The Southbank renaissance: This time it's for locals
It’s Saturday on the South Bank and crowds are heaving.
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crowds → ’ → Bank
The London Eye, almost as old as the first Giraffe World Kitchen restaurant (1998, Hampstead), feels almost old amid all the selfies and Lime bikes.
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Eye → feel → selfies
Tourists weave between hot-dog vendors and doughnut stands.
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Tourists → weave → vendors
Some find respite in the entrance to Sea Life, a once grand aquarium now easily missed along the thoroughfare, and others queue for the London Dungeon, which moved from its more fittingly sinister location in the belly of London Bridge to County Hall in 2013.
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others → find → 2013
The South Bank hasn’t been considered a cool part of town for decades.
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Bank → consider → decades
No district of London with an attraction called Shrek’s Adventure! can possibly inspire reverence or inspire prolonged visits from actual Londoners.
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district → call → Londoners
That’s not to say there aren’t cultural touchstones here: the Southbank Centre, the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, the BFI and Tate Modern are some of London’s best ports of call.
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Centre → ’ → call
They’re world famous, in fact.
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They → ’re → fact
But it isn’t them, it’s the overall feel of the place — the “vibe” in modern terms — and much of that can be pinned to food and drink.
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much → ’ → food
You can enjoy Hockney or Hamlet but you’ll be back over the river to Soho for a drink afterwards, or east to Borough Market for dinner (merhaba, Kismet; bonjour Camille).
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you → enjoy → dinner
These days, increasingly, the South Bank has options.
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Bank → have → options
It’s changing, evolving; people are starting to realise that all this brutalism, contemporary art and theatrical stardom is deserving of more than Wagamama, Strada and La Gamba.
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brutalism → change → Wagamama
These might be fine, to a point — let’s not be snobbish.
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’s → let → point
After all, accessible chains are generally willing and able to cough up for the soaring rents and why wouldn’t they invest in a site with riverside views?
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they → cough → views
But they’re not exciting; they hardly match up to Shakespeare.
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they → ’re → Shakespeare
He’s gambling on a venture at Sea Containers, a hotel and restaurant en vogue 10 years ago but much less talked about on the London scene today.
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He → gamble → scene
And he’s not opened one of his affordable burger bars or pizza joints.
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he → open → bars
It’s a fully fledged restaurant, serving tagliolini with crab from Brixham, Devon, and his famous beef Wellington.
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It → ’ → Brixham
His Idiot Sandwich Flight, at £26, attests to that.
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Flight → attest → that
But it’s a big opening, and it’s a marker in the South Bank sand.
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it → ’ → sand
Growing football at the Southbank
“Opening a restaurant on London’s South Bank this month feels like the perfect time,” Ramsay tells me while on a flight from the US.
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Ramsay → grow → US
“It’s one of the most multicultural and vibrant stretches of the capital — a place where the river brings people together, where street food, cafés and restaurants sit alongside music, theatre and art.
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food → ’ → music
This is a part of London with a monster footfall; one which, even if Londoners don’t buy into it, will entice an endless deluge of tourists regardless.
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Londoners → buy → tourists
Last year, South Bank BID, which lobbies for business interests in the area, reported 38 million visitors, representing a 20 per cent growth over two years.
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which → lobby → years
But there also seems to be a sense that Londoners are, at least in part, reclaiming this stretch of riverside too.
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Londoners → seem → riverside
“It’s one of the most multicultural and vibrant stretches of the capital”
Gordon Ramsay
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It → ’ → capital
Ramsay adds: “Food here isn’t simply something you eat — it’s part of the culture, the conversation and the energy of the riverside.
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it → add → riverside
It’s exciting and that is exactly why we wanted to be here.”
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we → ’ → ?
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Ramsay isn’t the only high-profile hospitality man banking on the place.
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Ramsay → read → place
Soon, Jack Croft and Will Murray, of Fallow, one of London’s most lauded restaurants (500,000 Instagram followers and counting), will put their own stamp on the South Bank, albeit in a different guise to Fallow.
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Croft → laud → Fallow
Together with business partner James Robson, who’s also led the group to open Roe, in Canary Wharf, and Fowl in Mayfair, they’ve taken on the restaurant space at the Oxo Tower, a landmark that first launched as a hospitality space in 1996.
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that → lead → 1996
Robson says there’s a “new energy” to the South Bank and taking on the Oxo Tower was ultimately a “no-brainer in 2026”.
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taking → say → 2026
“There’s definitely something happening in the area,” he tells the Standard.
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he → ’ → Standard
“I got the call that the venue was for sale while on holiday, a quick approach, and we owned it 18 days later.
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we → get → it
“We moved ultra-fast because it’s an amazing site in an area with enormous potential.
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it → move → potential
Robson says the team won’t be installing a branch of Fallow at the location.
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team → say → location
Instead, they’ll play to the strengths of the place, separating the 12,500 sq ft site into a chic brasserie on one side and, possibly, a more casual offering on the other.
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they → play → other
Much is still to be decided, he says.
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he → decide → ?
Either way, the current restaurant and bar is to be revamped and updated.
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restaurant → revamp → ?
“We’ll be polishing up the offering, giving it more value and a lot more love,” he says.
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he → polish → value
…and 38 more, not listed.
