Behind The Business

You've built a career in economic development, planning and regeneration, what first drew you to this space?

I’ve always been interested in how places shape people’s lives. I moved around a lot when I was younger and grew up paying attention to how neighbourhoods work (or don’t) for the communities living in them. What drew me to this field was the recognition that the built environment isn’t neutral. Decisions about streets, buildings and the public realm shape life chances in very real ways. Done well, regeneration is one of the most powerful levers we have for creating more equitable, more liveable cities. That felt like meaningful work. It still does.

 

What excites you most about leading the transformation of such an iconic destination as Oxford Street?

It’s the scale and what’s at stake. This is the nation’s high street and one of the most recognisable destinations in the world. It carries huge economic weight, but also cultural and symbolic importance for the national psyche. In many ways, Oxford Street is a totemic high street - the challenges and opportunities it faces are reflective of wider questions about the future of city centres and high streets more broadly. What excites me is the opportunity to reimagine it for the next generation - moving from a traffic corridor to a people-first destination. We're asking a fundamental question: what should one of the world's great civic streets look like in the 21st century? That's a rare brief.

 

For those unfamiliar, what is the Oxford Street Development Corporation and what is its core mission?

We are a Mayoral Development Corporation, set up by mayor Sadiq Khan, to lead the transformation and long-term stewardship of Oxford Street. That means delivering a high-quality public realm, unlocking investment, trialling new ways of delivering services, and putting in place a governance model that can sustain success over the long term.

 

How will the plans make Oxford Street more attractive not just for visitors, but for businesses and investors?

In two ways. First, pedestrianisation creates the conditions for a different kind of economy and experience. When you remove the dominance of through-traffic, you create space - civic space, but also commercial and cultural space. Dwell time increases. The quality of the public realm improves. And that changes the calculus for occupiers and investors. We aren’t just building a walkway, we’re building a global stage where the world’s most iconic brands can host activations and events. The space we’re providing can be used as a premier outdoor platform. Second, we’re also working on the planning environment, which matters enormously to long-term confidence. Businesses and investors want certainty, and a dedicated Development Corporation with a clear mandate provides that. We're here to make the area work for all users, and we're accountable for doing so.

 

How can businesses engage with or benefit from the changes being planned?

Engagement is central to our approach - it’s how we earn our licence to operate. We’re working closely with businesses, landowners and representative bodies to shape both the public realm changes and the wider economic transformation. There are opportunities to influence, but also to collaborate, whether that’s through events, activation, or new commercial models. The businesses that engage early, and engage seriously, will be better placed to shape and benefit from what we're building.

 

What role do organisations like the Chamber of Commerce play in shaping the future of areas like Oxford Street?

A critical one. We're a relatively small organisation with a large mandate. We can't succeed without the intelligence, the networks, and the convening power that organisations like Chambers or BIDs bring. They aggregate the voice of businesses who individually might not have the capacity to engage directly with a public body. They hold institutional memory. And they can move quickly when something needs to be escalated or resolved. The best partnerships I've seen in this sector are ones where business representative bodies are genuinely in the room. That’s very much the approach we’re trying to take at OSDC, and I’ve been hugely encouraged by the excellent relationship we’ve built with the New West End Company. There’s a genuine shared ambition and sense of partnership around Oxford Street’s future, which matters enormously when you’re delivering change at this scale.

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What innovations or trends will shape the "new" Oxford Street?

There are people far more qualified than me to talk about the technical future of retail, but from where I sit, a few things are becoming increasingly clear. First, the relationship between physical and digital retail is continuing to evolve. Successful high streets can no longer rely on being purely transactional. People are looking for experience, interaction and identity - places that give them a reason to spend time there, not just money there. That has implications for everything from store design to programming and the wider public realm.

 

Second, flexibility is going to matter enormously. The most successful city centres of the future will be the ones that can adapt over time. That means a more fluid mix of retail, hospitality, culture, leisure and commercial office space, supported by planning frameworks that are responsive rather than overly rigid.

 

And third, sustainability and quality of environment are no longer “nice to haves”. Investors, occupiers and workers increasingly make decisions based on the environmental credentials, accessibility and overall quality of places. Oxford Street has to meet those expectations if it wants to remain globally competitive.

 

But beyond any individual trend, what will really shape Oxford Street is the quality of the placemaking. Great places aren’t accidental. They require stewardship, confidence, attention to detail and a clear sense of identity. That’s a long-term discipline, not a passing trend.

 

 

What advice would you give to future leaders looking to work in city development or public-private partnerships?

Three things I wish someone had told me at the start of my career. 

 

1. Get comfortable with ambiguity. City making is genuinely hard. The interests are plural and don’t always align neatly. The ability to navigate that, build coalitions and keep moving forward is key, even when the process is messy. 

2. Focus on delivery. Strategy matters, but credibility comes from getting things done. 

3. And finally, stay curious. The best ideas often come from looking beyond your immediate field - whether that’s other cities, other sectors, or even other disciplines entirely.

