Tom Kerridge closes London pub The Butcher’s Tap & Grill

Tom Kerridge has decided to close his London pub The Butcher’s Tap & Grill.

Celebrity chef Tom also owns The Coach and The Hand & Flowers in Marlow, which hold three Michelin stars between them, as well as Kerridge’s Bar & Grill.

The Butcher’s Tap opened in Chelsea in December 2023, but will close next month, with the pub’s final service taking place on Sunday, June 1, 2025.

A statement from The Tom Kerridge Group read: “After thoughtful consideration, The Tom Kerridge Group has made the difficult decision to close The Butcher’s Tap in Chelsea.

“The team has worked hard to make the concept work, but nothing is a given in the challenging climate hospitality businesses now face.

“Increasing costs demand a match in revenue and turnover that has not materialised at the site, providing an opportunity to regroup, rethink and rebuild.

“The Group remains confident it can learn from experiences in Chelsea and adapt to create something great.”

It continued: “Tom and colleagues are hugely appreciative of guests who have created brilliant memories since opening and an incredible team, whose future remains secure within the Group in place for what’s next.”

In December 2024, Tom spoke of the pressures the hospitality industry was facing following measures implemented by the government.

At the time, in an interview with Sky News, he said: “In terms of support for small businesses post-Budget, I think there’s a lot of business frustration.

“The hospitality industry always feels massively under pressure anyway. But now there are a lot of back-of-house pressures. All of the costs have gone up behind the scenes. 

“The problem is, it is beginning to be suffocated and strangled a little bit by those ongoing costs, with many closures already happening.

“I think in all honesty there will be a huge amount of closures. We’ve already got high-profile names and Michelin-starred restaurants that are deciding to shut their doors, because it just cannot operate at a profit.

“When that starts to happen, it does begin to filter down. It’s not just the smaller businesses that are saying it. Big-name chains or breweries are starting to push the government."

Tom Kerridge’s rise to fame

Tom attended catering college in Cheltenham before moving to London, where he honed his skills under Philip Britton, Steven Bull and Gary Rhodes.

He then moved to Norwich to work at Adlards, then a Michelin-starred modern European restaurant owned by David Adlard and headed by chef Roger Hickman.

In 2005, Tom and  his wife Beth decided it was time to spread their own wings and purchased the Hand & Flowers pub in Marlow.

Their pub has a comfortable atmosphere combined with high quality food, for which it was awarded a Michelin star in 2006, followed by a second in 2011, making it the first pub (or gastropub) in the UK to do so. It has retained both stars ever since.

Tom also starred in two series of the BBC's Great British Menu and is now part of the judging panel.