A new Wetherspoon pub opens inside Waterloo station at the start of September — and it has a distinctly Festival of Britain theme.
The Lion & Unicorn — which has cost £2.8 million to put together — opens inside the Sidings in Waterloo station on 3 September 2024, offering the chain's usual fare of ale and pub-style food.
Famously, Wetherspoon likes its pubs to pay tribute to the area's local history, and in this case, the Lion & Unicorn takes its name from the modernist pavilion built on the South Bank for the 1951 Festival of Britain. Among the pavilion's displays were a range of crazy inventions, including weighted stairs that made it feel as though you were going upstairs when you were in fact going down, and a rubber bus that deflated when going under bridges. The pavilion was later demolished.
In this case, Wetherspoon — which tends to establish its pub in heritage buildings — has also had a big hand in the design of the venue's interior. Drawings and sketches by the original pavilion's architects have been incorporated into the design, as has the "attitude to light, colour and innovation" that characterised the festival's vibrant, modernist aesthetic.
Archive photos, artworks and images of local scenes and characters — some from collaboration with local artists and the Southbank Centre — will also be on display in the Lion & Unicorn. That said, the only image we've been provided with (see top) doesn't really show any of that. We'll be calling in early doors to see if the pub lives up to the press release.
Despite opening this major new addition to its portfolio, elsewhere Wetherspoon is in the process of closing a slew of pubs, including a number in London.
Lion & Unicorn, Waterloo Siding, open from 3 September, wheelchair accessible
