The opening date for the new restaurant taking over the former Simpson's Tavern site in the City has been announced.
Cloth Cornhill will open its doors on 1 October 2026, operated by the same team behind existing Farringdon restaurant Cloth.
After the legendary chophouse Simpson's Tavern* closed suddenly in 2022, the historic building sat empty for three years, before it was announced in late 2025 that the Cloth team had taken over the building.
Since then they've been working to get it open to the public again. Thankfully, the historical features — including wood-panelled walls, bow windows, original tiles, fireplaces, old photos and books, and high-backed wooden seating booths (called boxes) — have been kept, and restored to their former glory, ready to welcome a new generation of diners.
The ground floor of Cloth Cornhill will be occupied by a pub, split between the classic standing room-only Amy’s Bar, spilling out into the courtyard, and the adjoining old grill room, with seating for 40. A short bar menu will be available to soak up the beer and cask ales and wine selection available here. The main restaurant spans two dining rooms on the first floor, though two new private dining rooms have been added, one on the ground floor and the other upstairs.
Charles Dickens and William Thackeray are among the famous names known to have dined at Simpson's Tavern, which was one of London's oldest restaurants, having been open since 1757. For legal reasons, the former name cannot be carried over to the new business, so Cloth Cornhill it is.
As for the menu, the Cloth team — Joe Haynes, Ben Butterworth and Tom Hurst — will be serving up "produce-led, modern British cooking" with a new menu centred around the sharing chops and steaks for which Simpson's was known
View this post on Instagram
Simpson's had a long-held tradition of serving a sausage with every meat dish, regardless of what you'd ordered. Happily, the Cornhill sausage with beer mustard will be resurrected at Cloth Cornhill, created from an old recipe book of Simpson's classics from the 1940s which was discovered during the renovations.
A prix fixe menu, priced at £24 for two courses or £29 for three, will be available at lunchtime Monday-Thursday, with other special offers available on Friday lunchtimes.
Cloth Cornhill opens on 1 October 2026, and will be open for lunch and dinner Monday-Friday. Reservation details will be announced soon. Follow Cloth on Instagram for the latest updates.
*Simpson's Tavern, not to be confused with West End restaurant Simpson's in the Strand which closed in 2020 and auctioned off some its contents in 2023, before finally reopening under restaurateur Jeremy King in March 2026.
