Daniel Craig becomes a pub owner in Clerkenwell
The actor joins Flat Iron founder Charlie Carroll and Soho House's Nick Jones to take over the Horseshoe, his first pub investment.
Daniel Craig has become a pub owner, taking over the Horseshoe in Clerkenwell with a group of hospitality partners.
The actor joins Charlie Carroll, founder of the Flat Iron steakhouse chain and the team behind the Devonshire in Soho, alongside Soho House figure Nick Jones and Justin O'Shea, creative director of the beer brand Bad Belze. It is the first pub venture for both Craig and Jones.
Carroll will oversee the food menu. He built Flat Iron into one of London's most copied steakhouse formats, then opened the Devonshire, one of the most talked-about pub-restaurant hybrids of recent years. His role at the Horseshoe points to a similar split: everyday pub cooking downstairs, a sharper kitchen upstairs.
I grew up in pubs. My parents ran a pub, and so did my grandparents, in Chester.
Daniel Craig's pub roots
"I grew up in pubs. My parents ran a pub," Craig said, adding that his grandparents kept one in Chester. Jones said he had "long wanted to do a pub" and called the project overdue.
Neither partner has run a pub before. The group has not said how ownership or day-to-day operating roles will split beyond Carroll's control of the kitchen.
A crowded year for pub deals
The plan splits the building in two: the ground floor keeps a "boozer" feel with bar snacks, while the first floor holds a restaurant with a larger menu, set across a warren of upstairs rooms and a beer garden. O'Shea's Bad Belze is expected behind the bar alongside a wider cask and keg list, giving the pub a drinks identity beyond the standard rotation.
No opening date has been confirmed. The investment adds Craig to a run of UK hospitality deals this year, with pub and restaurant sales up 22 percent as operators and investors move on sites that have changed hands or closed.
The group has not disclosed the size of its investment or who holds the pub's licence going forward. The Horseshoe keeps trading under its existing name for now, with the new owners saying only that the refurbishment will respect the building's Victorian bones rather than strip them out.
