Clapham pub re-opens after £250,000 investment

A Clapham pub that was razed to the ground last year is to be re-built with a £250,000 co-investment by owner Punch Taverns and licensee Michael Armstrong.

The Circle Bar, which was destroyed by a chimney fire in February 2011, is set to re-open in mid-April with a new name – The Rumford – and a new look.

Its new name is an ironic nod to the fire – The Rumford is a style of fireplace invented by Sir Benjamin Thompson, later Lord Rumford, in the 1790s. Lord Rumford was also a keen experimental cook, which is also apt because the pub will offer British cuisine but with “British Empire” influences in terms of Indian and Asian flavours.  

The all-new Rumford is to re-built from the ground upwards, combining a bar on the ground floor and a dining room plus function room on the first floor. The pub will be full of stylish design touches with glass walls on two sides of the first floor dining room, which will serve food lunchtimes and early evenings.

Michael, who has been running the venue since 2008, says: “The Rumford will be styled along a ‘maximalist’ theme to create a busy and funky, yet aesthetically pleasing and cosy environment. The pub has been a bit of an eyesore since the fire but it’s given us the chance to completely revamp the pub.”

Another feature of the Rumford will be its ground-breaking drinks offer, which Michael calls “molecular mixology”.  He runs another pub site in Earlsfield called Bar 366 where he has introduced a really unusual cocktail and spirits range that plays around with normal expectations. So, for example, he serves a “clear” Bloody Mary – it tastes just like a Bloody Mary but it looks like a clear liquid.  Similarly, he serves shots in pearl form, alcoholic foam and smoked bourbons that smell of lavender, hickory smoke and other unusual odours.

“It adds drama and surprise to the whole experience of having a drink,” says Michael, who is a chartered surveyor by training.

The Rumford will be managed by its previous manager Eduardo De La Mora,who has been working at Bar 366 during the period of the closure.

Punch Business Development Manager Nick Rowland-Hill said: “It’s wonderful that the Circle Bar is set to re-open in its exciting new guise as The Rumford. Michael has some wonderful plans to make it an absolutely outstanding venue.”   

Punch Taverns is a leading pub company in the UK with around 5,000 leased and tenanted pubs nationwide.

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