this, however, is unlikely to happen for at least six months. In the meantime, many feel the heart has been ripped out of a once vibrant community.