A popular London restaurant is facing a licence review after residents claimed it’s causing a regular noise nuisance – including from chefs loudly “banging meat” to tenderise it.
Residents living above Naroon on New Cavendish Street in Marylebone claim the popular Persian restaurant repeatedly breaches its licence by operating outside of opening hours and keeping an extractor fan on at night.
They said staff constantly shout and keep the kitchen door open all day and night causing “noise from the chef chopping, banging to tender meat” to reverberate into residents’ flats.
They also complained about staff washing up dishes and making noise in the courtyard until 1am.
A report before Westminster City Council claims Naroon almost doubled the number of outdoor tables allowed on its licence from four to seven and opens at 8.30am instead of 10am as permitted by its licence.
A letter from one resident read: “The kitchen door is never closed. We can hear all day long and night: kitchen staff shouting, on the phone, chef banging all day long to apparently tender the meat…. there is not a single period of more than 15 minutes which is quiet.”
Residents claimed the restaurant and the freeholder De Walden Estate have ignored their concerns or were too slow to react. They said the restaurant took “months” to stop operating their extractor fan and a fridge fan in the courtyard overnight.
Residents have asked the council to reduce Naroon’s operating hours from midnight to 6pm for three months and until 10.30pm after that. They’ve also asked for doors to be shut to stop fumes and odours drifting into apartments and to stop customers smoking in outdoor seating areas; and that no cleaning takes place between 10pm and 8am.
One supporter of the licence review wrote: “The premises originally licenced as a restaurant appears to be run as a late night party venue with very little management control and complete disregard of neighbours.
“The extractor is noisy and is left running 24 hours a day, the pavement area has more tables than the permitted number and the pavement is crowded with standing drinkers making passing pedestrians use the road to get past.”
The licence review also received a raft of objections from people in support of the venue. One person wrote: “The motion to review Naroon’s licence comes as a great surprise to me. The restaurant has never caused any noise or other disturbance to us and instead is an essential, warm and welcoming part of our neighbourhood.”
Another wrote: “Naroon has breathed new life into the location, offering a calm, enjoyable dining experience. They clearly take public nuisance prevention seriously.”
A letter submitted on behalf of De Walden Estate, which also runs the block known as Kinglsey Lodge, where Naroon is located, said the landlord is involved in discussions with Westminster City Council and local residents.
Westminster City Council will review Naroon’s licence during a meeting on Thursday, July 3.
Named after a suburb in northern Tehran, Naroon offers contemporary Persian cuisine, according to its website. It has two other restaurants in Fitzrovia.
Customers can order a lamb shank for £25 and roasted aubergine for £10.50. De Walden Estate and Naroon have been contacted for comment.
Adrian Zorzut is a Senior Local Democracy Reporter covering Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and the City of London. A contributor to Harrow Online, his reporting focuses on local government, housing, planning, transport and public policy, helping residents understand the decisions and issues affecting their communities.
