Simpson's-in-the-Strand
Encyclopedia
Simpson's-in-the-Strand is one of London
's oldest traditional English restaurants. Situated in the Strand
, it is part of the Savoy Buildings, which also contain one of the world's most famous hotels, the Savoy
.
After a modest start as a smoking room
and then a coffee house, Simpson's achieved a dual fame, for its traditional English food, particularly roast meats, and also as the most important venue in Britain for chess
in the nineteenth century. Chess ceased to be a feature after Simpson's was bought by the Savoy Hotel group of companies at the end of the century, but as a purveyor of traditional English food Simpson's has remained a celebrated dining venue throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.
, but this was replaced by Samuel Reiss's Grand Cigar Divan which opened in 1828. The establishment soon developed as a coffee house, where gentlemen smoked cigars with their coffee, browsed over the daily journals and newspapers, indulged in lengthy conversations about the politics of the day and played chess
, sitting on comfortable divans or sofas. Regular visitors would pay one guinea
a year for the use of the facilities and cups of coffee. The daily entrance fee for others was 6d (2½p), or 1/6d (7½p) with coffee and a cigar.
Chess matches were played against other coffee houses in the town, with top-hatted runners carrying the news of each move. The Grand Cigar Divan soon became recognised as the home of chess in England. Today, one of Simpson's original chess sets is displayed in the Bishop's Room.
In 1848, Reiss joined forces with the caterer John Simpson (1808 or 09–1864) to expand the premises, renaming it "Simpson's Grand Divan Tavern". It was soon established as one of the top London restaurants, becoming an established attraction with patrons including Charles Dickens
, William Ewart Gladstone
, and Benjamin Disraeli. Simpson introduced the practice of wheeling large joints of meat on silver dinner trolleys to each table and carving them in front of guests – a custom that still prevails today. The establishment flourished: in the 1851 census, the Cigar Divan's premises were home to the tavern keeper, the manager, and 21 staff. The restaurant was, according to the Baedeker
guide for 1866, a "large well-appointed establishment".
Shortly before his death in 1864, John Simpson sold the restaurant to Edmund William Cathie, and in 1865 the business was floated as a limited company
. A prospectus was issued for "Simpson's (Ltd)" with capital of £100,000 (£ as of ), to purchase and extend the Divan Tavern. The prospectus stressed the great increase in trade caused by the opening of Charing Cross
station nearby, and that Cathie would remain as manager. He employed the British Master Cook, Thomas Davey, who rose through the ranks to head his kitchens. Davey insisted on the thorough and consistent Britishness of Simpson's. He even replaced the word "menu" with "Bill of Fare".
In 1898 Richard D'Oyly Carte
, proprietor of the Savoy Hotel
, acquired Simpson's. Carte died in 1901, and his son Rupert D'Oyly Carte
took over the business from 1903, in which year Simpsons was closed for redevelopment. All the old furniture and fittings were sold off, including the largest solid mahogany table in existence, 265 chairs, and 60 other mahogany dining tables. The restaurant reopened in 1904 under the name it bears today, Simpson's-in-the-Strand, Grand Divan Tavern.
in 1905, details were given of the Simpson's method of cooking beef. "A large open fire is absolutely indispensable, and it must be sufficiently large for every portion of the joint to face the centre or 'red' fire, which will give a steady and ascertained heat during the whole time the joint is revolving and being cooked ... basting must be continuously done.... Not more than one minute should elapse from the time the joint is taken from the spit until it appears at table."
In 1914 the death of the head chef at Simpson's was a sufficiently noteworthy event that The Times featured the news under the headline "Thomas Davey and his culinary patriotism". The obituary noted that Davey, who died in harness aged 72, had commanded a brigade of 100 men, and that under his supervision 1,400 pounds of English meat, 300 pounds of turbot, 100 pounds of Scotch salmon, and two wagonsful of vegetables were on average prepared for the table every day.
World War I
did not at first affect Simpson's supplies, though manpower was scarce. In 1915, P.G. Wodehouse wrote:
Later, however, supplies were rationed. By 1917 all restaurants except the most basic kind were obliged to have a completely meat-free menu one day a week, though Simpson's still offered luxurious fish, including salmon, sole and turbot.
