Celebrity-Owned Pubs Worth the Pint (Not Just the Autograph)
News this week that James Blunt has bought a second London pub — The Carpenter's Arms in Hammersmith — is a decent excuse to ask the only useful question about celebrity-owned pubs: which are actually worth the pint?
Forget red carpets. In Britain, the celebrity trail is best followed with a pint glass in one hand and low expectations in the other.
Plenty of famous names have dipped into hospitality. The point of this list is separating the pubs a celebrity saved from the pubcos from the ones a celebrity built as a brand extension. The good ones are the pubs where the famous name is the least interesting thing about them.
Eleven you can open straight in the app. The twelfth — Guy Ritchie's Lore of the Sky at Compton Abbas Airfield in Dorset — is a smokehouse restaurant rather than a pub, so it isn't on Untappd, so PINtPOINT doesn't index it. We mention it because it's a properly odd, properly welcoming spot; if you're anywhere near a grass airstrip in North Dorset, go anyway.
London
The Grapes, LimehouseSir Ian McKellen · since 2011
The heavyweight of the list. Narrow Street, Limehouse, Thames views, low beams, dark wood. Charles Dickens namechecked it in Our Mutual Friend. Walter Raleigh reputedly launched from its steps. The current building went up in the 1720s on a site that had already been pouring for nearly a century and a half.
McKellen bought in with theatre director Sean Mathias and Evgeny Lebedev in 2011. Gandalf on the Thames is a fun sentence to say out loud, but The Grapes is a pub-first-and-famous-person-footnote-second — exactly how it should be.
📍 Open The Grapes in PINtPOINT →
The Fox & Pheasant, ChelseaJames Blunt (& Sofia Wellesley) · since 2017
Blunt and Wellesley bought The Fox & Pheasant after hearing their favourite local was at risk of closing. Which is a better origin story than most celebrity hospitality projects: not "brand extension", but "we actually drink here, so we bought it before someone flattened it".
Reopened 2018 as a polished-but-not-precious Chelsea/Fulham corner boozer — Victorian bones from 1846 kept intact, dartboard, wood-panelled fireplaces, a proper Sunday roast operation. Not likely to be your scruffy session pub. Very west London, and honest about it.
📍 Open The Fox & Pheasant in PINtPOINT →
Lore of the Land, FitzroviaGuy Ritchie · since 2019
Ritchie's pub interests are the closest thing on this list to a mini drinking empire — Lore of the Land is the central, accessible one. Three floors on Conway Street, near Warren Street tube. Serves his own Gritchie beer, brewed on his Ashcombe Estate in Wiltshire, and venison off the same farm.
Leans hard into the classic British pub ideal — warm lighting, proper food, curated drinks list, that slightly cinematic version of pub life where everything looks effortlessly old. Whether that reads as charming or a little too art-directed depends on your tolerance for authenticity-as-a-design-choice. Either way, the beer's genuinely his.
📍 Open Lore of the Land in PINtPOINT →
Bertie Blossoms, Notting HillEd Sheeran · since 2019
A slightly stranger beast. Bought in September 2019 (reportedly for £1.5m) on the site of the long-loved Galicia Spanish restaurant. Tapas-leaning menu, three fireplaces, a dartboard. Got its full drinks licence in 2020, so it now works as a pub, not just a restaurant.
Reopened after refurbishment in March 2025. It's not the place you'd choose for a perfect pint of cask, but Portobello Road has always mixed drinking with tourism, and Bertie Blossoms is a coherent version of what that mix looks like from a global-pop-star angle. If you're already on the market, worth the loop.
📍 Open Bertie Blossoms in PINtPOINT →
Porte Noire, King's CrossIdris Elba · since c.2021 · wine-bar exception
The wine-bar exception to a pub-heavy list. Coal Drops Yard, King's Cross. Elba built it around his own Porte Noire label — one of London's largest wine-tasting rooms, French brasserie menu, sister spin-off (The Parrot) at Aldwych. Not a pint of bitter and a packet of crisps situation. Sleeker, glossier, more modern — a long way from The Grapes' dark timber and river mist.
📍 Open Porte Noire in PINtPOINT →
Beyond the M25
The Farmer's Dog, Asthall, OxfordshireJeremy Clarkson · since 2024
Bought for around £1m and reopened as The Farmer's Dog on 23 August 2024. Site was formerly The Windmill — on the A40 near Burford, Cotswolds. Famous for a British-produce-only rule that bans black pepper, avocado and Coca-Cola, and for the "Farmer's Puppy" marquee that swallows the overflow queue on Clarkson's Farm filming days.
