It\u2019s changing, evolving<\/a>; people are starting to realise that all this brutalism, contemporary art and theatrical stardom is deserving of more than Wagamama, Strada and La Gamba. <\/p>\nThese might be fine, to a point \u2014 let\u2019s not be snobbish. After all, accessible chains are generally willing and able to cough up for the soaring rents and why wouldn\u2019t they invest in a site with riverside views? But they\u2019re not exciting; they hardly match up to Shakespeare.<\/p>\n
Enter Gordon Ramsay. He\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
![\"Sea](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Sea-Containers-restaurant.jpeg\")
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Sea Containers restaurant <\/p>\n
Sea Containers<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s not opened one of his affordable burger bars or pizza joints. It\u2019s a fully fledged restaurant, serving tagliolini with crab from Brixham, Devon, and his famous beef Wellington. And sure, there are crowd-pleasers. <\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t food for Michelin inspectors. His Idiot Sandwich Flight, at \u00a326, attests to that. But it\u2019s a big opening, and it\u2019s a marker in the South Bank sand. <\/p>\n
Growing football at the Southbank<\/p>\n
\u201cOpening a restaurant on London\u2019s South Bank this month feels like the perfect time,\u201d Ramsay tells me while on a flight from the US. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the most multicultural and vibrant stretches of the capital \u2014 a place where the river brings people together, where street food, caf\u00e9s and restaurants sit alongside music, theatre and art.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramsay is classically upbeat. Why wouldn\u2019t he be? This is a part of London with a monster footfall; one which, even if Londoners don\u2019t buy into it, will entice an endless deluge of tourists regardless. Last year, South Bank BID, which lobbies for business interests in the area, reported 38\u2009million visitors, representing a 20 per cent growth over two years. But there also seems to be a sense that Londoners are, at least in part, reclaiming this stretch of riverside too. It should be for everyone. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the most multicultural and vibrant stretches of the capital\u201d<\/p>\n
Gordon Ramsay<\/p>\n
Ramsay adds: \u201cFood here isn\u2019t simply something you eat \u2014 it\u2019s part of the culture, the conversation and the energy of the riverside. It\u2019s exciting and that is exactly why we wanted to be here.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ramsay isn\u2019t the only high-profile hospitality man banking on the place. Soon, Jack Croft and Will Murray, of Fallow, one of London\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
Together with business partner James Robson, who\u2019s also led the group to open Roe, in Canary Wharf, and Fowl in Mayfair, they\u2019ve taken on the restaurant space at the Oxo Tower, a landmark that first launched as a hospitality space in 1996. Robson says there\u2019s a \u201cnew energy\u201d to the South Bank and taking on the Oxo Tower was ultimately a \u201cno-brainer in 2026\u201d. <\/p>\n
![\"Fallow,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Fallow-Southbank.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Fallow, soon to be at Oxo Tower<\/p>\n
Fallow<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely something happening in the area,\u201d he tells the Standard. \u201cI got the call that the venue was for sale while on holiday, a quick approach, and we owned it 18 days later. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe moved ultra-fast because it\u2019s an amazing site in an area with enormous potential. The views are incredible.\u201d <\/p>\n
Robson says the team won\u2019t be installing a branch of Fallow at the location. Instead, they\u2019ll 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. Much is still to be decided, he says. Either way, the current restaurant and bar is to be revamped and updated. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be polishing up the offering, giving it more value and a lot more love,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ll lean into the brand too and create something by our chefs. I think there\u2019ll be an elevated concept on one side, and then we\u2019ll draw on the history on the other. We\u2019ve gone in fast, but we always think very carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is there money to be made here, beyond the churn of chains and the stream of modest street food vans? \u201cThe restaurant is turning over about \u00a310\u2009million a year at the moment. <\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully we\u2019ll double that to get into profit. They\u2019re losing money at the moment. We can turn it around, invest and sharpen the place up; get some economies of scale going. I really think the South Bank is on fire.\u201d <\/p>\n