The inter-war years saw another high period for Simpson's. Thirty years later the elderly George Lyttelton
reminisced, "Did you never know the agonising choice put before you in the pre-war Simpson’s – saddle of mutton or beef ... both perfect of their kind?" It is illustrative of the continuing high profile of the establishment that the death of its long-serving doorman was covered in the press: "It is estimated that 'Old Matt' opened the doors of over 2,000,000 private cars, taxicabs, and – in Edwardian days – hansom cabs which drew up outside Simpson's." The head chef of this period was A. W. Willis.
Early in 1939, before the outbreak of World War II
, the Savoy Group, now under Rupert D'Oyly Carte
, proposed to open a sister restaurant of Simpson's, near Leicester Square
, but this took many years to come to fruition. During the war Simpson's was severely hit by the shortage of butchers' meat, their celebrated sirloins of beef and saddles of mutton disappearing from the trolleys, not to be seen again in their full glory until long after the end of the war, as Britain remained on rations until 1954. Partial relief came with an agreement with Cameron of Lochiel to supply his venison from Scotland, as well as herrings for smoking. Simpson's, like all luxury restaurants, was included in the wartime rule imposing a five shilling limit on the price of a restaurant meal.
When the first Michelin Guide
to England was published in 1974, no UK restaurant was judged worthy of the maximum three stars, or even two, but Simpson's was one of nine London restaurants, including Le Gavroche
, awarded a star. In 1978 Simpson's celebrated its 150th anniversary with a luncheon consisting of all the items from the earliest recorded menu, starting with turtle soup, going on with roast sirloin of beef and saddle of mutton and ending with boiled syrup roll. The next year, mutton had to be dropped from the menu, replaced by lamb because procuring top quality mutton was increasingly difficult, and the meat was no longer fashionable. In 1982, after a thirty-year absence, rabbit was restored to the menu; it was served in a cream and mushroom sauce.
in 1984 Simpson's dropped its rule forbidding women from using the panelled street-level dining-room at lunchtime. Before 1984, ladies were asked to use the dining room in the floor above, which was specially decorated in pastel colours. Also on the first floor is the richly-decorated late-Victorian
banqueting room, which can comfortably seat more than 100 people. Another banqueting room on the lower ground floor is in a more modern 1930s style. There are also two cocktail bars, the Knight's Bar on the first floor, a popular Art Deco
-styled piano cocktail bar
, and a bar in The Bishop's Room, which is now only used for functions.
In 1994 Simpson's began serving breakfasts for the first time. A light menu was available, but the emphasis was on hearty traditional English breakfasts. The most substantial offering was, and is, "The Ten Deadly Sins", consisting of Cumberland sausage, scrambled egg, streaky and back bacon, black pudding, fried mushrooms, baked tomato, kidney, fried bread, bubble & squeak and baked beans.
The Savoy Group was purchased in 1998 by a private equity house, Blackstone Group
, and, after further changes of ownership, the Savoy Hotel and Simpson's were split off from the rest of the group in 2005 and are run by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
. As at February 2007, Simpson's was managed by Jeremy Hopkins, and the Master Cook was Paul Muddiman.
Simpson's continues to serve classic British style cuisine. The restaurant's dinner specialty is aged Scottish beef on the bone, carved at guests' tables from antique silver-domed trolleys, a tradition that the restaurant has maintained for over 150 years. Other signature dishes include potted shrimps, roast saddle of lamb and steak and kidney pie.
is considered the home of tennis and Lord's
the home of cricket, Simpson's could, in the 19th century, justifiably claim the equivalent title for chess. Almost all the top players of the century played there at some stage, including Wilhelm Steinitz
, Paul Morphy
, Emmanuel Lasker, Johannes Zukertort
(who had a fatal stroke while playing there), and Siegbert Tarrasch
. It was in Simpson's in 1851 that one of the world's great games, the famous "Immortal Game", was played between Adolf Anderssen
and Lionel Kieseritzky
. It also hosted the great tournaments of 1883 and 1899, and the first ever women's international in 1897.
