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 Pictured from left: Restaurant manager Roberto Bumbalo, sisters Victoria and Charlotte Bradburn with Adam Caird |
Quartet set out to prove music is the food of love
Site of famous restaurant to be turned into classical music venue
MULTI–MILLION pound plans for a new classical music concert venue and 100-seat restaurant have been unveiled for the heart of Camden Town.
The site on Delancey Street, home to the restaurant Café Delancey which closed two years ago, were revealed at a public meeting on Tuesday night at the site.
Sisters Charlotte and Victoria Bradburn and their boyfriends Roberto Bumbalo and Adam Caird, all in their 20s, are asking for permission to demolish and rebuild the former French-style cafe. On Tuesday they threw open the doors of their proposed new venue to residents before submitting planning permission.
Although unwilling to reveal exactly how much the venture would be costing them, it is believed the building was sold for around £2 million. Added to this the substantial cost of demolishing the building and rebuilding it.
Mr Caird and Charlotte Bradburn are professional musicians. They met while studying at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and the pair have been working as a piano and saxophone duet since leaving college.
Mr Caird said: “We have the idea of combining a restaurant with a venue for some time. The site came up and we had been looking for the right place. It gave us ideas and we fell in love with the area.”
The entrepreneur revealed they had raised capital with the help of their families and a sympathetic bank manager.
The Town Hall will consider their plans at the end of the summer and if they get permission, builders will demolish the Victorian building by October. It will then take a further year of work before the site can open again.
The venue is due to be called Caponata, after a Sicilian dish of tomatoes and aubergine. Mr Bumbalo, who has worked as restaurant manager for the popular chain Café Uno, will head the catering side – and is from Sicily.
And Charlotte Bradburn said one of their aims would be to offer a fresh venue for Camden.
She said: “Camden is so vibrant with live music but there’s not a lot of classical – with the Roundhouse opening this area could become a centre for that style of music.”
The new building has been designed by Primrose Hill architect Catherine Burd – who grew up in neighbouring Albert Street.
Ms Burd said: “If I get the design wrong I’ll be in trouble with my neighbours because they all know me.”
The Café Delancey was originally established by Tatiana Von Saxe – the New Journal’s restaurant critic. She ran it for 21 years, and said she was thrilled with the plans.
She said: “It sounds fantastic and would improve the area considerably. I don’t think pulling it down is a bad thing: it was in bad state of repair.” The foursome also revealed they plan to create their dream home above the shop, where the two couples will live.
And neighbours at the meeting on Tuesday said they were backing the plans.
Angela Andersen, a Delancey Street resident for 35 years, said: “We need a good restaurant in the neighbourhood.” |
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