The new bar is planned to open on Gresham Street in November, and will be located in a grade II listed building. The Trading House will offer a range of craft and keg beers and cocktails, as well as a having a special concentration on gin. It also has a varied food offering, with the restaurant area having 96 covers, and the bar being able to hold 120.
BigHospitality talked to the Living Ventures’ chief executive Tim Bacon about the Trading House concept and the company’s expansion plans in London.
The Trading House concept
The Gresham Street site was secured by Shelley Sandzer and requires planning permission for Living Ventures to turn it into a restaurant as a great deal of the historic details inside must be preserved.
When asked why this site was chosen, Bacon said: “I liked the street and the building itself was absolutely magnificent. We’re currently going through getting planning permission, it’s a glorious building inside so they’re being pedantic about what they want to see and not, which is why we’ve come up with the Trading House concept.
“The bar will be placed with the age of the building, working on the Victoriana principles. It’s a trading house in the sense that it’s taking some of its theme from the East Indian Trading Company era and feel. We want to play it like a nautical trading hall without being too twee about it, basically.”
A lot of the décor that is already present in the building will be kept for The Trading House, including the dark woods, brass features, high ceilings, mezzanine area and spiral staircase.
“It’s got an art deco type feeling to it,”” explained Bacon. “So if you were to combine Victoriana with art deco you’re getting close to what we’re aiming for. We want to enhance what’s already there because we’re not allowed to change too much of it and it’s quite an exciting project from that point of view, working within the existing template.”
The food served at The Trading House will be old British style, based around the deli, rotisserie and grill, with home comfort type dishes also being prevalent on the menu. Living Ventures intends to use quality produce and cook everything freshly on site.
“The way we like to run these units is to make sure they encompass everything,” said Bacon. “It’ll have the best parts of a pub, the best parts of a casual dining restaurant and the best parts of a cocktail bar all wrapped up into one offer. That coupled with our service standards will make us stand out from the crowd.”
Expansion into London
Although this is the first New World Trading Company outfit that Living Ventures is launching in London, it is by no means the last, and Bacon intends to open a number of other venues in the capital in the next few years.
He said: “We’re going to do a big push into London generally. We’re looking at another site for the Botanist, two sites actually, one in Richmond and one in the centre of London. We see London as being a good target area for us and we’re looking to put a number of operations there, not just New World Trading Company ones.
“We have an Alchemist opening there in July, and I would like to think we’ll open seven or eight sites in London across the entire group in the next three years.”