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When all the finance bros and techies retreat to their Clapham pads on the weekend, the City of London becomes a bit of a ghost town. But that could be about to change. To make the area more of a weekend destination, the City will get five new boozers by 2027. Bottoms up.
In the next four years, weekend warriors will be able to sink a few cold ones at a combination of reopened, relocated or newly opened pubs within the Square Mile. The City of London Corporation is behind this injection of extra watering holes to E1, and has promised to put pubs in prominent locations with more floorspace, outside areas and improved accessibility.
There is a caveat to some of these new pubs, though. Some of them, such as the White Swan, are having to relocate after being demolished to make way for more offices. The White Swan will open on a ‘prominent double aspect corner location’ at 99 Fetter Lane, and will feature tall windows, a mezzanine and a blue facade.
The Still and Star will also be making a comeback, being built as a green (literally) recreation of its former building that was knocked down. And the bulldozed St Bride’s Tavern will also return, opening at the base of an office block in Blackfriars. Regulars will be disappointed to hear that the couple who ran the old St Bride’s probably won’t be back to take over the 2.0 version as they claim it will be too expensive to run.
The King’s Arms will be revamped too, while a brand new boozer, the Salisbury Arms, will open on Salisbury Square.
These are the 50 best pubs in London.
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