Serves his own Hawkstone Lager and Cider (brewed in a rebuilt barn on Diddly Squat Farm). The kitchen leans hard into the on-brand thing. It is exactly what you'd expect and no more, which is either its strength or its problem depending on why you came.
📍 Open The Farmer's Dog in PINtPOINT →
The Royal Oak, Swallowcliffe, WiltshireJames May · since 2020
May famously describes it as "buying half a pub". He's a part-owner, in with landlord Chris Byett and a group of village investors — a lockdown-era commitment when the pub trade was on its knees. The building is a Grade II 1705 tannery in a Wiltshire village on the Dorset border. Reopened in 2015 after seven years dark; May came aboard in 2020.
Country inn with rooms, straightforward kitchen, and his own James Gin range on the shelf. Absolutely a village pub, not a celebrity destination — the sort of place you might not clock the connection until someone said it out loud, which is the highest compliment a celebrity pub can be paid.
📍 Open The Royal Oak in PINtPOINT →
The Half Moon, Kirdford, West SussexJodie Kidd · since 2017
Model-turned-broadcaster Kidd bought The Half Moon in the summer of 2017. It's a Grade II listed 15th-century inglenook pub in a row of 1640 cottages, in a village near Billingshurst most people can't find on a map. Herb and veg garden feeds the kitchen; local Harvey's and Spitfire on the pumps.
Made the Top 50 Gastropubs list on merit, not on backstory. Genuinely one of the best country pubs in Sussex — the kind of place that would be worth the drive even if the owner was completely anonymous.
📍 Open The Half Moon in PINtPOINT →
The Hand & Flowers, MarlowTom Kerridge · since 2005
Kerridge is a stretch on the "celebrity" definition — he's a chef first — but with two decades on television and half a dozen books he now qualifies. What he built with Beth Cullen-Kerridge at The Hand & Flowers arguably invented the modern British gastropub template: first pub in the world to hold two Michelin stars, and still the only one to hold both plus the vibe of an actual pub you'd walk into for a pint of Rebellion.
Twenty years in in 2025. Marlow, West Street, no reservations for the bar side. The other side you book weeks out. Both sides are the same building.
📍 Open The Hand & Flowers in PINtPOINT →
The Tap & Run, Upper BroughtonNottinghamshire · Vale of Belvoir, near Melton Mowbray · Stuart Broad & Harry Gurney · since 2018
The deep-cut on the list. Broad and Gurney's Cat & Wickets Pub Company took over The Tap & Run in 2018 after a two-year closure, ran it as a proper regional gastropub with a serious cask range, then had to rebuild it in 2023 after a tumble-dryer fire took the roof off. Reopened March 2023 as a "second innings". Ten real ales; cricket-themed without being obnoxious about it.
Vale of Belvoir, near Melton Mowbray. Cricketers running a proper Midlands country pub — no theatrics, no on-brand kitchen concept, just a good pub that got better after a fire tried to end it.
📍 Open The Tap & Run in PINtPOINT →
Lore of the Sky, Compton Abbas, DorsetGuy Ritchie · airfield smokehouse (restaurant, not a pub)
Ritchie's second, and the more idiosyncratic of the pair. Sits on Compton Abbas Airfield in Dorset — a smokehouse kitchen open to walkers, drivers and light-aircraft pilots. The runway is grass. Strictly a restaurant rather than a pub, which is why it isn't on Untappd and PINtPOINT can't index it. Included here because it's the same Ritchie sensibility as Lore of the Land, just with a longer approach.
Arbeia, South Shields, Tyne & WearJade Thirlwall (Little Mix) · since 2019
Thirlwall's deliberate hometown venture. Opened 2019 as Red Door, rebranded to Arbeia in 2020 — named for the Roman fort on the hill above South Shields. Cocktails, pizza, live music, in a town short on decent late bars. A pop-star investing in her actual town rather than an already-flush London postcode is a rarer thing than it should be.
So, are celebrity pubs actually worth it?
Down the list: the best ones are the places where the famous name is the least interesting thing about them.
The Grapes would be worth the trip without McKellen. The Half Moon would be a Top 50 Gastropub whether or not Jodie Kidd owned it. The Hand & Flowers earned its Michelin stars before Kerridge became a TV name. The Royal Oak Swallowcliffe was a proper village inn before James May bought a bit of it, and would carry on being one if he sold up tomorrow. The Fox & Pheasant is a saved-from-closure story you can drink to.