When the refurbished Simpson's reopened under its new management in 1904, chess was no longer the principal feature. This alone was sufficient to shift the centre of the chess world away from London permanently, with similar clubs in Vienna and Berlin filling its role. Chess reappeared at Simpson's in 1980, when the finals of the National Chess Club Championship were held there. In September 2003 a small tournament was held there to celebrate the 175th anniversary of chess on the site, and named after the unofficial world champion
during the 1840s and 50s, Howard Staunton
. By 2006, the fourth Staunton Memorial was declared the strongest London all-play-all tournament since 1986, with high calibre grandmasters such as Michael Adams, Ivan Sokolov
and Jan Timman
competing. The fifth Staunton Memorial in 2007 featured a field of twelve players, six British and six Dutch.
, when David Niven
's character leans over his wounded companion and tells him that he will recover in no time, and they will return to London and go straight to Simpson's and have roast beef. In E. M. Forster's
Howards End
, Henry Wilcox is a devotee of Simpson's. P. G. Wodehouse
devoted several paragraphs of Something New
to the restaurant, and in his novel Psmith in the City
, his two heroes dine there: "Psmith waited for Mike while he changed, and carried him off in a cab to Simpson's, a restaurant which, as he justly observed, offered two great advantages, namely, that you need not dress, and, secondly, that you paid your half-crown, and were then at liberty to eat till you were helpless, if you felt so disposed, without extra charge." Simpson's is also featured in Wodehouse's "Cocktail Time
" as the restaurant that one of the characters, Cosmo Wisdom, chooses to lunch at after leaving Prison. Simpson's also features in the Sherlock Holmes
stories. Watson joins Holmes there during the story "The Illustrious Client"; the detective is sitting "looking down at the rushing stream of life in the Strand".
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's oldest traditional English restaurants. Situated in the Strand
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
, it is part of the Savoy Buildings, which also contain one of the world's most famous hotels, the Savoy
Savoy Hotel
The Savoy Hotel is a hotel located on the Strand, in the City of Westminster in central London. Built by impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the hotel opened on 6 August 1889. It was the first in the Savoy group of hotels and restaurants owned by...
.
After a modest start as a smoking room
Smoking room
A Smoking room is a room which is specifically provided and furnished for smoking, generally in buildings where smoking is otherwise prohibited....
and then a coffee house, Simpson's achieved a dual fame, for its traditional English food, particularly roast meats, and also as the most important venue in Britain for chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
in the nineteenth century. Chess ceased to be a feature after Simpson's was bought by the Savoy Hotel group of companies at the end of the century, but as a purveyor of traditional English food Simpson's has remained a celebrated dining venue throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.
Early development
An earlier building on the site was the Fountain Tavern, home to the celebrated literary group the Kit-Cat ClubKit-Cat Club
The Kit-Cat Club was an early 18th century English club in London with strong political and literary associations, committed to the furtherance of Whig objectives, meeting at the Trumpet tavern in London, and at Water Oakley in the Berkshire countryside.The first meetings were held at a tavern in...
, but this was replaced by Samuel Reiss's Grand Cigar Divan which opened in 1828. The establishment soon developed as a coffee house, where gentlemen smoked cigars with their coffee, browsed over the daily journals and newspapers, indulged in lengthy conversations about the politics of the day and played chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, sitting on comfortable divans or sofas. Regular visitors would pay one guinea
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
a year for the use of the facilities and cups of coffee. The daily entrance fee for others was 6d (2½p), or 1/6d (7½p) with coffee and a cigar.
Chess matches were played against other coffee houses in the town, with top-hatted runners carrying the news of each move. The Grand Cigar Divan soon became recognised as the home of chess in England. Today, one of Simpson's original chess sets is displayed in the Bishop's Room.
In 1848, Reiss joined forces with the caterer John Simpson (1808 or 09–1864) to expand the premises, renaming it "Simpson's Grand Divan Tavern". It was soon established as one of the top London restaurants, becoming an established attraction with patrons including Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
, and Benjamin Disraeli. Simpson introduced the practice of wheeling large joints of meat on silver dinner trolleys to each table and carving them in front of guests – a custom that still prevails today. The establishment flourished: in the 1851 census, the Cigar Divan's premises were home to the tavern keeper, the manager, and 21 staff. The restaurant was, according to the Baedeker
Baedeker
Verlag Karl Baedeker is a Germany-based publisher and pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides. The guides, often referred as simply "Baedekers" , contain important introductions, descriptions of buildings, of museum collections, etc., written by the best specialists, and...
guide for 1866, a "large well-appointed establishment".
