Saving Simpson’s Tavern -London’s oldest Chophouse fights back against billionaire overseas landlord Rodney Sacks

Hidden away in one of my absolute favourite parts of the City of London is Simpson’s Tavern. it’s the sort of place I love and my tourists do too. I’m never sure why people go on those rather lame open deck bus tours in London. You’d never go round any other 2,000 year old city in a bus and expect to see very much at all. To see the real Cairo, Jerusalem, Istanbul etc you have to get off your bum and go and get lost in a maze of narrow streets and alleys.

Simpsons is in one of those parts of London, tour buses don’t go anywhere near it and you can’t even see it from any of the nearest roads. As the Evening Standard put it, Simpson’s Tavern is in the DNA of London but since mid October it has been shut down by a shady overseas tax avoiding group ran by South African billionaire Rodney Sacks.

Now London’s oldest chophouse is bidding to become a protected community heritage site in an effort to fight closure by its Bermuda-based landlords.

Having weathered everything that has been thrown at London since 1757, from cholera to the Blitz to postwar planning, the historic restaurant could now be shut down by Covid debts.

The owners of Simpson’s Tavern in the City of London have been locked out of their premises since October 16 amid a dispute over rent and are already having to lay-off staff.

The chophouse, which has been serving traditional English meals to City workers for two and a half centuries, entered into rent arrears during the pandemic.

As well as being closed during lockdown, the business struggled for much of last year as financial workers failed to return to office working following the end of restrictions.

However, since then, the business has bounced back to pre-Covid levels and Benjamin Duggan, the general manager, told The Telegraph that they were more than capable of paying 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 November-December 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 overseas company which typical of so many things in London, Britain and the world generally is all about profit and cares little about quality of life, heritage or anything but bleeding people dry and blandifying the place… egged on by lame and measly mouthed governments of all persuasions as was clear by my own MP chocolate teapot ‘Oily’ Dowden who hates the idea of other nations protecting their heritage but helps American investors close down and transform the buildings of the oldest companies in the world and incredibly atmospheric Whitechapel Bell Foundry and turn it into a tacky American hotel which as we all know is just what people want to see in the East End of London.

The Telegraph was unable to make contact with Tavor Holdings, but according to Forbes, the holding company belongs to the family of Rodney Sacks, the billionaire behind Monster energy drinks. 

Mr Duggan told The Telegraph that until last month, they believed they had been negotiating in good faith with the lettings agency representing the freeholder. Indeed, Mr Duggan opted against involving the official arbitration service, for fear it would undermine the negotiations.

He says he now regrets that decision. Unless Travor 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, which Mr Duggan is confident he could raise the money to do. 

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 for the food, etc. 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, he is struggling to do what is best for his staff. Mr Duggan 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.”

If you’d like to contribute to save Simpson’s Tavern and allow them to continue with their extremely profitable, ancient and most definitely tasty business then you can visit the Crowdfunder site. https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-our-simpsons-tavern