Two amazing London pubs have just reopened – but which to visit? Life&Style Much of my early twenties was spent among the braying ponytails and pink pashminas of Parsons Green. The two mainstays for our diet of G&Ts and crisps were The White Horse (known to us as “the Sloaney Pony”) and Aragon House (otherwise called “Arrogant House”). Now these two London pubs, monoliths of Sloane Ranger culture, [...]
Pub industry ‘screaming for a reset’ amid wave of closures, says Shepherd Neame boss Hospitality The beer and pub industry is “screaming for a reset”, the boss of the UK’s oldest brewer has warned, as companies brace for more venue closures under the strain of sharp tax hikes and minimum wage rises. Jonathan Neame, chief executive of Aquis-listed Shepherd Neame, which traces its roots back to 1698, said the “real [...]
Pub of the week: The Walrus and Carpenter is pints perfection Life&Style “‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said, To talk of many things: Of shoes – and ships – and sealing-wax – Of cabbages – and kings – And why the sea is boiling hot – And whether pigs have wings.” So reads the most famous line in Lewis Carroll nonsense poem, after which this iconic [...]
City AM’s Pub of the Week: The Abitrager February 25, 2026 This week’s Pub of the Week is The Abitrager on Throgmorton Street The Arbitrager is one of those pubs that feels so inextricably linked to the Square Mile that it couldn’t exist anywhere else. As many readers of this newspaper will know, arbitrage is the buying of a commodity in one market and selling it [...]
The 18 best pubs in the City of London – picked by experts February 24, 2026 The City of London has some of the best old boozers in the country, from sprawling Victorian gin palaces to squat little drinking dens squirrelled away down forgotten alleyways. We asked the reporters at City AM – who know the Square Mile better than anyone – to name their best pubs in the City of [...]
‘Hundreds of outdoor drinkers’: City AM’s Pub of the Week is The Wren on Watling Street February 18, 2026 If you’re looking for a man in finance, go to TikTok, where videos streamed millions of times tell you to go to Watling Street. It’s the skinny lane with St Paul’s Cathedral at the end and four pubs along it, where in the summer hundreds tightly pack with al fresco pints. Ye Olde Watling, where [...]
£300m tax relief for pubs ‘a sticking plaster’ January 27, 2026 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has unveiled a £300m package to support to pubs in their battle against rocketing business rates after widespread backlash to Budget announcements, representing yet another government U-turn on tax plans. The Treasury has announced it will give pubs and music venues a 15 per cent discount on business rates bills from April [...]
Hundreds of hospitality firms close as cost pressures take toll January 26, 2026 The “relentless” increase in operating costs put hospitality businesses under increasing pressure in the final quarter of last year, industry figures suggest. According to consumer intelligence firm NIQ, there were 382 fewer licensed premises at the end of December than there were three months prior, equivalent to four closures per day. Casual dining sites and [...]
This new City pub has a controversial past life January 9, 2026 A pub that first opened over three hundred years ago is set to reopen on Fleet Street next month. The Hoop and Grapes isn’t just any 17th century inn: it has a particularly interesting story. The pub was one of a handful of locations where controversial ‘Fleet Marriages’ took place. They were ceremonies between people [...]
Ministers to offer business rates relief to pubs after backlash January 8, 2026 Panicked ministers are poised to water down the business rates bombshell faced by pubs, after an aggressive backlash from the industry saw over a thousand landlords ban Labour MPs from their premises. The government is expected to announce an overhaul to the way it calculates business rates for pubs within days, which it says will [...]