Against all odds, the pubs of the capital are thriving. William Hosie raises a glass to their comeback.
Depending on who you ask, you might get the sense that London’s pub scene is either dying or thriving, with no in between. The past four years have seen record closures (the pandemic; remote working; cost of living), but also record openings. And big ones to boot.
Take The Devonshire, near Piccadilly, W1, which has achieved the impossible: creating a genuinely cool address in a part of town best known for billboards and casinos. Or The Hero in Maida Vale, W9, launched by the same brains behind The Pelican in Notting Hill, W11, and The Bull in Charlbury, Oxfordshire — arguably the best pub in the Cotswolds (order the pie, says Giles Coren). Back in the W postcodes, London’s first-ever Allsopp’s Brewery pub, The Blue Stoops, opened last month on Kensington Church Street, W8. A mile north, The Fat Badger, a former gastropub on Golborne Road, W10, is gearing up to reopen next month.
What is the reason for this gastropub renaissance? It’s about a post-pandemic return to normal, says Oisín Rogers, landlord of The Devonshire (formerly The Guinea Grill). We’ve swung back from all things modern and innovative: people are anxious about artificial intelligence taking their jobs, the inexorable, forward motion of modern life and want nothing more than to escape to a country pub, with rich food, board games and a roaring fire.
It’s a doubly attractive proposition if said pub is within walking distance from home, no Tube required. For north Londoners, it’s The Tufnell Park Tavern, N7, and The Duke of Hamilton, NW3; for south Londoners, the Prince of Wales, SE11, and The Camberwell Arms, SE5; for Sloane Rangers, The Pig’s Ear, SW3; for Notting Hillbillies, The Cow, W2. For east Londoners, it’s the De Beauvoir Arms, N1, and The Londesborough, N16.
The Devonshire has been one of the hottest pubs in London since its opening. Credit: Getty
These are upmarket pubs for people with expensive taste and an eye for tablescapes and warm interiors. Good-looking waiters are a plus; smart wines are essential. Menus aren’t cheap, but nowhere near the offensively overpriced bars and members clubs of yesteryear. Even upmarket restaurants now strive to be gastropub-adjacent. Take the Michelin-starred Berner’s Tavern inside The London Edition hotel, in Fitzrovia, W1: by all accounts the sort of place you’d expect to see in an episode of Succession, but also one where the star item on the menu is a roast Herdwick lamb saddle.
The great and the good of London gastronomy are weighing in: Claude Bosi with Joséphine, SW10; Jackson Boxer with Henri, WC2. Bone-in sirloin, rainbow chard and lobster, and monkfish pie are de rigueur in the public-house establishments en vogue. It’s not exactly pub grub, but it’s deliberately not haute cuisine (read: no foam and no jus).
Crucial to the gastropub’s renaissance, designer Molly Hackney tells me, is ‘a return to simplicity’ — even if they’ve gone to great lengths to achieve a ‘natural’ look. Mr Rogers says it’s wrong to call this a mere trend. The popularity of simple, delicious cooking has never waned. ‘It’s always been doing well, in the background,’ he says. For years, the press chose to focus on more ‘noisy’, highly stylised foods; chefs hell-bent on doing ‘new things’. ‘The best pubs,’ Mr Rogers says, ‘are those that feel as if they’ve been here since 1965.’ Take The Hero’s beige and uneven walls: masterful plaster-work that gives the impression of incompleteness. It’s saying: we’ve been here forever, and we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Neither should you.
Equally central to the rebirth of the country pub en ville is a return to Britishness and an obsession with all things locally sourced. Public House, the group that owns The Hero and The Pelican, sources all of its produce from organic farms in the Cotswolds and has even begun to grow its own. There’s also the ‘stealth wealth’ argument: amid the cost-of-living crisis, flaunting one’s wealth is an ever greater faux pas. It’s beer over bubbly and the idea that the grandest thing one can do is not act grand at all. Don’t be too precious — simply neck that pint of Guinness. What’s the damage? £7.50, as it stands.
William Hosie is a journalist and editor who lives in London.
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