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King’s Rd café to Clapton and Stones is shut by recession
Sri Carmichael, Consumer Affairs Reporter07.07.09
London's favourite celebrity café has been forced to close by the recession.
Picasso, a small Italian coffee shop in the King's Road, boasted the same decor as when it opened 50 years ago.
It served everyone from rock stars Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones in the Sixties to recent regulars Bob Geldof and Gordon Ramsay.
TV chef Ramsay, who often visited with his children, raved about its lattes and fried egg on toast, while Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole was a regular visitor with his new wife Carly Zucker.
But the café closed last Wednesday after serving a final breakfast crowd.
Owner Alberto Barbieri said dwindling passing trade on top of a recent rent rise, competition from nearby coffee chains and the congestion charge had killed his business, which has been in the family for half a century.
He said: “I've had to put the trading company into administration to protect my staff and my own livelihood.
“I went on as long as I could, putting all my savings — hundreds of thousands of pounds — into trying to keep the café going, but there has to be a point when you say that's enough.
“I'm still hoping I can find a partner to help me revive the business, but in these times I don't know. I've had to put the lease on the market.”
Peter Thomas, of West End commercial estate agents Thomas Davidson & Partners, said the site may prove popular as it has a full restaurant usage licence, which is hard to acquire in the King's Road. Mr Barbieri, who has a 16-month-old daughter, said: “The last few months have been incredibly tough. I have a family to support.
“When I read last week about Mr Ramsay selling his possessions and putting up his own money to save his business I knew how he felt.
“The King's Road got much quieter after the congestion charge and then the recession. We just don't see the custom and the chains take what there is.
“Picasso's is a piece of history and I hated closing it but business is business and it has to make economic sense. We had regulars coming to drink a coffee and watch the world go by, but that doesn't pay the bills. We needed to modernise the café to get more people in but I didn't have the money.”
He said Geldof last week told staff how sad he was at the closure.
Customer Derek Barlow, 89, said everyone was talking about the end of an era: “It was such a shock to find it closed. It has been my local café for decades, a great little place to sit, meet people and drink good coffee.
“The King's Road is changing for the worse and losing its character. I certainly won't be going to Starbucks.”
Gail Steele, who runs opticians Auerbach & Steele next door to Picasso, said: “They served till 1pm on Wednesday and then shut. A notice went up saying it's being refurbished but we all know that's unlikely. It's terribly sad. So many shops have closed on the King's Road this year.”
Along the King's Road there are seven boarded-up shops. Mr Thomas, whose firm is trying to re-let several empty shops on the street, said: “The King's Road is in a period of real change. Small businesses and boutiques are struggling to survive.”
