Hampstead High Street’s Café Rouge to close within weeks

Hampstead’s Café Rouge is set to close later this month, after decades in the High Street.

The French-themed chain restaurant will shut its doors with the landlord looking to redevelop the property.

Planning permission granted in 2018 involves knocking down the existing ground floor extension, and replacing it with a part single-storey and part two-storey extension.

The first floor, which is currently for private functions at the eatery, will be converted into residential use.

The applicants dropped their initial bid to change the usage of the front section of the property into residential, meaning the restaurant wouldn’t be replaced.

Café Rouge’s parent company, Casual Dining Group, said it was “confident” no jobs will be lost.

A spokesperson said: “We can confirm the closure of our Hampstead site, following the landlord’s decision to take back the property for redevelopment when our lease came to an end. We are very committed to the local community and remain interested in new sites in the area that would make an excellent home for one of our restaurants.

“Although the consultation process with our teams is ongoing we have already redeployed the majority of our team to our other local restaurant brands and we are confident that the remaining members will be offered alternative opportunities ahead of the closure.”