A legendary beer restored and with it an exemplary pub.
This is a plea to the many people currently planning the building of Newcomb House set to occupy the vast corner site of Notting Hill and Kensington Church Street. Please put up a plaque to the many who have over the years served such wonderful food in the shadow of your new building.
Roughly 200 yards away is Clarke’s, where 40 years ago this 17 December Sally Clarke first set out her particular British stall. In extremely comfortable surroundings, with the walls covered in artwork by Howard Hodgkin and Lucien Freud, she has baked, cooked, welcomed and fussed over her customers in her inimitable, ever-smiling style.
Directly opposite is the considerably older Churchill Arms, a pub named after our wartime leader. It was here that in July 1988 the then-manager, an Irishman by the name of Gerry O’Brien, gave a trial run to the Thai food cooked by the establishment’s Thai chef with the Anglicised name of Ben. As I wrote in my 2009 article, O’Brien recalled that ‘After just a couple of weeks people were piling in not just to eat but to see what we were doing. These included visits not just from my bosses at Fullers but also from many rival publicans as well.’ After that, serving Thai food in pubs across the UK became a hugely popular phenomenon.
Then on the eastern façade of what will be Newcomb House, there used to be Kensington Place with, subsequently, a plush fish shop next door. Opened in 1987 by Nick Smallwood and Simon Slater, this 100-seater restaurant was the pioneer modern British brasserie with Rowley Leigh in charge of a fascinating menu. The expense of putting in a fish shop next door was confirmed to me by Chris Bodker who bought KP from its original owners, as the price of keeping Leigh as its chef. Kensington Place finally closed its doors in 2019 to be missed by many.
And now, within a short stone’s throw of Newcomb House, The Blue Stoops has opened its doors on the site of what used to be the Kensington Wine Rooms a few doors along from the Churchill Arms. This is a pub, with a restaurant attached, with a long and distinctive history. It should be of particular interest to lovers of madeira.
The Blue Stoops story is slightly complicated and resplendent with the ups and downs that seem to have characterised the British brewing industry. It comes personified by Jamie Allsopp, who left finance for beer and hospitality post COVID, and happened to be standing by the bar on the day I walked in.
A man with a ready smile, and a seeming genuine love of his own beer, he began, ‘The Blue Stoops was the original name of the pub in Burton-upon-Trent opened by Benjamin Wilson, my nine-times great-grandfather, in 1730. He sold the brewery to his grandson, Samuel Allsopp, who created Burton India Pale Ale, and grew the business into one of the country’s largest breweries. But by the 1950s Allsopp’s beer had sadly disappeared. (Allsopp is seen below left with his friend George Day enjoying the fruits of his labours.)
‘In 2020 I decided to relaunch what had been the family business. I bought back the trademarks and, with the help of Steve Holt of Kirkstall Brewery, found an old recipe book for beer. Our range includes an India Pale Ale, based on the original Burton IPA which Samuel first brewed in a teapot, Arctic Ale, Pale Ale, Best Bitter and a Pilsner. And that is the connection with madeira as both it and the Pale Ale are drinks that improve with the disrupting but ultimately highly beneficial characteristics of travel by sea. In the 1900s a journalist described our beer as “as mellow as aged madeira” and I like that parallel.’
It was Allsopp’s enthusiasm which won over Holt, who describes himself as ‘a brewing historian and collector of beer and brewing memorabilia’. He explained their association thus: ‘It was Jamie’s tremendous enthusiasm from the selection and use of malts, hops and yeast through to the design and presentation of the finished beers.’ On the back of this obvious friendship, Allsopp’s beers are now brewed at Holt’s Kirkstall Brewery outside Leeds.
The Blue Stoops is Allsopp’s first pub and restaurant and it could not have a more fitting location. It occupies a corner site. The large windows along both sides facing onto Peel Street and Kensington Church Street have been revealed for the first time. The pub area is light and airy, with the restaurant off to the right as you enter.
The walls are replete with memorabilia which have been collected and arranged with obvious enthusiasm. Behind the bar is the quote from the journalist in the 1900s. There are mirrors and signs everywhere featuring the Allsopp’s name together with an open palm painted red. This, it was explained to me, was the sign that publicans used to hang outside their pubs and would signify that they had just received a fresh delivery of beer. There are old invoices and advertisements all over the place, even in the sanctity of the gentlemen’s lavatory. Memorable too are the blue bar tiles which were made by Craven Dunnill of Alderley Edge.
And then there are the many Double Diamond posters. For those who, unlike myself, did not grow up in the Britain of the 1960s and 1970s, this was a hugely popular beer of that era which had the catchy advertising slogan of ‘A Double Diamond works wonders, so drink one today’. I believed that it was the tightening of advertising rules in the 1990s that killed this but sales of Double Diamond, a gassy beer, had already slumped by then. Allsopp has revived the beer and today it is a light, fruity ale that will please many.
As will the food. When I was first shown to my table by Reka Nagy, the restaurant manager, I felt slightly discombobulated. The room was quiet. There was no chatter of chefs, no banging of pans, no conversation, however peaceful, between the chefs and the waiting staff. And then I realised that in being led to my table I had passed a couple of dumb waiters which are obviously connected to the kitchen in the basement. The kitchens here have long been downstairs and there they will remain.
The menu is brief and modern in its layout: five snacks, five first courses, five main courses and in the bottom right-hand corner four desserts and a cheese plate. On the day I ate there, desserts included a huge, very sweet meringue with stewed plums, ice cream and cream. Before that I enjoyed a snack of anchovy toast, shallots and parsley that spoke volumes for the thought process driving Lorcan Spiteri and Jacob Farley, respectively executive and head chefs. This was followed by a chicken pie with leeks and trumpet mushrooms that was spot on; well-crafted pastry and plenty of dark meat mixed with vegetables and all bound together in a thick, creamy sauce. My bill with a half pint of Double Diamond and a half of Allsopp’s best bitter came to £52.
The price did not include the history lesson involved nor the immersion in Jamie Allsopp’s obvious passion for his beer. The many visitors to London who want to visit a genuine British pub could do worse than drop in at The Blue Stoops.
The Blue Stoops 127/9 Kensington Church Street, London W8 7LP; tel: +44 (0)20 7123 7929. Open seven days.
Every Sunday, Nick writes about restaurants. To stay abreast of his reviews, sign up for our weekly newsletter.