Pub

• Mayfair scores a new Ben Tish pub and restaurant: The Barley Mow

  

  There’s an impressive new dining destination about to hit Mayfair. The Barley Mow is a pub and restaurant set in a Grade-II-listed building on the corner of Brown Hart Gardens and Duke Street. The building was snapped up by pub group Cubitt House a while back, after closing down during the pandemic. Now you can admire the refurbished surroundings and sink an ale with the likes of haggis Scotch eggs or battered pollock,

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• The Starman, a David Bowie-inspired bar, opens on Heddon Street

  

  Ground control to David Bowie fans: Heddon Street will already be familiar to you as the location for the Ziggy Stardust album photo cover in 1972, which is commemorated by a blue plaque. Now, just a few doors down, the tribute to the musician continues with The Starman, which opened in early July.

  Taking over the old Strawberry Moon bar/club site, The Starman brings some ch-ch-changes (sorry; we’ll stop this)

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• Mayfair's Guinea Grill landlord Oisin Rogers is on the move

  

  Six years ago we ran a news story about the move of top pub landlord Oisin Rogers, who was taking over The Guinea Grill in Mayfair. In the intervening years, Rogers has turned the Bruton Place pub into one of the best known drinking holes and steak restaurants in

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• Notting Hill’s Walmer Castle to reopen as a Scottish restaurant and whisky bar

  

  While there was a lot of buzz about David Beckham and Guy Ritchie buying Notting Hill’s Walmer Castle pub in 2018, it was quietly taken over by entrepreneur and hotelier Piers Adam in February 2022. Adams already co-owns The Punch Bowl with Ritchie and is probably best known for his clubs like Mahiki.

  The pub will reopen in collaboration with Scotland’s oldest whisky hotel, The Craigellachie, to feature

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• Test Driving Upstairs at The George - a Michelin-starred take on pub classics

  

  A dream pub team - JKS restaurants and chef James Knappett - shows a new food and wine-led future for London pubs in their revamp of this Fitzrovia boozer.

• The Princess Royal in Notting Hill is a new pub for Cubitt House and Ben Tish

   

  28/2/22 - Updated with the opening date and menu details

  Recently Ben Tish left his Fitzrovia restaurant Norma and joined up with pub group Cubitt House to completely revamp their food offering (in a role not too dissimilar to the one he had at Salt Yard). As part of this, he's been overhauling the food in pubs like The Coach Makers Arms in Marylebone (together with

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• Upstairs at The George sees James Knappett take pub dining to the next level in Fitzrovia

  

  Back in November, we first reported on the second project by dream team JKS (Gymkhana, Hoppers), James Knappett (Kitchen Table) and publican Dominic Jacobs (The Running Horse) - a makeover of The George in Fitzrovia. That followed their successful opening of The Cadogan on the King's Road in Chelsea.

  The Fitzrovia pub opened its ground floor offering before Christmas. That

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• Test Driving The Plimsoll - Four Legs' Finsbury Park boozer with great food

  

  The Four Legs team have opened their own pub in Finsbury Park. Hot Dinners scored a hard-to-get seat and went to check it out.

• Sandwich Shop's Max Halley has opened The Five Bells in Salisbury

  

  If you've been following the Instagram account of Max Halley - the sandwich king behind Max's Sandwich Shop in Crouch Hill - you'll know that he's gone and opened a pub. Max has joined forces with West Country publican Ethan Davids to open The Five Bells in Salisbury which sounds like the perfect out-of-town destination for any Londoner.

  Intrigued, we caught up with Max to get a little bit more info on his real-life

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• Flowerhouse opens in Marylebone from the people behind The Light Bar

  

  The people who opened The Light Bar in Shoreditch earlier this year have quietly opened their second place - a new pub across town in Marylebone.

  Flowerhouse looks quite different from your standard British pub though - the name lends its hand to the striking design with a bright look and flowery wallpaper throughout. The pub also has a female-led team, with an aim to "support

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• The Pig's Head is a new Clapham "pro-planet" pub

  

  Taking over what used to be The Rectory, the people behind Smokehouse, The Pig & Butcher and The Princess of Shoreditch are opening their fourth pub - The Pig's Head.

  This will be taking a different sustainability-led approach for them, hence the "pro-planet" label they're adopting. For example, all animals will be butchered on-site, and they'll work with farmers practising

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• Four Legs turn Finsbury Park's Auld Triangle into The Plimsoll

  

  After two years building up a stellar rep for their burger and other dishes at Islington's The Compton Arms, the team at Four Legs have bought their own boozer in Finsbury Park.

• The Chelsea Pig will be furniture designer Timothy Oulton's first pub

  

  Updated 14/10/21 with opening date

  He has stores worldwide from Miami to Moscow, but now interior designer Timothy Oulton has returned back to the UK to open his first pub.

  The Chelsea Pig is a bit of an SW3 landmark, having been around since the 1890s. Now for the 2020s it's getting a new lease of life. Obviously, design is to the fore with a moonstone bar, vintage furniture from Timothy's own collection and

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• The Cadogan Arms Chelsea relaunch has Kitchen Table's James Knappett behind the food

  

  22/7/21 - updated with pics and opening dates

  We'd been hearing for quite some time that Kitchen Table's James Knappett was getting involved with a pub, and then it was confirmed as a Chelsea classic - The Cadogan Arms.

  The pub had been closed for renovation since back in 2019 and is getting ready to unveil its new look. It's all a collaboration

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• MEATliquor take over The Dartmouth Arms in Forest Hill

  

  Updated 7/7/21 with new opening date

  It's strange how things come full circle, isn't it? Way back in 2009 MEATliquor burst on to the London food scene in a truck located in a New Cross pub car park. They didn't open their first actual restaurant until 2011.

  Now, ten years later, their latest London opening is going to see them move back into pub life, taking over a pub in Forest

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