Daniel Craig is to become the latest famous pub landlord, but are any of these celebrity-run inns actually any good?
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It’s just after 3pm on a Thursday afternoon and people are streaming across the B4047 in Oxfordshire on foot. Sensibly dressed, middle-aged and largely accompanied by unruly dogs, they cross in threes and fours, negotiating steady rural traffic with undeniable purpose. They clearly have somewhere to go – but where? What is causing such excitement in this sleepy corner of the Cotswolds?
The answer, happily, is a pub, albeit no ordinary pub. This is the Farmer’s Dog, and it belongs to Jeremy Clarkson. It turns out the solution to the British pub’s well-documented problems is simple: a famous owner. There are plenty of quiet pubs nearby, as I discovered in a taxi en route, but they seem a world away amid the exuberant bustle at Clarkson’s boozer just outside the town of Witney.
You have to see it to believe it. There are hundreds of happy punters here – forming awkward queues at the bar, packing out the restaurant and many of the tables in the large garden, perusing a wide variety of options in the gift shop (yes, you can buy a Farmer’s Dog gilet) and butcher’s-cum-bottle-shop (“Hops and Chops”). There are enough customers, in fact, to fill an overspill venue. The field across the other side of the B4047 must have 300 vehicles in it.
We live in an age of celebrity, and pubs are no exception. A veritable glut of premises with famous owners has emerged in the past few years, in fact: besides Clarkson, there’s his former colleague James May, who co-owns the Royal Oak in Swallowcliffe, Wiltshire; singer James Blunt, who recently added the Carpenter’s Arms in Hammersmith to the Fox & Pheasant in Chelsea; film director Guy Ritchie, who runs Lore of the Land in Fitzrovia; actor Sir Ian McKellen, long-term co-owner of the Grapes in Limehouse; and Jodie Kidd, who has run the Half Moon in Kirdford, West Sussex, since 2017.
And this happy crowd continues to grow. Just this week it was revealed that Daniel Craig has become a part-owner of The Horseshoe, until now a spit-and-sawdust, darts-focused pub in Clerkenwell.
What’s the appeal? In Clarkson’s case, that might be obvious (although, if reports are to be believed, the pub doesn’t actually make a profit), but not all celebrity pubs are so popular. For some it’s a matter of saving their local: Blunt bought the Fox & Pheasant to rescue it from demolition. For others, hospitality provides a second career after the first one winds down. Crucially, I suspect, owning a pub offers a certain down-to-earth cachet for people who are not down to earth.
Celebrity owners are not a new phenomenon, of course. It was once common practice for sportsmen, particularly footballers, to step behind the bar when their playing days were over. That culture persists, just about: Frank Lampard Sr still runs the Nightingale on the Green in Wanstead, for example, while Stuart Broad, the England cricketer, co-owns a couple of Midlands pubs. Other celebrities, from the long-forgotten (Ronald Shiner, a comedian, who ran the Blackboys Inn in East Sussex) to the recently departed (Michael Parkinson, who owned the now-demolished Royal Oak near Maidenhead), have also run pubs.
There has rarely been a time, though, when we have known so many high-profile celebrity-owned pubs. But are they any good? As one of the authors of The Telegraph’s guide to the Best Pubs in the UK, I’ve visited more than my fair share – I know what makes a great one, and what an imitator looks like. Here’s what I made, then, of Britain’s celebrity pubs.
‘I suspect food will replace darts when it reopens in 2027’
The Horseshoe, owned by Daniel Craig
I dropped into the Horseshoe last week and, after a pint of Guinness, asked landlord Richard Tucker (who has run it with wife Pauline for 36 years) who was taking over the pub. I didn’t think much of it when he said he couldn’t remember the name, but it makes sense now. Presumably Daniel Craig and his fellow investors – Nick Jones of Soho House and Charlie Carroll of Soho’s Devonshire pub – weren’t keen on news getting out too early.
Tucker also said it would remain a “proper pub”, although surely it’ll be a very different kind of proper pub. Until this week, this Tardis-like pub was probably the best place in London to play darts, and it brought together customers from all walks of life. I suspect food will replace darts when it reopens in 2027, and the slightly tatty decor will be a thing of the past. Still, at least it will be a pub rather than flats, as some locals feared.
My score: 7/10
Address: 24 Clerkenwell Close, London EC1R 0AG
‘Is it a pub? It feels more like a wedding venue’
The Farmer’s Dog, owned by Jeremy Clarkson
If you stand by the bar at the Farmer’s Dog for five minutes, you’ll hear plenty of British voices – but also American and European accents. Middle England is here, but it’s not alone. This is testament to Clarkson’s remarkable global appeal, his instinct for how many people see the world, and, perhaps, his commercial acumen.
