◊ Once a haunt of the Sloane Rangers, the Admiral Codrington in Chelsea has reopened after a three-month refurbishment. Originally a Charrington’s pub, it has now changed operator from Butcombe Brewery (formerly the Liberation Group) to the Inda Pub Company. This is their tenth pub. The unusual five-sided pub sign depicts the Admiral, who successfully led the British fleet in 1827 against the Turks at the Battle of Navarino.
◊ Somewhat unexpectedly, the Black Bull in King Street, Hammersmith is to be reopened. This 1960s estate pub closed in 2018 when its licence was suspended. The site has now been purchased by a local hotel company. There were objections from local residents to the renewal of the licence.
◊ The Exale Brewery from Walthamstow have converted a former pie and mash shop in Dalston into their fourth pub, the Black Eel. The shop is Grade II listed and its original tiled frontage and doorway mosaic, dating from 1862, have been preserved. It will serve food but Mediterranean style rather than pie and mash.
◊ I am pleased to report that two of the pubs that were recently closed by BrewDog have reopened under new management and both selling cask beer. The Bird House Brewery have taken over the site in Goldhawk Road, Shepherds Bush, renaming it the Bush Tavern. The site in Goodge Street, Fitzrovia, the Queen Charlotte, has been reopened by the partnership that recently reopened the Blue Maid in the Borough.
◊ The imposing Grade II-listed Cauliflower Hotel in Ilford closed in July 2018 following a fire. There have been various plans for it in the meantime but now it has reopened as a ‘fine dining restaurant and lounge’ called 553 London. The ground floor will be a restaurant with a lounge and bar space on the first floor, featuring live music and entertainment. It will serve alcohol and Halal food in order to cater for all of the local communities. With thanks to Colin Price for the photo.
◊ In August, there were concerns as to what might happen to Coombe Lodge, a large, Grade II-listed Georgian house being used as a Beefeater restaurant, when owners Whitbread announced that it was to close. It was one of 38 Beefeater outlets, estimated value £38 million, that Whitbread were planning to dispose of. Given how many outlets in Croydon that they have closed, it came as a surprise when JD Wetherspoon announced that they had acquired the site and would reopen it as a pub, provisionally on 10 December. It is in the Lloyd Park area of Croydon which, JDW say, ‘has retained much of its rural character’. The site features a large conservatory and huge beer garden. All credit to JDW for taking on the care of another historic building. The Lloyd Park Tramlink stop is reasonably close.
◊ After much delay, the Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Covent Garden is now due to open on Thursday, 11 December. The 54,000 sq-ft site will include, among other features, a tasting room, two restaurants and a ‘pour your own pint’ experience. There will also be a microbrewery producing a rotating range of limited-edition beers although not the ‘Black Stuff’ itself. A large outdoor seating area will be available for cultural events. Guinness merchandise will also be on sale from two stores. The address is Old Brewer’s Yard, 1 Mercer Walk. If you are in the area, a visit to the Porterhouse in Maiden Lane may be an interesting ‘compare and contrast’. Their house beers are served under gas pressure but are unpasteurised.
◊ This is a sad story but a fairly common one, given our planning system. The Hero of Switzerland at Loughborough Junction closed in 2020 after developers acquired the freehold and secured planning permission to replace the two-storey 1950s estate pub with a 13-storey tower. This was to have included a replacement pub. It is part of the Loughborough Estate, which was built in an area badly damaged by bombing and the pub itself, popular with the ‘Young British Artists’ movement in the 1990s, was a replacement for one built around 1850. Very little appeared to have happened until this September when a new set of developers applied to Lambeth Council to vary the terms of the original permission. Meanwhile, the pub just stands there, rotting behind some hoardings. This should not be allowed to happen.
◊ London has a mead pub! Peckham-based Gosnells Drinks have taken over the wonderfully named John the Unicorn in Peckham Rye. It is their second outlet after their bar in Bermondsey and closer to home. They describe their products as ‘honey nectars; sociable-ABV sparkling drinks inspired by the craft beer and mead’, which are ‘100% natural, gluten free and sustainably produced’. They are available in cans and on draught. The pub’s name comes from the favourite toy of a previous manager’s daughter and no-one has had the heart to change it. The pub was previously operated by Antic and then Portobello Pubs.
◊ Some encouraging news. It has been revealed that the new owner of McGlynn’s Free House in St Pancras is the artist Peter Doig, whose studio is nearby. A planning application has been submitted for works to reinstate some original features of the Grade II-listed building and preserve its ‘special architectural and historic interest’, along with some improvements to ensure that it can ‘continue to function as a viable public house’. If you would like to find out more about Mr Doig, there was a very good feature on him in the Observer (12 October). He also currently has an exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery.
◊ There is no further news of the Olde Swiss Cottage beyond it being up for sale. Local residents’ groups are still on the case.
◊ Further to Mike Goldwater’s article in the previous edition, there is news of the Railway Hotel, a fine piece of Brewer’s Tudor in Edgware. A proposal has been put forward whereby the pub, which is near derelict, will be fully restored, paid for by a housing development on the land behind. The plans are still at the consultation stage and, if approved, would not see the pub reopen for some years.
◊ Good news and bad news. Readers will recall that London’s oldest chophouse (founded 1757), Simpson’s Tavern in Cornhill, closed in 2022 because of a rent dispute with the freeholders arising from the pandemic. The original management tried very hard both to dispute the claim and to raise enough money to pay what they did owe but now, it seems, without success. The Grade II-listed premises are to reopen but under the management of a nearby restaurant called Cloth. They say that they will preserve its ‘ancient look’ but I suspect that they are unlikely to offer cask beer.
◊ The London Brewing Company has taken over the Three Lords in the Minories near Tower Hill. Formerly a Young’s pub, it was closed by the then current operators in July. See the entry in this edition’s pub information update for more information and an explanation of the name. It should be open by the time that you read this.
◊ For reports on the Marlborough in Mayfair and the Trafalgar on the King’s Road, please see this edition’s pub information update.