Founded by Spencer Large, Honey Spencer and Charlie Sims, The Poet will occupy one of the six ‘Houses’ surrounding London Museum’s new home in the General Market. The project will comprise a pub on the ground floor and a dining room above, with an intimate chef’s table restaurant and standalone cocktail bar set to follow next year.
The two additional spaces will open in the first half of 2027. Envoi, located on the mezzanine, will be a 10-seat chef’s table restaurant led by Executive Chef Charlie Tayler, offering a 14-course tasting menu in a gallery-style setting. Meanwhile, Shambles will occupy the attic as a standalone cocktail bar, taking its name from a Middle English term associated with butchers’ stalls.
Tayler, formerly of Aulis and The Ledbury, will oversee the food offering across The Poet, serving a menu of British pub classics with a contemporary approach and a focus on seasonal produce.
Downstairs, the pub menu will include a black pudding sausage roll; beer-battered anchovies with caper mayo; and a ‘scampi fries’ scotch egg, finished with roasted prawn shell crumb and scampi fries.
Upstairs, The Poet Dining Room will offer a more extensive à la carte menu. Starters will include black leg chicken and leek terrine with quince chutney and toast; and crispy pork jowl with rhubarb and mustard.
Main courses will feature lamb shank suet pudding with red cabbage and lamb fat sauce; and BBQ Cornish monkfish with ‘nduja and white bean cassoulet. Larger dishes for sharing will include côte de boeuf with hash brown chips and gentleman’s relish and whole Dover sole meunière. A Sunday roast will also be introduced each weekend from the new year.
A further feature of the menu will be a ‘Vertical Chicken Menu’ for two, created as a nod to Smithfield’s history as a centre of London’s meat trade. The menu will use the whole bird across a series of courses, from snacks and bread through to starters, mains and dessert. Dishes will include warm pretzel with chicken fat butter; sticky fried wings; and plum eve’s pudding made with chicken fat, served with vanilla ice cream.
An extensive wine list curated by Honey Spencer will accompany the menus, spanning established appellations and lesser-known regions. Highlights will include Christian Tschida’s Cuvée Kapitel and a Beaujolais Blanc from Obora.
The pub will also serve ales, wines and cocktails, including 40ft Pilsner, an Oyster Shell Gibson made with The Poet’s own vodka, produced in collaboration with Vault Aperitivo, and gin with house bitter lemon. Alcohol-free options will include a Black Fig and Fennel Spritz.
The pub will feature a double-height bar, joinery and seating alcoves beneath the mezzanine. Upstairs, the dining room will have wood panelling, leather seating and an open kitchen.