The article reviews the reopening of Cloth Cornhill, a historic London restaurant that closed due to a landlord dispute in 2022. The new owners have preserved its classic ambiance with dark wood decor and a Dickensian atmosphere. Located near Smithfield Market, it has been restored carefully by three entrepreneurs who negotiated a long-term lease, ensuring its survival for at least another decade. The review highlights the restaurant’s historical significance, dating back over two centuries, and praises its traditional offerings like sausages and fish dishes, which retain their original character despite modern touches.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-08,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Countless Londoners wallowed when the place closed, owing to a rent-fuelled landlord dispute, in 2022.
asserted
place → wallow → 2022
All that history, all that romance… gone.
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history → go → ?
Well here it is again, with a new name but the same dark wood, the same flickering light and Dickensian air.
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it → flicker → name
I admire the tables at the edge of the dining room, next to the windows.
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I → admire → windows
They’re small, discreet and face out and you cannot help but look intriguing sitting in one of those: I see bankers’ faces peering out from behind the breakers, red wine and hot mustard tickling moustaches, eyes glistening in lunch-time frazzlement.
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eyes → ’re → frazzlement
Might they throw chunks of bread through the open windows toward street urchins below?
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they → throw → urchins
I can’t imagine anyone will bemoan this restaurant’s return
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anyone → imagine → return
I can’t imagine anyone will bemoan this restaurant’s return.
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anyone → imagine → return
To see it back is remedial, even soulful, because it’s one of those buildings that brings about that wistful nostalgia so many desire.
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many → see → nostalgia
It’s the trio behind Cloth near Smithfield Market behind the revival.
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It → ’ → revival
The landlord is the same (Monster drinks, energetically rich), but a “virtual freehold” was negotiated on the 15-year lease so the lads would have to royally f*** up to be turfed out.
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lads → negotiate → lease
Enter again through Ball Court should you wish, though it’s more fun to bowl down St Michael’s Alley.
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it → enter → Alley
That way you can stop off for a pint at the Jamaica Wine House round the corner.
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you → stop → corner
Then, suitably lubed, marvel at the fact Cloth Cornhill has been restored so carefully.
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Cornhill → lube → fact
I dare say even Thomas Simpson, who in 1723 established his “Fish Ordinary”, which became the tavern, wouldn’t feel out of place here if he was drunk enough to ignore the card machines and everybody taking photos of sausages.
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he → dare → sausages
For as long as anybody can remember they arrived in steel trays for all, a democratic and purposeful addition to beer, wine and whisky.
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they → remember → beer
For £8, a sausage-and-a-half will be delivered to you now.
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sausage → deliver → you
Mine is plump and true, joyously devoid of herb-based terrorism.
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Mine → base → terrorism
Later on, Sarah behind the bar tells me dryly that extra portions keep arriving in the dumbwaiter.
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portions → tell → dumbwaiter
The upstairs room is abuzz with jolly old men wearing tweed, some asking for “your finest bitter” and others saying things about accounts.
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others → wear → accounts
This place, I hope, lives on for ever.
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I → hope → ?
It’s the best of what eating is
I have a schooner of beer (score) and settle down solo to a coronation crab rosti and a Shirley Jackson masterpiece, her darkness ideal in the surroundings.
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darkness → ’ → surroundings
It comes firm and pearly white, perfectly cooked, resting beneath a little crispy breadcrumb hat and on a finely prepared tartare sauce generous with briny capers.
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It → come → capers
Curiosity seeds me to try the potato dumpling, filled with taleggio and ensconced in a rich saffron sauce; there’s a smush of parsley below, wilted spinach above, and golden girolles scattered about the place.
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Curiosity → seed → place
It’s early days.
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It → ’ → ?
Or maybe that’s how the City folk like it.
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folk → ’ → it
Not that I imagine many will order this vegetarian dish: the gentleman to my right, anointing himself with champagne, oysters, a crab cocktail, a venison pie and a bottle of Bordeaux, eyes me with suspicion, unaware of my effortful plans to enjoy a pork chop with sauce Robert, a mustard and onion-laden espagnole derivative dating back to the 1600s.
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gentleman → imagine → 1600s
I have a sausage pie for pudding.
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I → have → pudding
No longer will punters witness the Stewed Cheese Challenge, a tradition wherein the person who has consumed the greatest amount of cheese on toast in one sitting wins a magnum of champagne, and there hasn’t been a courtyard duel for some time, anachronistic as that would sadly be.
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that → witness → time
But this place, I hope, lives on for ever.
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I → hope → ?
It’s the best of what eating is: communal, sentimental, munificent; forged lovingly on pints of beer and a careful willingness to feed, and not to yield to rampant tugs towards modernity.
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eating → ’ → modernity
The Cloth boys have done a touching job with this old tavern.
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boys → do → tavern
What you say
Mariko
“Food, wine, service, everything is absolutely amazing.
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Food → say → What
We had such a great experience here.
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We → have → experience
Tom
“They had so much to live up to, and yet that would have been so easily within their grasp...
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that → have → grasp
It’s now a distinctly average chop house with too many staff.”
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It → ’ → staff
The Aporia