At the other end: Bertie Blossoms, Lore of the Land, Porte Noire and Arbeia are more obviously celebrity-era venues — good, but the backstory is part of the product in a way that would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.
Britain has always mixed drinking with theatre, gossip, literature, money and myth. Sometimes you follow the beer. Sometimes you follow the story. Best of all, you can do both — and PINtPOINT will help you tell one from the other.
Find a pub near you on PINtPOINT
FAQ
Which UK pubs are owned by celebrities?
The best-documented current examples (as of July 2026): The Grapes in Limehouse (Sir Ian McKellen), The Fox & Pheasant in Chelsea (James Blunt), Lore of the Land in Fitzrovia and Lore of the Sky in Dorset (Guy Ritchie), Bertie Blossoms in Notting Hill (Ed Sheeran), Porte Noire in King's Cross (Idris Elba — a wine bar), The Farmer's Dog in Oxfordshire (Jeremy Clarkson), The Royal Oak in Swallowcliffe (James May, part-owner), The Half Moon in Kirdford (Jodie Kidd), The Hand & Flowers in Marlow (Tom Kerridge), The Tap & Run in Upper Broughton (Stuart Broad and Harry Gurney), and Arbeia in South Shields (Jade Thirlwall).
What happened to David Beckham's pub in Notting Hill?
The Walmer Castle on Ledbury Road was bought by David Beckham and Guy Ritchie in 2018 and redeveloped as a Scottish whisky bar and restaurant. It was reported to have been taken over by hotelier Piers Adam in February 2022, so it's not currently a Beckham-Ritchie project despite still turning up in old listicles.
Are these actually good pubs, or just autographs?
Sort them yourself by the same test we did: would the pub be worth a visit if the celebrity owner had never touched it? The Grapes, The Half Moon Kirdford, The Hand & Flowers and The Royal Oak Swallowcliffe are yes-by-a-mile. The Fox & Pheasant and The Tap & Run are strong local pubs the celebrity involvement saved or rebuilt rather than invented. Bertie Blossoms, Porte Noire, Lore of the Land and Arbeia are more clearly celebrity-era venues — good, but the backstory is genuinely part of the product.
Does Jeremy Clarkson really only serve British produce at The Farmer's Dog?
Yes. It's the pub's founding rule: no black pepper, no avocado, no Coca-Cola. Everything on the menu has to be sourced from Britain, and the pub serves Clarkson's own Hawkstone Lager and Cider brewed at Diddly Squat Farm. Whether that's principled or gimmicky depends who you ask — but it's real.
What does it mean when James May says he "bought half a pub"?
Literally that. May is a part-owner of The Royal Oak in Swallowcliffe alongside landlord Chris Byett and a group of village investors — a lockdown-era investment when small country pubs were at their most vulnerable. He's not the sole proprietor, and he doesn't run day-to-day.
Sources & further reading
The pubs themselves
- The Grapes, Limehouse
- The Fox & Pheasant, Chelsea
- Lore of the Land, Fitzrovia
- The Farmer's Dog, Asthall
- The Royal Oak, Swallowcliffe — James May page
- The Half Moon, Kirdford
- The Hand & Flowers, Marlow
- Porte Noire, King's Cross
Trade press & editorial
- Morning Advertiser — Which celebrities own pubs in the UK (rolling list, useful for ownership-status changes)
- Morning Advertiser — Broad & Gurney's second-innings rebuild of The Tap & Run
- Top 50 Gastropubs — currently includes both The Fox & Pheasant and The Half Moon
- Top 50 Gastropubs — The Half Moon Kirdford listing
- Forbes — Tom Kerridge on 20 years of The Hand & Flowers
- Absolutely Sussex — Jodie Kidd interview
- BBC — Tap & Run fire, October 2022
- Muddy Stilettos — Celebrity-owned pubs, bars and restaurants
- Secret London — Celebrity-owned restaurants and bars
Companion & context
- Companion: The Green Triangle and the Oldest Trademark in British Beer — heritage-and-shape counterpart to this heritage-and-owner piece.
- Wikipedia for backstop background: The Grapes, The Hand & Flowers, The Farmer's Dog.
- Original PINtPOINT-team draft by Sophie Ro (unpublished) — many of the framings and the "least interesting thing" verdict originate here.