Drake & Morgan opening more quirky City bars
CITY WORKERS rejoice. Drake & Morgan, the quirky bar and restaurant group behind the Anthologist and the Folly in the City, is set to launch two more venues for thirsty employees to visit after a hard day’s work, this time nearer to Holborn and St Paul’s.
Fund manager Axa Real Estate revealed yesterday it has signed Drake & Morgan as its first tenant at two of its major office developments, 60 London on Holborn Viaduct and 1 St Paul’s in the City, which are both due to be finished next year.
In keeping with its tradition of unusual names, Drake & Morgan’s Sixty London venue has been coined the Haberdashery. It will comprise of a deli, a café, restaurant and bar as well as a wine and flower shop trading across three floors.
“It’s a concept we have been working on for a little while now and it’s derived from the idea that an old fashion haberdashery would almost be like a general store that would have sold different things like buttons, cottons or wool,” Taskin Muzaffer, head of operations, told City A.M.
“The idea around the haberdashery is to bring together various elements under one roof.”
At 1 St Paul’s, the group is planning a bar and restaurant concept called the Happenstance, which Muzaffer said “comes from the idea of finding something that is unexpected”.
The two venues will bring Morgan & Drake’s total estate to seven. It also owns the Refinery, its first site opened in Southwark, the Parlour in Canary Wharf and the Drift, which opened last year in the Heron tower.
Named after the two buccaneers Sir Henry Morgan and Sir Francis Drake, the company was founded by its own pioneer Jillian MacLean, a former operations director at Mitchells & Butlers and Novus Leisure in 2008.
MacLean said: “We are delighted to be opening these new sites next year, and it’s fantastic that we can continue to provide the City with something that’s a little bit different, fresh and innovative.”