Petersham Nurseries closes Covent Garden restaurants

Petersham Nurseries’ central London restaurants, La Goccia and the Petersham Covent Garden, have closed after six years of trading.

The Flora Court restaurants in Covent Garden closed permanently earlier this week (16 February) as a result of Covid and Brexit, the owners said.

They were launched in 2018 by Lara Boglione, eldest daughter of Francesco and Gael Boglione, founders of the original Petersham Nurseries in London’s Richmond, with executive chef Simon Whitley, previously of London’s Devonshire Club, at the helm.

At the time of their launch, both La Goccia and Petersham Covent Garden received mixed reviews from The Guardian and The Times.

Boglione revealed she and the team had been working with advisers to review strategic options for both restaurants in recent months as they faced “significant cost challenges” from rising business rates, staff wages and fixed property costs.

News of the closure comes after the Daily Telegraph reported that a row had started between the Boglione family and their landlord Shaftesbury Capital over rents.

Petersham Nurseries said these issues were “unrelated” to its remaining Richmond-based business, which includes a garden centre, lifestyle shop and Petersham Nurseries Café, which holds a Michelin green star.

Boglione said: “We are hugely proud of what we have achieved. We look forward to welcoming our loyal Covent Garden customers to our beautiful sister restaurant in Richmond. Nonetheless, faced with unsustainably high costs, it is time to move on and consider new locations. We look forward to reporting better news in due course.”

Jo Milner of liquidators Buchler Phillips added: “This is a clearly disappointing for La Goccia and the Petersham, which, in other circumstances, could once again be a stable business, in line with others in the Petersham Nurseries group.

“It’s a very difficult landscape: last year almost 3,500 hospitality businesses became insolvent against a background of tight consumer spending and growing staff costs as a result of the Budget.”