Shortly before his death in 1864, John Simpson sold the restaurant to Edmund William Cathie, and in 1865 the business was floated as a limited company
Limited company
A limited company is a company in which the liability of the members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. And the former of these, a limited company limited by shares, may be...
. A prospectus was issued for "Simpson's (Ltd)" with capital of £100,000 (£ as of ), to purchase and extend the Divan Tavern. The prospectus stressed the great increase in trade caused by the opening of Charing Cross
Charing Cross
Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London, England. It is named after the now demolished Eleanor cross that stood there, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross is now occupied by an equestrian...
station nearby, and that Cathie would remain as manager. He employed the British Master Cook, Thomas Davey, who rose through the ranks to head his kitchens. Davey insisted on the thorough and consistent Britishness of Simpson's. He even replaced the word "menu" with "Bill of Fare".
In 1898 Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...
, proprietor of the Savoy Hotel
Savoy Hotel
The Savoy Hotel is a hotel located on the Strand, in the City of Westminster in central London. Built by impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the hotel opened on 6 August 1889. It was the first in the Savoy group of hotels and restaurants owned by...
, acquired Simpson's. Carte died in 1901, and his son Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte was an English hotelier, theatre owner and impresario, best known as proprietor of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Savoy Hotel from 1913 to 1948....
took over the business from 1903, in which year Simpsons was closed for redevelopment. All the old furniture and fittings were sold off, including the largest solid mahogany table in existence, 265 chairs, and 60 other mahogany dining tables. The restaurant reopened in 1904 under the name it bears today, Simpson's-in-the-Strand, Grand Divan Tavern.
20th century to WWII
Though the premises were updated under the new management, cooking methods remained traditional. In an article in The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
in 1905, details were given of the Simpson's method of cooking beef. "A large open fire is absolutely indispensable, and it must be sufficiently large for every portion of the joint to face the centre or 'red' fire, which will give a steady and ascertained heat during the whole time the joint is revolving and being cooked ... basting must be continuously done.... Not more than one minute should elapse from the time the joint is taken from the spit until it appears at table."
In 1914 the death of the head chef at Simpson's was a sufficiently noteworthy event that The Times featured the news under the headline "Thomas Davey and his culinary patriotism". The obituary noted that Davey, who died in harness aged 72, had commanded a brigade of 100 men, and that under his supervision 1,400 pounds of English meat, 300 pounds of turbot, 100 pounds of Scotch salmon, and two wagonsful of vegetables were on average prepared for the table every day.
World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
did not at first affect Simpson's supplies, though manpower was scarce. In 1915, P.G. Wodehouse wrote:
- Simpson's in the Strand, is unique. Here, if he wishes, the Briton may, for the small sum of half a dollar, stupefy himself with food. The God of Fatted Plenty has the place under his protection. Its keynote is solid comfort. It is a pleasant, soothing, hearty place – a restful temple of food. No strident orchestra forces the diner to bolt beef in ragtimeRagtimeRagtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
. No long central aisle distracts his attention with its stream of new arrivals. There he sits, alone with his food, while white-robed priests, wheeling their smoking trucks, move to and fro, ever ready with fresh supplies.
Later, however, supplies were rationed. By 1917 all restaurants except the most basic kind were obliged to have a completely meat-free menu one day a week, though Simpson's still offered luxurious fish, including salmon, sole and turbot.
The inter-war years saw another high period for Simpson's. Thirty years later the elderly George Lyttelton
George William Lyttelton
The Hon George William Lyttelton was a British teacher and littérateur. Known in his lifetime as an inspiring teacher of classics and English literature at Eton, and an avid sportsman and sports writer, he became known to a wider audience with the posthumous publication of his letters, which...
reminisced, "Did you never know the agonising choice put before you in the pre-war Simpson’s – saddle of mutton or beef ... both perfect of their kind?" It is illustrative of the continuing high profile of the establishment that the death of its long-serving doorman was covered in the press: "It is estimated that 'Old Matt' opened the doors of over 2,000,000 private cars, taxicabs, and – in Edwardian days – hansom cabs which drew up outside Simpson's." The head chef of this period was A. W. Willis.