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What's your favourite place in London?

It changes with the seasons. It changes as I get older. But I keep returning to the South Bank and specifically the stretch between Jubilee Gardens and the National Theatre at dusk. I had the privilege to work on the area for a number of years. It’s a great example of how a place can evolve into a cultural and civic space. It’s busy, diverse, sometimes chaotic, yet it works. And it reminds you that great places are rarely over-designed; they’re allowed to breathe. It was also where I fell in love with my wife, 16 years ago this spring…

 

One word to describe the future of Oxford Street?

Unmissable.

The Cinnamon Club has become an iconic London institution. What do you think has been the key to its long-term success and reputation?

If I had to put it down to one thing, it would be The Cinnamon Club’s complete refusal to stand still. It has constantly evolved, remaining creative and innovative over the years. From the very beginning, the restaurant was pitched at a much higher level than most people expected from Indian restaurants at the time. The surroundings helped, but more importantly, it was about taking a much-loved cuisine and pushing it forward by marrying it with top-quality, seasonal British produce. Menus changed not just seasonally, but often monthly, and sometimes even daily, which was very brave, challenging, and quite revolutionary at the time.

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How competitive was the Indian restaurant market when you opened?

Even 25 years ago, the market was already very competitive. There were around 8,000 Indian restaurants across the UK, and Indian food was widely loved and supported. There may not have been many high-end Indian restaurants then, but there was an Indian restaurant on almost every high street. It was challenging then, just as it is now, but innovation has always created space. When new ideas are strong enough, they eventually succeed by making more people happy than unhappy.

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What inspired your vision for modern Indian fine dining in the UK?

The idea for the restaurant was formed much earlier when I was working in five-star hotels in India. We had access to fantastic-quality produce, but it was never considered appropriate or necessary for Indian food. I had a problem with that way of thinking. Every cuisine benefits from better ingredients and new influences. That belief shaped everything we did here, from using higher-quality produce to rethinking how Indian food could be presented and experienced.

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How has The Cinnamon Club evolved since opening?

We deliberately went against convention. Traditional Indian restaurant menus were very long and didn’t allow space to talk about provenance, seasonality, or suppliers. We made menus smaller, celebrated ingredients, and changed dishes frequently. We also chose to cook food fresh after the order was placed, even for large numbers at lunch, which was considered unrealistic at the time. These decisions were counterintuitive, but they created a clear point of difference and a completely different dining experience.

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How have diners’ expectations changed over the years?

The dining scene has changed dramatically, especially with the rise of social media. In the early days, phones were never visible in restaurants, etiquette and discretion were a key part of hospitality. Now, phones are an essential part of the dining experience, and guests expect to photograph and share their meals. Dining has also become more democratic, our guests are younger, more diverse, and more balanced in terms of gender than they were 25 years ago.

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How important is local business to The Cinnamon Club?

Local business is very important to us. Around 22–25% of our guests are repeat diners, which is incredibly strong loyalty for a restaurant of this size. At the same time, three out of four guests are still first-time visitors. That balance reminds us that no matter how established or well-known you are, you always need to keep reaching new audiences while looking after your existing guests.

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How do you maintain a strong team culture in such a demanding industry?

Manpower has always been one of the biggest challenges in hospitality, with very high staff turnover across the industry. We’ve focused on building loyalty by treating people well and investing in their development. We employ 150 people across our 5 restaurants. Many of our team members have been with us for over 10, 15, and even 20 years. We promote from within wherever possible and create clear pathways for people to grow within the business. Cooking well and being able to teach others are very different skills. Over the years, we’ve created opportunities to develop both. We run cookery masterclasses for guests, led by our head chefs, which allows us to see who can communicate, lead, and teach. This approach helps us build stronger leaders and maintain consistency across the business.

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What future plans or collaborations can you share?

Collaboration has always been part of our philosophy. We were early in participating in festivals such as Taste of London and working outside the traditional restaurant setting. We have an upcoming chef collaboration where several chefs will come together to cook a course each for one night only. These experiences keep things fresh and allow us to continue learning and evolving. People used to come to a restaurant to order anything that they can’t cook at home, a different ingredient, a different process. Now the world has done a full circle, the customers want to eat what we would eat at home.

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Are there plans for another cookbook?

Yes, we are currently working on another book, but with a different approach. Rather than producing a large collection of recipes, we’re aiming for a more focused selection that reflects how often our menus change and how we actually cook across the group. The challenge is deciding what to leave out rather than what to include.

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Finally, what advice would you give to entrepreneurs and small business owners across Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster who are striving to grow and innovate?

My advice would be to focus on doing something you genuinely love. Too many people think about exits and valuations before they’ve even started, I see this a lot. This industry is about real interaction, creating something people enjoy enough to remember, return to, and talk about. If you truly enjoy what you do and focus on doing it well, the rest will follow.