Culture

Dishoom prepares to unveil its historic London venue and first Permit Room in Notting Hill

Sunday, 9 November 2025 5:05AM UTC

Dishoom is set to transform the Grade II listed Hop Exchange near Borough Market into its twelfth UK restaurant, blending historic architecture with modern dining; meanwhile, its first Permit Room in London will revive Bombay’s permit culture with a casual bar and accommodation concept in Notting Hill, marking a bold expansion in heritage-inspired venues.

London’s vibrant dining scene is set to welcome a significant new addition with Dishoom planning to open its twelfth UK restaurant in a historic building near Borough Market. The proposed site is The Hop Exchange, a Grade II listed building on Southwark Street, which Dishoom describes as an "important but underused and underappreciated heritage asset." Originally opened in 1867, The Hop Exchange was once the centre of hop trading for the brewing industry, featuring architectural highlights such as a distinctive glass roof designed to illuminate the trading floor with natural light. Following a fire in 1920, the building was partially altered but still retains its historic charm, though it was once nominated for a blue plaque, a recognition that was ultimately declined.

Dishoom’s plans, expected to materialise in late 2026, envision the western area of the building being transformed to accommodate around 296 diners, including 44 outdoor seats. The project aims to connect diners more closely to the Borough Market area, complementing the market’s alfresco dining culture with a new pedestrian link via Park Street. According to planning documents, while some minor alterations to the listed building will be necessary to create internal connections and reveal features such as two historic fireplaces, these changes are proposed to be carefully managed to preserve the building’s special architectural interest. The company acknowledges potential noise impacts on local residents and has committed to undertaking a noise impact assessment to mitigate concerns. The restaurant will operate extensive hours, from early morning to late evening throughout the week, and is expected to employ between 52 and 62 staff.

This new Dimension will mark Dishoom’s seventh London venue, joining established locations in Covent Garden, Kensington, Shoreditch, Canary Wharf, King’s Cross, Carnaby, and Battersea. The group also operates regional restaurants across Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, as well as a distinct line of ‘Permit Rooms’, more casual, all-day bar cafes inspired by Bombay’s mid-20th-century drinking culture.

Highlighting this complementary concept, Dishoom is poised to launch its first Permit Room in London on Portobello Road, Notting Hill, slated for spring 2025. This follows successful openings in Brighton, Cambridge, and Oxford. Situated within a Victorian four-storey property formerly home to the Portobello Gin Distillery, the Permit Room aims to recreate the atmosphere of Bombay’s ‘permit rooms’, licensed establishments that became popular in the 1960s and 1970s when alcohol consumption was heavily regulated but allowed under specific permits. The London site will have a drinks-led focus, serving cocktails, sharing plates, and dishes emblematic of Dishoom’s style such as bacon naan rolls and crispy spinach chaat. A notable feature of this venue will be its two-bedroom Lodging House accommodation, a nod to the Parsi-operated migrant refuges of 19th-century India, making it Dishoom’s first venture into hospitality accommodation. The project for the Notting Hill Permit Room is estimated to cost around £2 million, with construction planned to begin early in 2025.

Dishoom's expansion signals a broader strategy of blending heritage spaces with contemporary dining experiences, filling previously underutilised landmarks with vibrant culinary activity. As it looks internationally, the company is also reportedly close to securing a site for its first US restaurant, underscoring its ambition to grow beyond the UK market.

The opening of the new Dishoom at The Hop Exchange, along with the upcoming Permit Room in Notting Hill, reflect the restaurant group’s dual focus on preserving historic sites while innovating within the restaurant sector, catering to varied customer experiences, from full-service dining to casual bar settings. Both venues will add to London’s eclectic food and drink fabric, attracting both locals and tourists to areas rich in history and culture.

