Resident’s Guide: the best restaurants in Clerkenwell, plus what to see, shop and do
Clerkenwell has always existed extra muros, both literally and figuratively. Its position just outside the City of London has allowed it to fly under the administrative eye, which has over the centuries endowed the neighbourhood with a free, bohemian and at times rakish character. Since the 11th century it has successively been the seat of bookish monks, notorious brothels, diligent industrialists, fashionable aristocrats and, latterly, dissident printers with a penchant for communist pamphlets. The eclectic air pervades today, though thankfully with more independent retail, Georgian architecture and top restaurants than bordellos and radicals.
The Italianate church, built in the late-19th century by architect John Dando Sedding, is one of the two churches at the heart of London’s Italian community, together with St Peter’s Italian Catholic Church nearby – although unlike the latter, Our Most Holy Redeemer is of a rare, mixed Anglo-Catholic denomination. The impressive campanile and red-white striping on the façade evoke Siena, as well as hints of Byzantine church-design, meanwhile the reserved interior and central baldacchino are modelled on Filippo Brunelleschi’s 15th-century Basilica di Santo Spirito in Florence. It’s a curious site in central London.
Photographs by Melkon Charchoglyan
Although this art gallery on Helmet Row is little-known even among Londoners, it’s a stalwart name on the international circuit and makes regular appearances at fairs such as Frieze and Art Basel. Opened by the gallerist Stuart Shave in 1998, and having perambulated through several locations in the city, it’s now housed in a large former warehouse and showcases some dozen exhibitions a year, typically solo shows. (A second location in St James’s opened on July 29th.) The art on display is often suspended in the attractive no-man’s-land between ‘modern’ and ‘contemporary’, where exploratory style and cerebral techniques have not yet drifted into commercialised in-jokes.
Photographs by Robert Glowacki
This restaurant is a podium of the best produce the UK has to offer, and has been for over 150 years. While meat plays an important role here, as the name suggests – with a good chop and a steak always on offer – the menu is vegetarian- and pescatarian-friendly: think Brixham pollock and English pea risotto. A well-priced set menu is available at lunch, and a sumptuous traditional roast on Sundays. Next door you’ll find the QCH’s fresh-produce deli and bottle-shop.
Read our feature with Quality Chop House head chef, Shaun Searley
St John takes places of pride in London’s restaurant scene. Its emphasis on zero-fuss, English cooking and waste-free snout-to-tail dining has rightfully won it much repute. First-time visitors are often confused by the rather white interior – described by one diner as “a cross between a cruise ship and a mental asylum” – but soon ease into its unorthodox charm. If there is one dish not to miss, it’s the bone marrow with salt and parsley on toast: simple, affordable and extraordinarily good. Out front is a spacious bar area for anyone who wishes to pop in a for just a casual bite and a drink. They don’t turn their snouts up here.
Photographs by Stefan Johnson
The clue is in the name: the cooking here is ‘Moorish’, encompassing the encyclopaedic delights of Spanish, North African, Syrian and Turkish cuisine. The interior is stuck in the late 1990s, when Moro opened, but this only adds to the allure, with tables spilling out onto the sidewalk on Exmouth Market. Recognisable plates like simple mezze platters or yoghurt cake with pistachio and pomegranates abound, but so do the inventive dishes that have kept Moro on the pedestal for over two decades. If the restaurant is fully booked, try the smaller sister venue, Morito, next door.
The Eagle is somewhere between a pub and a raucous taverna. The open kitchen dishes out mainly Mediterranean plates and in very helpful portions, with the daily-changing menu scrawled on the blackboard by the counter. Tables (except for early lunchers and diners) are unreserved so do expect a slight wait on Friday and Saturday nights.
Within just five years of opening, MagCulture has become not only one of the most reputable shops for print media – stocking everything from bread-and-butter titles to niche mono-mags on topics like skateboarding and printmaking – but also an integral part of magazine culture in its own right. The MagCulture artistic studio has helped launch several lauded publications, such as Noble Rot, meanwhile its podcast and events programme spreads love for print far beyond the bounds of Clerkenwell.
This London theatre is the epicentre of the capital’s contemporary dance scene: in 2005, more than 200 years after the theatre’s founding, the artistic director Alistair Spalding decided to focus on this niche in order to differentiate itself from the likes of the Royal Opera and National Theatre. And he has succeeded. Sadler’s Wells has pioneered a creative, of-the-day programme that pushes boundaries and offers an artistry that can’t be found on any other stage.
The pedestrianised avenue of Exmouth Market is an exemplary cluster of independent business, with a vibrant atmosphere throughout the week. On Friday and Saturday afternoons it turns into an international street food market, which has regularly catapulted some of its chefs from a humble stand to cosmopolitan stardom.
