Owner Sam Harrison
(Picture: .)The owner of a popular restaurant in Hammersmith says that he fears he will have to close his business after the council forced him to remove a marquee from the outside terrace.
Sam Harrison, who runs Sam’s Riverside next to Hammersmith Bridge, said the council has cost him up to £15,000 of trade per week after making him tear down the marquee - which the local council say is not allowed in current planning law.
The restaurant may have to lay off all 50 staff in the run up to Christmas, he warned.
“It’s been awful,” he told MailOnline. “My team is my family. I spend more time at my restaurant than I do with my own family.
“I’ve had people in tears, asking how they’re going to pay their bills. They respect me as a businessperson and know I can’t give them hours if I simply don’t have them, but it’s heartbreaking.”
Mr Harrison said he has already removed four staff following the decision from Hammersmith and Fulham council. In addition, he has been forced to axe more than 50 Christmas bookings, he says.
The restaurant erected the patio after the government eased regulations to allow the hospitality trade to serve food outdoors during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the council rejected a renewal request in November following several complaints from locals about noise.
He is still allowed to serve customers on the patio – but without the marquee, and he says it is not plausible to seat customers outside during the cold winter months.
Mr Harrison said the marquee helped to drown out some of the noise.
“It’s the sound of clinking glasses. We’re a respectable restaurant, not a late night bar. We’re asking to trade outside until 10pm,” he said.
He said a large chunk of the complaints had come from people who live in apartments in a complex above the restaurant.
“The people bought flats in a development that is an art centre with a restaurant. [Some] don’t even live here permanently, they’re not members of our complex above the building.”
Mr Harrison said it is a real possibility that Sam’s Riverside will have to close by spring.
“I genuinely don’t know if we’ll be here in the spring,” he said.
Hammersmith and Fulham council have been in talks with Mr Harrison about the issue but he said a solution is yet to be found.
In a lengthy statement posted on the council’s website yesterday, they said: “We are dismayed there has been so much misrepresentation about this case.
“While Hammersmith & Fulham is very sympathetic to the challenges faced by Sam’s Riverside, we cannot breach planning regulations because he has chosen to run a media campaign.”