That acumen is deployed here in service of himself, but also that of British farming. You are repeatedly implored to “back British farming”, and the pub puts its money where Clarkson’s mouth is. There is no ketchup, for example, because a satisfactory British version does not, apparently, exist. All of the beers – mostly lagers, and all very drinkable – made by Clarkson’s brewing company, Hawkstone, are produced with British ingredients.
This place is a phenomenon: it’s a theme park, a tourist attraction and a restaurant rolled into one. But is it a pub? I’m not convinced, even if the website insists it’s a “proper British pub”. It feels more like a wedding venue. The ratio of space given to diners as opposed to drinkers tells its own story.
My score: 6/10
Address: Asthall Barrow Roundabout, Burford OX18 4HJ
‘It’s a delight, with some of the comfiest seating in London’
The Fox & Pheasant, owned by James Blunt
James Blunt is known for two things: cloying pop ballads and being funny on social media. Based on the Fox & Pheasant, though, he deserves to be equally well-known for his pub (or pubs, since he now has two). The Fox & Pheasant is a delight.
There is a commitment to quality here. Blunt and his team spent 15 months doing the pub up after buying it in 2017, but they didn’t mess too much with its interwar interior, which includes a handsome and rather unusual glazed servery. Touches here and there (scatter cushions, fancy lamps) let you know you’re in an upper-crust pub, but it’s still a pub, with some of the comfiest seating in London.
When I visited recently, there were a dozen customers spread across the two bars (there’s also a new conservatory at the back for diners). A young family, Aussie tourists, relaxed as they settled into the pub’s easygoing atmosphere. The beer (I drank Harvey’s Sussex Best) was in tremendous condition. Service was friendly, and while food was available it didn’t dominate. All in all, very impressive.
My score: 8/10
Address: 1 Billing Rd, London SW10 9UJ
‘Gandalf’s staff hangs behind the bar’
The Grapes, co-owned by Sir Ian McKellen
The Grapes does not have the feel of celebrity. This slim, historic Thameside pub is good-looking but not in a showy way: the only sign that it might be out of the ordinary is a long staff that hangs behind the bar. This is Gandalf’s staff, apparently, belonging to Sir Ian McKellen, who also owns the pub.
Limehouse was once full of taverns, but the Grapes now has Narrow Street to itself. For all the pub’s interwar treasures – from fixed seating to dado panelling – the best spot is in the simple back yard on a sunny day. It overlooks the Thames, with views across the river, downstream to Canary Wharf and of Anthony Gormley’s Another Time XVI sculpture.
In the early 1960s, TV presenter Daniel Farson lived down the street: he was a celebrity pub pioneer of sorts, having run the Waterman’s Arms on the Isle of Dogs for a couple of riotous years. The Grapes is never that lively, but it’s a decent spot for a quiet drink.
My score: 7/10
Address: 76 Narrow St, London E14 8BP
‘A labour of love, but food dominates’
The Half Moon, owned by Jodie Kidd
If this were a beauty contest, the Half Moon would almost certainly win. This is a Wealden delight, a 17th-century tile-hung charmer that looks more like a cottage than a local pub. It could well have been a cottage by now, were it not for Kidd, who bought it in 2017. It’s clearly something of a labour of love. In economic terms, this place is more typical than the Farmer’s Dog: it’s often closed on Monday, Tuesday and even Wednesday. Such is the way of many rural pubs.
Like the Farmer’s Dog, though, food is a big part of the offering here. The main bar still just about feels like a pub, with its smart green-painted bar and plush fittings, although my advice would be to wait for a sunny day and enjoy the pub’s lovely garden – perhaps coupled with a walk across the countryside to the Stag Inn in Balls Cross, my pick of the pubs around here.
My score: 6/10
Address: Glasshouse Ln, Kirdford, Billingshurst RH14 0LT
‘A London pub as imagined by an American who’s never been to one’
Lore of the Land, owned by Guy Ritchie
I felt a bit disorientated at Lore of the Land. From the name to the decor, this is a London pub as imagined by an American who’s never been to one: there’s a pervasive faux-Victorian vibe, from the huge barrels attached to the pub’s facade to the tweed waistcoat worn by one barman. You half expect Dick Van Dyke to wander in.
There is plenty to like, though. Said barman was very friendly, the food looked marvellous, the beer (much of it from Anspach and Hobday, an excellent London brewery) is good and there’s plenty of space. In truth, though, Fitzrovia has better options if you’re looking for a real London pub – and some have their own sprinkling of stardust. Try the King & Queen, less than five minutes’ walk away, where Bob Dylan’s first appearance outside the US took place in 1962. I’d have crossed the road for that.
