Time to pour one out for one of central London’s martini-making staples: is closing. After 35 years, the restaurant and martini bar is bowing out of the Grade II listed former casino in Covent Garden that it has called home. 

The eatery, which went under a mega refurb in 2013, took to Instagram to announce that ‘after more than three decades on Wellington Street, the time is approaching for us to close the doors to our Covent Garden home’.

It’s not all bad news, though, because the family behind the famed resto is on the hunt for new digs. 

‘While we’re saying goodbye to this much-loved building, this is not the end of Christopher’s. We’re actively exploring a new home and looking forward to sharing more about the next chapter in due course,’ the announcement said. 

The current site opened in 1870 as London’s first licensed casino and has gone through many iterations in the decades since, including a stint as a papier mâché factory. Christopher’s took over the three-storey site in 1991, splitting its floors into a martini bar, American restaurant and a private Club Room.

Details of a new home for Christopher’s are yet to be announced, but there’s still time for one more martini at the Covent Garden bar, which will close at the end of this month. 

We’ll be keeping an eye on what fresh identity the site, which sits opposite the , will take on next.

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