The lauded City of London restaurant Cloth is to open a second eating house in the old Simpson’s Tavern, which has been empty since 2022.
The original Cloth launched behind St Bartholomew the Great church in early 2024, with vino aficionados Joe Haynes and Ben Butterworth teaming up with the chef Tom Hurst (Lasdun, Levan, Brawn) to launch an Anglo-French, Monday-to-Friday restaurant aimed largely at City workers.
Rumours of a second venue had been circulating for some time and Cloth Cornhill will move into the Simpson’s Tavern after restoration work, though the new owners said they will honour the building’s previous incarnation and “debaucherous wine-fuelled lunches” that happened there for centuries before.
“We’re very excited to be taking on the stewardship of this beloved institution,” the trio told The Times and added “the old Simpson’s spirit will remain”.
The pub had been a popular venue since 1757, a haven to insurance brokers and bankers, liverymen and the City’s hospitality workers.
Thought to be the City’s oldest chophouse, it served everyone from Charles Dickens to Samuel Pepys and was noted for its large sausages: every diner got one on the side, whatever their order.
The pub closed in 2022 owing to rent arrears which built up during lockdown. At the time, the Bermuda-based landlord seemed unwilling to budge, despite a widespread outcry, while the tenants at the time told the Standard the landlord’s decision to lock the doors came out of a “clear blue sky”.
After news broke of the closure, a regular wrote in: “The waitresses are all old and blunt. And everyone loves them. It has never changed. It is surrounded by sky scrapers and the planners to their eternal credit haven’t allowed developers to touch it.”
A lengthy crowdfunding campaign followed, while the City of London Corporation moved to grant the property special protection and listed it as an “asset of community value”.
The landmark will relaunch as Cloth Cornhill next year. No details of the menu have been announced but the place will continue as a chophouse. Many would wager the side sausage will continue.
The original name could not be used due to legal complications.
38 1/2 Cornhill, EC3V 9DR, clothrestaurants.com
