- Tom Sellers is on the hunt for a London pub. The chef and restaurateur has asked David Rawlinson’s Restaurant Property to find him a site with full extraction. The search is focused on Soho, Covent Garden, Marylebone, Notting Hill and Chelsea, although Sellers is also open to ‘wildcard’ locations across Zones 1 and 2. It’s not the chef’s first foray into the pub world. In 2014, he took on the Grade II-listed Lickfold Inn near Petworth, West Sussex, alongside a local private investor. He is understood to have stepped away from the project shortly before the pandemic. Sellers is best known for Restaurant Story near London Bridge, which he opened in 2013 at just 26 and which now holds two Michelin stars.
- Luxury Hampshire country house hotel Heckfield Place has opened a bar inspired by the atmosphere of a traditional British pub. The Workman’s Bar ‘reinterprets’ the pub format, drawing on Britain’s industrial heritage through its use of ‘honest’ materials and understated design, while aiming to recreate the ‘warmth and conviviality of a neighbourhood local’. The bar is open to both hotel guests and non-residents, with a collection of paintings by Malcolm Teasdale and a food menu alongside modern takes on classic British drinks from the 1950s including: the Heckfield Shandy, made with Surrey brewery Hogs Back’s Hogstar Lager and a zero-waste lemon cordial; a whisky and ginger ale infused with lapsang tea for a subtle smoky character; and a Babycham-inspired serve combining apple, pear and Champagne.
- All-day dining group Caravan will open its biggest restaurant to date on London’s South Bank this November, taking over a site at the Southbank Centre. The 8,500sq ft venue will span two floors and an outdoor terrace, with the venue incorporating two reconstructed railway arches to create three all-day dining spaces, two bars, a mezzanine cocktail and listening bar lounge, an events space and a private dining room overlooking the Hayward Gallery. The ground floor will also introduce The Klink, a new format housed in a small railway arch connected to the main restaurant and open to the street. Due to open in January 2027, The Klink will offer takeaway coffee and cocktails alongside a small, edited food menu.
- Barworks founder Marc Francis-Baum is to reopen Clerkenwell pub The Peasant as the George & Dragon next month, in collaboration with chefs Tom Brown and Brad Carter’s Island restaurant. The 1889 Grade II-listed pub on St John Street will return as a 110-cover venue spread across two floors. The ground floor will retain a pub-style focus, serving elevated takes on classic dishes, while the first floor will become the new home of Island. Island, which opened at Mare Street Market in King’s Cross in June 2025, will move into a new 60-cover space in the pub, continuing its surf and turf concept centred on British produce and influenced by the chefs’ travels. The menu will feature wild day-boat seafood alongside rare-breed meats.
- French-founded Italian restaurant group Big Mamma will launch Edmondo in the City of London this autumn. Despite sharing its name with the group’s Hamburg-based pizza restaurant, the London venue will be an entirely new concept, according to the group. Pizza will not feature on the menu and the restaurant’s look and feel will be ‘completely different’, with the 200-cover site taking inspiration from its City surroundings. The restaurant will ‘channel the golden age of Milan’, with a menu from head chef Alfonso featuring the group’s largest selection of Italian grilled steaks, supplied by Phillip Warren. Set within a Grade II-listed building, the interiors will draw on Villa Necchi Campiglio, combining Art Deco with Italian influences.