Historic City steakhouse seeks listed status in fight to avoid the chop
‘We are able to pay down this £380,000 debt. We just cannot pay it all in one go’
LONDON’S oldest chophouse is applying to become a protected community heritage site in an effort to fight closure by its Bermuda-based landlords.
Having weathered everything thrown at London since 1757, from cholera to the Blitz to post-war planning, the Simpson’s Tavern faces closure over its pandemic debts.
The owners of the restaurant in the City of London have been locked out of the premises since Oct 16 over a dispute about rent and are already having to lay off staff.
The rent arrears began during the lockdowns and the restaurant continued to struggle for much of last year as financial workers failed to return to office working.
But the business has now bounced back to pre-Covid levels and Benjamin Duggan, the general manager, told The Sunday Telegraph they could pay back the arrears if a payment plan could be negotiated.
“We are able to pay down this debt, we just cannot pay it all in one go,” Mr Duggan said. Including legal and other costs, the restaurant is now more than £380,000 in the red.
With the locks changed, the business is also missing out on the NovemberDecember boom when, Mr Duggan said, it would usually make 40 per cent of its annual revenue. The money is owed to Tavor Holdings, an opaque holding company based in Bermuda.
The Telegraph could not contact Tavor, but Forbes says it belongs to the family of Rodney Sacks, the billionaire behind Monster energy drinks.
Mr Duggan said until last month, they believed they had been negotiating in good faith with the lettings agency representing the freeholder.
He added that he had opted against involving the official arbitration service, for fear it would undermine the negotiations, but he now regrets that decision.
Unless Tavor Holdings returns to the negotiating table, the case will end up in front of a judge. While it is unlikely to help Simpson’s in its current dispute, Mr Duggan is working with a local councillor and prominent regulars to get the business listed as an asset of community value.
Such a move would grant the local community the right to bid for the freehold of the building if it ever came up for sale. Mr Duggan is confident he could raise the money for the purchase.
The tavern is an integral part of the City’s history, Mr Duggan pointed out, highlighting that it was among the key locations where Britain’s financial markets were born.
“It’s a truism that the City was started at lunch, because gentlemen would come into town for the coffee and the food. And when they came together that was really the birth of the networks and the syndicates as they were all in one room and the information and the infrastructure was built up around them.”
In the meantime, Mr Duggan says,he is struggling to do what is best for his staff. He is going through the redundancy process, including losing two of his kitchen staff who have worked at Simpson’s for over three decades, although he is unable to access the business’s HR records which are in the locked restaurant.
“We’re doing it quickly while it’s viable for them to find work elsewhere during the busy Christmas period.”