Another former London pub is to reopen after a lengthy restoration, this one a once bustling Victorian drinking house in Shoreditch.
The Knave of Clubs opened in 1880 and served a community of traders at Club Row Bird Market for more than 100 years. In the Nineties, it became the French restaurant Les Trois Garcons, but shut in the mid-2000s.
Today it has been taken on by James Dye, the co-owner of the Camberwell Arms, Frank’s bar in Peckham, and Hackney small plates joint Bambi. He’s joined by Benjy Leibowitz, formerly of hospitality giants JKS and the NoMad in NYC.
Also involved is the chef Patrick Powell, who is taking on the role of culinary director, his first position since departing the upscale King’s Cross brasserie the Midland Grand.
The Standard was told the Knave of Clubs has undergone a “significant renovation” and the Grade II-listed property is set to return to “its origins as a thriving local pub for the first time in 30 years”.
(the knave)
“We are extremely excited to be restoring a beautiful building, with such a remarkable history, back to being a pub for the first time in over 30 years,” said Dye.
“With so many pubs closing in London, we felt it was incredibly important to step in and try to save this remarkable building.”
As is customary in London in 2025, it will not just be a pub. Set over four storeys, the first will be a restaurant, One Club Row, which is where Powell will put on a menu centred around a rotisserie grill.
The restaurant’s signature dish will be chicken marinated in chermoula and served with chicken fat potatoes cooked on the bottom of the grill. On Sundays, classic roasts, including porchetta.
Downstairs will remain a pub and the team has partnered with Allsopp’s Brewery — which just opened the Blue Stoops, its first pub in 90 years, in Kensington — the former owner of the premises.
The Knave will serve Allsopp’s beers, including Seventies favourite Double Diamond, alongside Guinness, beers from London breweries, wines, pre-batched Negronis and various spirits.
Pub snacks will include venison sausage rolls, prawn scotch eggs with chilli jam, and fishcakes with Old Bay seasoning. There’ll be a pastrami sandwich with sauerkraut, too.
The Knave of Clubs will open on February 27 at 25 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6HT, theknaveofclubs.co.uk