Restaurants are flocking to the area<\/p>\n
Robson mentions other restaurant brands soon to arrive. Caravan, a growing group of brunch-style restaurants founded by the Kiwi trio Miles Kirby, Laura Harper-Hinton and Chris Ammermann, is opening at the Southbank Centre, on the terrace, in the old Ping Pong location, in November.<\/p>\n
\u201cBorough Market isn\u2019t far away either,\u201d Robson adds. \u201cAnd there are street food vans everywhere, which is great for passing trade.\u201d <\/p>\n
With food and drink comes commerce. It\u2019s little wonder other industries are identifying a blossoming landscape, one that will feed London\u2019s office workers well, as well as affordably and conveniently. Next year, the Lego Group will move its London hub from Farringdon to the South Bank, taking on a 192,000 sq ft space over three and half floors. It shows intent. <\/p>\n
Loren I Shuster, chief people officer for Lego, said of the move last May: \u201cWe\u2019re excited about moving to the South Bank. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the cultural heart of London, which makes it the perfect location for a company dedicated to inspiring creativity. 76 Southbank is an iconic building.\u201d Kudos, then, to those with the foresight to have come in early. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the cultural heart of London\u201d<\/p>\n
Loren I Shuster<\/p>\n
One is Lasdun, which opened in the National Theatre way back in 2023. If anything, fanfare around the venture wasn\u2019t frenzied enough at the time \u2014 judging by today\u2019s standards, anyway, where restaurants are exalted as if Mayan gods \u2014 though it did get a four-star review from then Standard critic Jimi Famurewa<\/a>, and a similarly joyful write-up from Grace Dent. Anyway, Lasdun is the work of Jon Rotheram, Tom Harris and John Ogier, the trio behind the critically acclaimed Hackney pub The Marksman. Today the \u00a332 pre-theatre menu features dishes such as Cornish fish soup, smoked haddock fishcakes and slow-roast Hereford beef with bobby beans and mustard. <\/p>\nForza had been a part of Peckham\u2019s dining fabric for years, but there came a time to grow. The South Bank was where co-founders and childhood friends Bash Redford and Michael Lavery pitched up (they\u2019ve since opened another restaurant in Soho). <\/p>\n
![\"Forza](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Forza-Wine-at-the-National-Theatre-PR-shot-CREDIT-Caitlin-Isola.jpeg\")
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Forza Wine at the National Theatre <\/p>\n
Caitlin Isola<\/p>\n
Redford says: \u201cI don\u2019t want this to sound like a PR soundbite, but I think the South Bank is turning into a place that Londoners want to go. It\u2019s still a place for visitors and tourists, obviously, but ours is a restaurant for locals too. It\u2019s a balancing act. We have to think about everyone. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor a long time, our nearest competitor was Giraffe. Before we came here, I could count the number of times I\u2019d visited the South Bank on one hand. I suppose it was a prospect, but a gamble too. But we thought, maybe we can make this work.\u201d <\/p>\n
Forza Wine can be found on the first floor of the National Theatre. It boasts an enviable terrace overlooking Waterloo Bridge, Embankment and, newly, Nick Jones\u2019 St Clement hotel. Things are happening on both sides of the river. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe planned it out and we were excited about the footfall,\u201d Redford says. \u201cI do think there\u2019s long been an element of customers playing it safe. Maybe the younger crowd go to known brands and older ones stick to Pizza Express or Brasserie Blanc (Raymond Blanc\u2019s casual chain). <\/p>\n
\u201cBut we were excited at the time, about the footfall and what we could achieve. I think there\u2019s change happening here and it\u2019s very much a case of \u2018the more the merrier\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe this part of London was forgotten by the people who live here. There was snobbery around it. Not so much now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Saturday on the South Bank and crowds are heaving. The London Eye, almost as old as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1189716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,280,216814,91094,11646,16,15],"class_list":["post-1189715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-london","tag-restaurants","tag-south-bank","tag-southbank","tag-southbank-centre","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117224397286629141","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1189715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1189716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1189715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1189715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1189715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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