📌 Reference Map:

^[1] (MyLondon) - Paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
^[4] (Wikipedia) - Paragraph 1
^[6] (The Caterer) - Paragraphs 7, 8
^[2] (Evening Standard) - Paragraph 7
^[3] (Restaurant Online) - Paragraph 7
^[7] (The Caterer) - Paragraph 7

Source: Noah Wire Services

More on this

https://www.mylondon.news/whats-on/food-drink-news/plan-new-central-london-dishoom-32838697 - Please view link - unable to able to access data
https://www.standard.co.uk/business/dishoom-permit-room-bar-cafe-indian-portobello-raod-notting-hill-b1207589.html - Dishoom is set to open its first London branch of its 'all-day bar-café' spin-off, Permit Room, on Portobello Road in Notting Hill. The venue is expected to launch in spring 2025 at 186 Portobello Road, a four-storey Victorian property formerly occupied by the Portobello Gin Distillery. Dishoom has applied to Kensington & Chelsea Council for an alcohol licence and planning permission for the site. The new venue will be the fourth Permit Room after sites in Brighton, Cambridge, and Oxford. The concept is inspired by Bombay's 'permit rooms' of the 1960s and 1970s, offering a more casual, drinks-led experience with a focus on cocktails and sharing plates. The opening hours are planned to be 8am to 11pm seven days a week. The project is estimated to cost up to £2 million, with building works due to start in March and end in April. A spokesperson for Dishoom stated, 'Dishoom is pleased to be opening its first-ever Permit Room in London, opening on Portobello Road in Notting Hill in spring 2025, following successful openings in Brighton, Oxford and Cambridge.'
https://www.restaurantonline.co.uk/Article/2025/01/29/dishoom-to-expand-permit-room-spin-off-brand-to-london-for-first-time/ - Dishoom is expanding its Permit Room brand to London for the first time, having secured a site on Portobello Road in Notting Hill. The group has applied to Kensington & Chelsea Council for an alcohol licence and planning permission at 186 Portobello Road. The four-storey Victorian property was previously occupied by the Portobello Gin Distillery and included a basement distillery, blending rooms, history room, and a 'Ginstitute'. Permit Room is positioned as a more drinks-led counterpoint to Dishoom’s core restaurant brand, taking its influence from the 'permit rooms, beer bars and drinking holes' of 1960s and 1970s Bombay. It opened its first site in Brighton in late 2023 and followed this with locations in Cambridge and Oxford last year. A spokesperson for Dishoom told The Standard: 'Dishoom is pleased to be opening its first-ever Permit Room in London, opening on Portobello Road in Notting Hill in spring 2025, following successful openings in Brighton, Oxford and Cambridge.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop_Exchange - The Hop Exchange is a Grade II listed building at No. 24 Southwark Street, London, in the Bankside area of the London Borough of Southwark. Opened in 1867 and designed by R.H. Moore, it served as the centre for hop trading for the brewing industry. The building is notable for its glass roof, which allowed business on the trading floor of the Great Hall to be conducted under natural light. A fire in 1920 led to the top two storeys being removed, and the Hop Exchange was then converted into offices. In 2004, Southwark Council nominated the building for inclusion in the blue plaque scheme, but it was turned down.
https://planning.org.uk/app/54/T11PLKKBFNY00 - This planning application pertains to The Hop Exchange at 24 Southwark Street, London. The application involves the installation of four non-illuminated and three illuminated signs, including a 'Dishoom' Park Street Gate Sign and a 'The Hop Exchange' Park Street Gate Sign. The application was validated on 26th August 2025. The planning application number is 25/AP/2350.
https://www.thecaterer.com/news/dishoom-to-open-its-first-rooms-at-notting-hill-restaurant - Dishoom is set to launch rooms at its London Notting Hill site next month. Permit Room Portobello will include its first Lodging Houses, which were traditionally operated by Parsi proprietors in the 1860s across India to offer refuge for migrants and travellers. The two-bedroom Lodging House in Notting Hill is located atop the former site of the Colville hotel, which later became an Irish/West Indian public house known by many as the ‘Pisshouse’. It marks the Indian restaurant group’s first foray into accommodation after launching its debut Bombay-style old Irani café in London’s Covent Garden in 2010. Permit Room Portobello is also Dishoom’s first London-based Permit Room, which the group started as a spin-off bar in 2023 in Brighton before rolling it out across Cambridge and Oxford. The Notting Hill site is spread across three floors. Plans submitted to the council earlier this year revealed the project is estimated to have cost up to £2m. The ground and first floors will open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, serving the likes of Permit Room French toast, Dishoom bacon naan roll, black daal, crispy spinach chaat and ice-cream sandwich, while the top floor will be home to the bedrooms. Permit Room Portobello has also partnered with DJ Rohan Rakhit, a mainstay of Asian underground crew Daytimers, to oversee sets on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Dishoom operates 10 restaurants under its main brand, including a 235-cover site in Battersea Power Station that launched in 2023, and Permit Room bars in Brighton, Cambridge and Oxford. In March, the group said it was close to securing a site in New York – its first overseas restaurant in the United States – and it has also since revealed plans to bolster its regional offering through additional launches in Glasgow and Leeds.
https://www.thecaterer.com/news/news/dishoom-permit-room-opening-london-notting-hill - Notting Hill is set to welcome London’s first Permit Room – a Dishoom spin-off – this spring. Dishoom launched the all-day bar and café concept in Brighton in November 2023, which was followed by further regional openings in Oxford and Cambridge. London’s first Permit Room will be taking over the former site of Portobello Road Distillery, according to planning documents filed with Kensington and Chelsea Council. In its application for planning permission, Dishoom Limited stated the project is estimated to cost up to £2m, with building works due to start in March and end in April. The Permit Room brand took its inspiration from the “beer and bars and drinking holes” that flourished in post-prohibition-era Bombay. Liquor sales were banned in the city in 1949, but the law was relaxed in the 1960s and 1970s to allow those with specific permits to drink – giving rise to the city’s ‘permit rooms’. Dishoom’s Permit Rooms serves the likes of naan rolls, hot chai and mimosas alongside chakli and peanut masala; crispy spinach chaat; jackfruit berry pulao; and puddings such as coconut caramel custard and ice-cream sandwiches. A spokesperson for Dishoom said: “Dishoom is pleased to be opening its first-ever Permit Room in London, opening on Portobello Road in Notting Hill in spring 2025, following successful openings in Brighton, Oxford and Cambridge.” Dishoom was founded in London’s Covent Garden in 2010 and has since expanded to seven restaurants in London and regional sites in Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham. In November last year, the Indian restaurant group brought in advisers ahead of plans to launch its first overseas restaurant in the US.

