POLICE are to be present at the opening of a new 99p Store this Friday.

Store bosses requested “friendly” police support as huge crowds are expected to descend on the former Woolworths in Old Church Road, Chingford.

Based on similar events at other stores, people are expected to start queuing from 6am, ahead of the official opening at 9am.

Pupils Joe White, Billy Prevost and Dylan Evans, all aged 11, from Handsworth Primary School, are set to cut the ribbon.

Members of the West Essex Colts Under-11s team, which is sponsored by 99p Stores, they will all be decked out in their football kit.

One of 89 across London and the UK, the Chingford branch, which ceased trading as Woolworths on January 2, has created about 30 new jobs The company has already taken over about 15 other Woolworths branches and is targeting another 40.

Woolworths went into administration at the end of last year, closing all 800 of its branches and cutting tens of thousands of jobs.