Support Petersham Nurseries.

Thank you for signing our Petition.

We appreciate your support for Petersham Nurseries Richmond, to help us make our dinner services a more regular and permanent feature. We received more than 6500 signatures, with more than 1300 coming from within the Borough of Richmond upon Thames. 1385 people took the time to comment.

Sign our Petition

Sign our petition to enable us to operate like all other restaurants.

Help us make our dinner services a more regular and permanent feature

Our Supper Clubs at Petersham Nurseries provide an enchanting and intimate occasion to dine by candlelight in the magical setting of our greenhouses. Held throughout the year for well over a decade, our Supper Clubs have always been in great demand and referred to as an ethereal and unique experience.

Sadly, after many years of working with Officers of Richmond Council, we have been unable to regularise these popular services due to protracted, frustrating and expensive planning processes. We have now applied for a new premises licence to replace our existing 5pm premises licence. This will create certainty for our business, security for our employees and continued trade for our suppliers.

Please help us to safeguard our dinner services and indeed to host them in the same permanent way as other restaurants.

Evening Management Plan

As suggested and agreed by Richmond Council, a thorough Evening Management Plan was put in place to ensure that there is no disturbance to our neighbours. Below are but a few of the measures that have been implemented, that you may have noticed when dining with us.

• Supper Clubs are attended only by guests with an advance reservation.
• Travel arrangements are suggested and agreed with guests in advance.
• Customers are discouraged from driving and advised of taxi drop off/ pick up location so to steer clear of neighbouring roads and limit access to Petersham Nurseries directly via Church Lane.
• Return journeys are organised with local taxi companies all of whom operate hybrid vehicles which have a much lower noise footprint than conventional diesel engine taxis.
• Guests are collected from their table once the taxi has arrived for a swift departure.
• All vehicles arriving are advised by our parking attendants to switch of vehicle lights, engines and the team assist opening and closing doors to minimise noise.
• Employee incentives are used to encourage staff to travel to work via means other than car, including a bike to work scheme, annual travel passes, and company subsidised hybrid taxis for evening shifts.
• Guests are asked to depart respectfully for the residential area no later than 11pm. This message is reiterated on menus, reservation confirmations and online.
• As an additional mitigation measure the pedestrian entrance to the restaurant for Supper Club events was relocated to a newly built gate some 20 metres east along Church Lane. This takes the pedestrian activity further from the nearest neighbouring property than was previously the case. It also moved car parking further east to some 70 metres away from the property, compared to the previous 40-metre distance.
• Upon walking through pedestrian gate, within 13m, guests are taken inside the shop towards the restaurant, in turn containing the noise of guests arriving to inside the glasshouse.
• No parking or vehicles allowed beyond (i.e. west of) the proposed new pedestrian access gate at any point during the evening.

Further to the above, our Supper Clubs have undergone rigorous independent car parking / traffic and noise surveys. The noise surveys which were carried out over multiple years, confirmed there is no adverse impact to gardens or living rooms in the nearest dwellings during the operation of the restaurant in the evening. It has also been proven that there are no adverse effects in terms of sleep disturbance to bedrooms of the nearest dwellings beyond 11pm.

The results of the multiple evening transport surveys conducted clearly demonstrate that the restaurant use generates relatively little car travel in the evening. The figures show that 27% of the total attendance come by car but that amounts to 21 people in 7 cars (equivalent to an average of three people per car). All of which can be accommodated on Church Lane and not impede in any way on neighbouring roads.

These surveys were conducted in response to requirements from Richmond Council and have been acknowledged.  However, despite the great expenses that Petersham Nurseries incurred to carry these out, there has never been any outcome whatsoever.