For every fresh, exciting venture that springs up, London sheds an old favourite. Once again, it's time to cue the melancholy piano for our list of places that closed down in 2026. We'll update the list as the year goes on.
101 Records, Croydon
Beanos, Big Apple, Bonaparte... there was a time when Croydon was a go-to for vinyl-pursuing musos. Sadly, as 2026 made its entrance, the town saw the exit of 101 Records — a fantastic value shop we enjoyed perusing every now and then — and which bluntly blamed successive councils and landlords for 'running our once great town into the dirt'. Ouch.
100 Wardour Street, Soho
This lively Soho hangout — situated on the site of the former Marquee Club — brunched its last bottomless brunch early in 2026, despite having received consistent thumbs-up for its hospitality over its decade-long lifespan. It's unclear exactly why the venue closed, although the team behind it, The Evolve Collection, continue to operate a number of other London venues.
Brixton Tube's newspaper stand
We visited Pritesh Patel on his last day of trading at the well-loved newspaper/confectionary stand he'd worked for over 35 years. "The trade is still here," he told us, "Not as big a living as we used to, but we're still making a living."
The problem? The landlord, TfL, decided it wanted to enlarge the shop (something which Pritesh had been game for) and — here's the sucker punch — vertiginously increase how much it'd cost to remain in situ. "It's double the rent, so for us it wasn't viable," said Pritesh, "I wish them luck." London sometimes has a nasty habit of destroying some of the best things about it.
Lambeth Country Show, Herne Hill
Is London's park life gradually being fenced off? While Crystal Palace Park must fund it revamp by selling off parcels of land, all is not well in the garden of Herne Hill either. Lambeth Country Show — which debuted in 1974 — will not take place in the summer of 2026. The reason? Budget cuts. It's especially sad news, given that paid-for festivals such as Mighty Hoopla will continue — its organisers presumably paying Lambeth Council a fair whack for the privilege. Is the Lambeth Country Show gone for good? As its resident sheep might put it: that'd be baaaad news.
The Orange Tree, Winchmore Hill
Revered as one of the most honest boozers in north London, when the Orange Tree's landlords John and Marie retired in February 2026, it was curtains for the Taylor Walker-built local, the Enfield Society fearing it could be redeveloped into housing. The Orange Tree was, opined one beer commentator "pure trad pub bliss". Winchmore Hill does, however, still have another exquisite locals pub up its sleeve — the Little Green Dragon, and long may it draw fiery breath.
Lots (but not all) of London's BrewDogs
Not, perhaps, as cherished as the Orange Tree, but certainly a player in the pubscape of 21st century London, BrewDog abruptly announced the closure of nine of its London outposts (Soho, Camden Road, Chancery Lane, Clerkenwell, Ealing, Hammersmith, Seething Lane, Tower Bridge and Wandsworth) with immediate effect in March. It was confirmation that the seemingly troubled brand was very troubled indeed. We pored over fond memories of the early BrewDog days while nursing a beer — although not a Punk IPA, as we haven't bought one of those for ages. A handful of BrewDogs continue to ply their trade in London, including the one with the slide.
Seven Dials Playhouse
A "catastrophic loss to actors" is how campaigners described the closure of Seven Dials Playhouse at the end of March 2026. The small Covent Garden theatre had its roots as the Actors Centre, founded in 1978, as a place for actors to experiment, and "dare to fail". Judi Dench and Laurence Olivier were among those associated with the Actors Centre and its workshops in its early days. Moving to Seven Dials in 1994, thanks to a fundraising campaign championed by Anthony Hopkins, the Centre was then rebranded as the Seven Dials Playhouse in 2021. But after the theatre building was sold for £3.6m in 2024 to "generate new revenue streams and build a sustainable future, following the collapse of the old membership and training model", things unravelled fast, prompting an unsavoury end for what had been a highly-regarded institution. "I do feel a deep sadness," said Kate Maravan, director of The New Actors Centre, "I think, in a way, they drained it of its heart."
Corsica Studios
It's no secret that Elephant & Castle has lost much of its gritty rizz over the past decade, Corsica Studios being one of the latest dominoes to fall. "Ask any music-loving Londoner to name the city's best venues, and there’s a decent chance Corsica Studios will appear somewhere near the top of their list", wrote the Guardian, when it was announced the under-the-arches venue established in 2002 by Adrian Jones and Amanda Moss, was to shutter. Though the closure perhaps wasn't purely down to the ongoing development, that certainly didn't help. "You can stay as long as you want," Jones was told by the developer Delancey at one point. "You just can't make any noise past 1 April." It fell silent for good in spring 2026.
Hacha Dalston
On 25 April 2026 (exactly seven years since opening), neighbourhood bar Hacha Dalston served its last signature Mirror Margarita cocktail — so called because of its clearness — before shutting up shop for good. However, this is adiós, rather than goodbye; the team (which also lost its home in Bermondsey in 2025) has announced it'll be appearing at six festivals across the UK, plus in a series of short-term residencies and pop-ups.
Various Franco Mancas
Early champions of London's Neapolitan sourdough pizza craze, Franco Manca opened its debut restaurant in Brixton in 2008, before ballooning into a 70-venue UK-wide beast — becoming a byword for decent, and decently-priced, pizzas (not to mention proud purveyors of wine in tumblers). In April 2026, however, The Fulham Shore, which runs the Franco Manca chain, made swinging cuts to the brand, with nine London locations facing the axe: Battersea, Brixton, Bromley, Broadway Market, Chiswick, Kilburn, New Oxford Street, Stoke Newington and Tottenham Court Road. Fulham Store CEO Marcel Khan claimed the challenging climate was to blame: "‘Even restaurant businesses that are doing all the right things from a customer and operational perspective are not immune to widely publicised pressures impacting the hospitality industry." Because there were so many Franco Mancas in the first place, London still has a number of branches, including in Soho, London Bridge and Waterloo. Our obvious advice: use 'em or lose 'em.
Science Gallery, London Bridge
A table made of sugar, and partly dissolved by tea, was what greeted us during our first encounter with the Science Gallery, when it opened in 2018. The King's College gallery was part of an international group of such venues — presenting works influenced by, or built upon, science. "If you're a fan of the Wellcome Collection," we reckoned, "then you'll feel at home here." Sadly, 2026 will be the gallery's final year, although if you haven't yet visited, there's time enough: its valedictory exhibition, The Art of Care: Through the Eyes of Tomorrow's Doctors, opens in June, running till later in the year.
What've we missed? Email [email protected] with any major losses to the London scene in 2026.
For a more comprehensive rundown of restaurants that've closed in 2026, we recommend checking out Hot Dinners.
