The London Gin Club is set to reopen its doors next month. The Soho bar helped kickstart the city’s gin revival.
The London Gin Club will offer more than 100 varieties of gin on its revamped menu, “from well known classics to hard-to-find, small-batch gins”. Refurbished using many of the venue’s original interiors, the bar will reclaim its place in the heart of Soho, on Great Chapel Street, beginning October 6.
The reopening is backed by hospitality group Inception (Mr Fogg’s, Cahoots, Bunga Bunga). Julia Forte and Vicky Fisher, who ran the bar in its most recent guise, will remain freeholders of the building — meaning, with Inception moving in, it will be the first time the building has had tenants in 88 years of family ownership.
“Julia and Vicky created something very special at the London Gin Club and were ahead of the times focusing on gin which has since grown enormously in popularity,” said Inception co-founder Charlie Gilkes. “It has always been a favourite venue of [Inception co-founder] Duncan [Stirling] and mine and we are very excited to be continuing their legacy.”
The London Gin Club will be open from Wednesday to Sunday with a midnight curfew imposed on Fridays and Saturdays. The bar will run gin tasting experiences, and drinks will rotate monthly. The cocktail menu, meanwhile, will feature “new creations as well as long standing classics.”
Originally founded in 1933 by Forte’s grandfather, an arrival in England from southern Italy, the venue ran as the Star Cafe for more than eight decades before its Victorian basement was damaged by floods — a result of the multi-billion pound Crossrail development at nearby Tottenham Court Road — which led to a years-long closure.
For more information, head over to the London Gin Club’s official website.
If you’re looking for something closer to King’s Cross, in October, a new, all-day drinking and dining destination known as Booking Office 1869 will open in the heart of King’s Cross. A reimagining of the original, 19th century St. Pancras ticket hall, the launch marks the tenth anniversary of the opening of the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel and will replace the previous Booking Office bar & restaurant.