Jeremy King is to relaunch Simpson's in the Strand, the restaurateur has told the Times.
In an interview with the paper, King said he hoped to revive what he called “London's last grand-dame restaurant”, which in recent years has struggled to find its footing.
While rumours of King's involvement have been murmured since midway through the year, the announcement is the first time he has confirmed his plans. He told the Times he envisioned “a big-theatre brasserie”, but one that would “very much hark on its tradition.
“I want people to walk in there and say, ‘Oh good, they haven’t changed it’, although it will have changed,” he continued.
It's expected that, as per King's missive, much will be different. In early August, the restaurant auctioned off thousands of items that have long sat in the restaurant, including Wedgewood crockery, grand pianos, fireplaces, furniture, and Waterford crystal chandeliers. The auction was well-attended, with the signature carving trolleys fetching many thousands of pounds.
Simpsons, which first opened in 1828 as a chess club and whose patrons have included Arthur Conan-Doyle and Charles Dickens, has had a tricky time of late. Owned by the Savoy Hotel, which is sits in front of, the site has been closed since 2020. It was not what had been hoped: in 2017, the room was refurbished to such an extent that some regular customers found it too much of a change, soon requesting that cigar smoke stains on the ceiling which had been decorated over were repainted. They were.
The project is one of three King has underway: early next year, he revives the former Le Caprice site under the name Arlington, and is investing in a New York-inspired “grand café” called the Park, which opens in Bayswater in the spring. It is quite the comeback, following his 2022 removal from his company Corbin & King, whose portfolio included the Wolseley.
