'Our family's Italian restaurant has been in London since the 80s - now hotel is kicking us out'

A family-run Italian restaurant in Covent Garden may not survive if it's evicted so a hotel reception and café can be created in its place, the owners fear. Harry Brown, General Manager at Pasta Brown whose grandfather opened the restaurant in the 1980s, said the cost of moving would leave its future 'in the balance'.

Z Hotels is looking to reconfigure its Bedford Street premises to add more rooms and provide guest access from the front of the building, rather than via a smaller, private side-street owned by a neighbouring church. Part of that adaptation includes moving its reception and hotel café to the space currently occupied by Pasta Brown, requiring the restaurant to find a new site elsewhere.

Mr Brown said while he is not naïve as to the reasons behind the restaurant potentially having to move, he believes there is a larger question as to what the council wants for Covent Garden and the West End. He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): "Do you want just another chain after chain with a faceless corporation, or do you want to go with a bit of personality that's been in the area for a long time?"

READ MORE:Popular West London Christmas light trail cancelled yet again amid spiralling costs

READ MORE:The beautiful city 90 minutes from London with 1 of the UK's best Christmas markets with 170 stalls

A petition calling for support to fight the 'eviction' has reached more than 3,000 signatures. Bev King, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Z Hotels, however told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) Pasta Brown's lease was due to expire in late December this year anyway, and that he has offered support to help the restaurant find and move into another premises nearby.

Speaking to the LDRS, Mr Brown acknowledged the support offered by Mr King. However, he said the restaurant's aim is to stay put, in large part because of the cost of moving elsewhere. Asked how having to relocate would impact Pasta Brown, he said: "It would mean that the future of the business would definitely hang in the balance because we would ideally want to stay in Covent Garden and the West End, but with the price of not only rents but the price of going, and say if we were to get a shell to fit out a restaurant, would probably be out of our pricing; as it would if we were to buy a lease off someone who had a fully fitted restaurant already."

He added many of the regulars he has spoken with are also upset. "There will be a lot of people that will understand the nuances of the lease that would mean that we might have to go, but a lot of people can't understand why," he said.

The submission is due to be decided by Westminster City Council's Planning Applications Sub-Committee on Tuesday evening (November 12). Officers have recommended that, while the loss of the restaurant would be 'regrettable', the request should be approved by councillors.

Planning documents filed by the applicant state: "The hotel would have the benefit of main street frontage off Bedford Street instead of the current controlled, privately owned, access on Inigo Place. Whilst actively used, the existing hotel café (only used by the guests) is tucked away at the rear of the building and, therefore, does not provide any activation to the street frontage, vibrancy or vitality. Relocating the reception to the front of the building and creating a café and informal workspace would maximise the development potential of the site, and contribute to the balance and mix [of] uses in the immediate locality."

Seven new hotel bedrooms are also planned to be added to the rear of the building, boosting the total rooms from 113 to 120. A paper prepared ahead of the meeting details how five objections were received, with none writing in support. Issues raised included the loss of the restaurant and that a hotel reception 'does not create the same vibrancy or vitality or introduce an active frontage'.

In a statement submitted in response to the plans, Pasta Brown said the restaurant has 'deep roots in the community', evidenced by work such as its partnerships with local charities. The statement added: "Moreover, we are frustrated that Z Hotels have referred to us merely as a café in their application, and have not treated us as a full restaurant with our integral role in the community and our extensive charitable contributions. Their failure to acknowledge our broader impact was disappointing and underscored the importance of our ongoing efforts to advocate for our role in representing and supporting the local community."

Council officers wrote in their report that the operator of the restaurant, i.e. Pasta Brown, could be changed and so could the site's use without planning permission, as long as it remained Class E. Class E covers a range of commercial, business and service uses, including cafés and restaurants. But planning permission is needed for the adaptations to the building.

"The hotel propose to have a café to the front of the premises, which will also be open to members of the public, and the existing shopfront will be retained," they wrote. "The proposal will therefore maintain an active street frontage and retain the vitality and viability of the street and Covent Garden area."

Want more from MyLondon? Sign up to our daily newsletters for all the latest and greatest from across London here.