A new high-end kitchenware shop is opening on Putney High Street, moving down from Mayfair into a unit that has sat empty for nearly two years, on a stretch that has more closed shops than open ones. Its owner, though, is optimistic.
The stock is the kind that makes a keen cook slow down. There are hand-forged knives with dark resin handles, cast-iron pots in deep colours, hammered copper pans and ceramic tableware with rough terracotta rims. Prices run from a £32 copper skimmer to a white Staub casserole pot at £239, and, for the truly committed, a handmade wrought-iron pot stand at £885. The tagline over it all is “Your Kitchen, Your World.”
A refreshing take on the High Street
Putney.news spoke to the shop’s owner, Kahn, who has a more hopeful read on the street than most. Before he signed the lease he canvassed local traders and found the mood downbeat, a gloom our reporting has tracked along the street for months. He sees it differently. He remembers Putney High Street in its 90s heyday and wants to “bring the good vibes back”, and he believes the street still has plenty of potential in its demographic and the area around it. Marks & Spencer is back after closing during the pandemic, he points out, and if more good shops follow he thinks Putney can recover.
Kahn’s first shop opened on South Molton Street in Mayfair, a smart pedestrianised lane near Bond Street, just after the pandemic on a short lease at a good rate. When that lease expired the rent nearly doubled, so he looked elsewhere, choosing Putney over the Queensway area for the location and the size of the unit.
Number 158 was the Liliya Art Gallery until it closed in August 2024, and it has sat empty since. The space runs to about 1,385 square feet across a ground floor and basement, and Kahn plans to fill it with more than a shop.
He intends to run healthy-cooking classes for families and especially children, built around cooking food from around the world in a healthy way, and to stock cookware made from natural materials with no chemical coatings, because, he says, what a pan is made of affects the food cooked in it. Alongside the premium range there will be more affordable lines, plus appliances, spices, healthy oils, teas and coffees, a made-to-order furniture range, and a knife-sharpening and polishing service for copper and stainless steel.
He hopes to open in about three weeks, and the shop is online now at neutrakitchen.co.uk. With good products, good service and a few more shops following, he is convinced Putney High Street can “soar again”.
Just what we need, a Staub casserole pot at £239 and a handmade wrought-iron pot stand at £885!
Actually, that’s a bit churlish, the High Street needs anything to raise the tone. But at the orher end of the scale, it would be great to have a proper kitchen/hardware shop, providing the kind of thing that Dyas sells but much, much better.
‘Neutra Kitchen’s knife range includes handmade pieces with dark resin handles.’
Doubtless with very sharp blades – very popular with certain folks of the drug industry who have been moving westward from east of Wandsworth over a number of years.
And just who can afford these prices? I give it less than a year