James Bond himself is opening up a London pub
Pints over Martinis, mind
In news that sounds made up but is actually true, outgoing James Bond star Daniel Craig is opening up a pub in London.
The bad news: there’s a bit of a wait. The Horseshoe in Clerkenwell is the pub Craig is set to take over, alongside business partners Nick Jones and Charlie Carroll. It closes up shop today, 9th October, with the plan now to re-open the site under new ownership, but not until fairly late into 2027.
Carroll and Jones bring the industry experience to go with Craig’s headline-grabbing acumen, of course. Jones is the entrepeneur behind Soho House, as well as the Cafe Clement restaurant in Temple, and The Ned. Carroll, meanwhile, founded The Devonshire and Flat Iron.
This is a pretty mean trio of gentlemen. However, the plan is apparently to keep The Horseshoe as, above all else, a pub.
“You walk through the door and you go: ‘It’s a boozer!’ Obviously we’ll spruce it up but we’re going to keep it as a boozer,” Craig told The Times.
“We’d love fancy people to come here and spend some money, but that’s not the aim. It’s to make it accessible for everybody and [so you don’t] have to worry about coming through the door.”
The Horseshoe was already a pretty well regarded traditional-style pub, famed for its darts. It’s a little worn inside, but the previous landlords had been there for 36 years — and chose to retire rather than being kicked out.
Top Instagram account London Dead Pubs did a piece on the place last week, worth a watch if you want a view of what it was like before Daniel Craig and co came on-board.
This follows Daniel Craig’s launch of his own beer earlier this year, Bad Belze. You can bet it will be stocked at whatever The Horseshoe eventually becomes, having already made it to the pumps of The Devonshire and select other establishments.
The beer is named after the Ring O’Bells pub in Frodsham, which Craig’s father Tim Craig ran back in the 1970s.
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