Three Restaurants Owned by Sir Terence Conran Have Closed

Three London restaurants closed today with immediate effect after their parent company went into administration. City A.M. reports that Parabola at the Design Museum in Kensington, business-bistro Lutyens in Fleet Street and British restaurant Albion in Clerkenwell have all closed: URLs for each return a blank page. Eater reported that Les Deux Salons, another member of the group, closed without press in December. The Conran family will retain ownership of the Boundary Project, which includes Albion’s sister restaurant on Redchurch Street in Shoreditch.

The parent company, Prescott and Conran, was a joint venture between Sir Terence and Lady Conran and Peter Prescott; Sir Terence and Prescott had collaborated on Conran Restaurants before Des Gunewardena and David Loewi bought the pair out in 2006 to form D&D London, which now operates 30 restaurants across the city.

Parabola’s closure comes after a short, but tumultuous recent history: Chef Rowley Leigh took on the Kensington restaurant in September 2017, with plans to make it part of the ever-improving clutch of restaurants in London art galleries and museums. The chef left, somewhat unceremoniously, just seven months later, — a move which now appears to foreshadow today’s news.

Eater London understands that Prescott left the business as early as January this year, while Duff & Phelps will be the administrators. A statement suggests that “an operational review looking to enhance profitability and exit underperforming businesses” has been under way for a long while: D&D itself announced the closure of four Royal Exchange restaurants in the City back in April; an oversupply of restaurants in the city continues to outstrip demand.

• London restaurants Albion, Parabola and Lutyens close as Sir Terence Conran and Peter Prescott venture folds [City A.M.]