Hard times for hospitality businesses in Chiswick High Road

The KFC on Chiswick High Road, which stopped trading on 12 April

From fine dining to fast food outlets, hospitality businesses are struggling

This week brings news of another two hospitality businesses on Chiswick High Road closing up shop – sourdough pizza chain Franco Manca and the Chiswick branch of KFC.

While KFC has taken down its signage and left, Franco Manca is on an internal list of premises for closure leaked by the trade press.

READ ALSO: Franco Manca in Chiswick set to close

The closures come hot on the heels of announcements by The Silver Birch and The Italians’ bakery on the High Road, and Sam’s Kitchen on Turnham Green Terrace.

READ ALSO: The Silver Birch restaurant in Chiswick announces closure

Chiswick’s oldest restaurant, Annapurna, was also forced to close in December because after 55 years it was no longer able to make enough money to stay open.

READ ALSO: Chiswick Indian restaurant Annapurna closes after more than 50 years

Franco Manca, on a list for closure, and The Silver Birch, closed since mid-March

Three new restaurants planning to open in Chiswick

Hospitality businesses are undeniably under pressure, but there are still new restaurant businesses planning to open in Chiswick, Whitman’s Commercial Director Jeremy Day told The Chiswick Calendar.

“Those stories come as a surprise given that strong occupier demand is still coming forward”.

The empty premises on Turnham Green Terrace vacated by Italian restaurant Capri is due to open as a Thai style restaurant, while new tenants of the former Sam’s Kitchen are planning to open a new place that is Mexican inspired.

The former glazier’s shop in Devonshire Road is also being fitted out as a new pizza place.

Annapurna, which closed in December

“What we have to learn from this is that if we want to keep businesses like this, we have to support them”

A variety of reasons have been given for the recent closures: the owner of Franco Manca, Fulham Shore, is planning to close 16 of its 70+ locations across the UK, including eight in London, as part of a ‘company voluntary arrangement’ (CVA) restructuring of the business.

KFC’s closure follows a difficult period during which the Chiswick branch was temporarily given a zero-star food hygiene rating in December 2025, after the shop was reportedly flooded, although it was quickly restored to the maximum five-star rating.

The Silver Birch was “exquisite, but expensive”, Jeremy told me. Its chef Nathan Cornwell was widely expected to win a Michelin star last year, which might have attracted more visitors from further afield, but that did not materialise and maybe there were just not enough people locally prepared to pay that much to dine there on a regular basis.

“What we have to learn from this is that if we want to keep businesses like this, we have to support them”, said Jeremy.

Hospitality businesses coming under economic pressure

The owner of The Italians put the closure of the bakery at 454-456 Chiswick High Road down to ‘the current economic situation in the country’, while the owner of Annapurna, Mr Ahmed, told The Chiswick Calendar:

“It’s the cost of living. Rent, rates, all of it”.

In their case they specifically blamed the decrease in evening business on the drop in custom from Chiswick Business Park post Covid. People are working from home more and socialising less with work colleagues.

Fulham Shore CEO Marcel Khan partly blamed “disproportionately high” UK taxes for the fact a number of their sites were ‘no longer sustainable’.

Whereas in most of Europe bars and restaurants are taxed less than supermarkets to encourage people to use them, in this country hospitality businesses pay 20% VAT while supermarkets pay less.

Hospitality businesses are coming under economic pressure from a variety of directions – energy pricing, business rates increasing and increases in National Insurance and the national minimum wage, and restaurant owners often also say that consumer spending is down, though a recent survey for Deloitte’s financial well-being index suggests maybe consumers are spending more judiciously.

There is a disconnect between what people say they’ll spend and what they actually do.

‘There is evidence that people still want to splurge and treat themselves with purchases that are not essential but will bring them joy’, say payment services company Worldline.

Businesses in the middle range which are perceived to provide an average service but not to be providing either value for money or treats worth splurging on, are those which are squeezed out.