Brexit and Covid leave London’s Savoy hotel shaken, stirred – and short staffed

The entrance off the Strand to London’s Savoy hotel. Photograph: Keith Mayhew/SOPA Images/Rex/Shutterstock

For those in the business, the role of head bartender at the Savoy’s American bar in London is much more than a job – it’s the chance to join a prestigious club of just a handful of people and to earn a place in history.

In its more than 130-year existence, only 13 people have held the role, inventing cocktails such as the Moonwalk and the Hanky Panky, and serving clientele including Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Hemingway and Winston Churchill.