Christopher's Covent Garden to close after 35 years
The American restaurant and Martini Bar leaves its Grade II listed home on Wellington Street a year after a refurbishment. Its owners say they will relocate.
Christopher's Covent Garden, the American restaurant and Martini Bar at 18 Wellington Street in London, will close at the end of September 2026 after 35 years. Its owners say the name will move rather than disappear.
The restaurant was founded in 1991 by Christopher Gilmour, who modelled it on the grill rooms of New York. The Paul family has owned the business since 2010, and the closure was reported on 23 September. No exact date for the last service has been published, and the owners have not given a reason for leaving the building.
"After more than three decades on Wellington Street, the time is approaching for us to close the doors to our Covent Garden home," the owners said in a statement reported by Restaurant Online. Managing director Anika Paul told Hospitality Week that the restaurant has been an enormous part of her family's life and that the final weeks will be a celebration for returning guests.
The building stays on Wellington Street; the name, its owners say, will travel.
A Grade II listed building with a casino past
Christopher's occupies three floors of a Grade II listed building: the Martini Bar on the ground floor, the American dining room on the first floor and the Club Room on the lower ground floor. According to the restaurant, the building opened in 1870 as London's first licensed casino and later served as a papier-mâché factory. Hospitality Week gives a different sequence, dating a papier-mâché works on the site to 1839 and a rebuild as the Victoria Sporting Club to 1864.
The timing is hard to miss. Christopher's reopened on 25 September 2025 after a refurbishment of all three floors by the interior designer Lucy Potter, with head chef Francis Agyepong, then 25 years into his time at the restaurant, still in the kitchen, according to The Upcoming. The closure falls almost exactly a year later.
Christopher's Covent Garden plans a move, not an ending
"This is not the end of Christopher's," Paul said, adding that the family intends to relocate and will share more about the next chapter in due course. Until a new permanent site is found, the company plans to run pop-ups and private events. No neighbourhood, opening date or format for the next address has been announced.
The news lands in a week of mixed signals for British restaurants. In Manchester, Another Hand closed its doors, while in the same London neighbourhood Cassette opened in Covent Garden with a French menu. For Christopher's, the open question is not whether it comes back but where, and how much of Wellington Street it can take along.