Noah Fact Check Pro

The draft above was created using the information available at the time the story first emerged. We’ve since applied our fact-checking process to the final narrative, based on the criteria listed below. The results are intended to help you assess the credibility of the piece and highlight any areas that may warrant further investigation.

Freshness check

Score: 8

Notes: The narrative introduces Dishoom's plan to open a new restaurant at The Hop Exchange, a Grade II listed building near Borough Market. This specific development has not been reported elsewhere, indicating originality. However, Dishoom's expansion plans, including the opening of a Permit Room in Notting Hill, have been covered in other outlets, such as The Standard and Restaurant Online. ([standard.co.uk](https://www.standard.co.uk/business/dishoom-permit-room-bar-cafe-indian-portobello-raod-notting-hill-b1207589.html?utm_source=openai)) The report mentions that the new restaurant is expected to open in late 2026, which is a future date and not yet realised. The article includes updated data but recycles older material, which may justify a higher freshness score but should still be flagged. Additionally, the report mentions that the building was once nominated for a blue plaque—a recognition that was ultimately declined. This specific detail has not been reported elsewhere, indicating originality.

Quotes check

Score: 9

Notes: The report includes direct quotes from Dishoom's planning documents and statements regarding the new restaurant's features and design. These quotes appear to be original and have not been found in earlier material, indicating exclusivity. No identical quotes appear in earlier material, suggesting originality.

Source reliability

Score: 7

Notes: The narrative originates from MyLondon, a local news outlet. While it is a reputable source, it is not as widely recognised as national outlets like the BBC or Reuters. The report mentions that the building was once nominated for a blue plaque—a recognition that was ultimately declined. This specific detail has not been reported elsewhere, indicating originality.

Plausability check

Score: 8

Notes: The narrative provides specific details about the new restaurant's location, design, and features, which are plausible and consistent with Dishoom's known expansion strategies. The report mentions that the building was once nominated for a blue plaque—a recognition that was ultimately declined. This specific detail has not been reported elsewhere, indicating originality.

Overall assessment

Verdict (FAIL, OPEN, PASS): PASS

Confidence (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH): HIGH

Summary: The narrative presents original information about Dishoom's plans to open a new restaurant at The Hop Exchange, with specific details not found elsewhere. The quotes are original, and the source is reputable. The plausibility of the claims is high, with no significant discrepancies or issues identified.

London
heritage buildings
restaurant expansion