Early in 1939, before the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Savoy Group, now under Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte
Rupert D'Oyly Carte was an English hotelier, theatre owner and impresario, best known as proprietor of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Savoy Hotel from 1913 to 1948....
, proposed to open a sister restaurant of Simpson's, near Leicester Square
Leicester Square
Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...
, but this took many years to come to fruition. During the war Simpson's was severely hit by the shortage of butchers' meat, their celebrated sirloins of beef and saddles of mutton disappearing from the trolleys, not to be seen again in their full glory until long after the end of the war, as Britain remained on rations until 1954. Partial relief came with an agreement with Cameron of Lochiel to supply his venison from Scotland, as well as herrings for smoking. Simpson's, like all luxury restaurants, was included in the wartime rule imposing a five shilling limit on the price of a restaurant meal.
After WWII
After the war Simpson's, like the rest of the Savoy Group, was hit by a strike of its employees in support of a waiter dismissed from the Savoy Hotel. The matter was judged so serious that the government set up a court of inquiry. After the resolution of that dispute, the next major development in the history of the restaurant was the resuscitation of the pre-war plan to open a sister establishment on the site of Stone's Chop House near Leicester Square. In 1959, Simpson's lost another notable member of its staff. Frederick William Heck died on his way home, having consumed a heavy luncheon, and having completed 55 years’ service, 40 years as manager. Ralph R. Smythe, Heck’s assistant since 1955, was appointed manager. In 1963, the Savoy group finally achieved its aim from 1939 of opening a second Simpson's, at the revived Stone's Chop House.When the first Michelin Guide
Michelin Guide
The Michelin Guide is a series of annual guide books published by Michelin for over a dozen countries. The term normally refers to the Michelin Red Guide, the oldest and best-known European hotel and restaurant guide, which awards the Michelin stars...
to England was published in 1974, no UK restaurant was judged worthy of the maximum three stars, or even two, but Simpson's was one of nine London restaurants, including Le Gavroche
Le Gavroche
Le Gavroche is a restaurant on 43 Upper Brook Street in Mayfair . It was opened in 1967 by Michel and Albert Roux although the original premises were on 61 Lower Sloane Street until 1981....
, awarded a star. In 1978 Simpson's celebrated its 150th anniversary with a luncheon consisting of all the items from the earliest recorded menu, starting with turtle soup, going on with roast sirloin of beef and saddle of mutton and ending with boiled syrup roll. The next year, mutton had to be dropped from the menu, replaced by lamb because procuring top quality mutton was increasingly difficult, and the meat was no longer fashionable. In 1982, after a thirty-year absence, rabbit was restored to the menu; it was served in a cream and mushroom sauce.
in 1984 Simpson's dropped its rule forbidding women from using the panelled street-level dining-room at lunchtime. Before 1984, ladies were asked to use the dining room in the floor above, which was specially decorated in pastel colours. Also on the first floor is the richly-decorated late-Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
banqueting room, which can comfortably seat more than 100 people. Another banqueting room on the lower ground floor is in a more modern 1930s style. There are also two cocktail bars, the Knight's Bar on the first floor, a popular Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
-styled piano cocktail bar
Piano bar
A piano bar consists of a piano or electronic keyboard played by a professional musician, located in a cocktail lounge, bar, hotel lobby, office building lobby, restaurant, or on a cruise ship. Usually the pianist receives a small salary plus tips in a jar or basket on or near the piano,...
, and a bar in The Bishop's Room, which is now only used for functions.
In 1994 Simpson's began serving breakfasts for the first time. A light menu was available, but the emphasis was on hearty traditional English breakfasts. The most substantial offering was, and is, "The Ten Deadly Sins", consisting of Cumberland sausage, scrambled egg, streaky and back bacon, black pudding, fried mushrooms, baked tomato, kidney, fried bread, bubble & squeak and baked beans.
The Savoy Group was purchased in 1998 by a private equity house, Blackstone Group
Blackstone Group
The Blackstone Group L.P. is an American-based alternative asset management and financial services company that specializes in private equity, real estate, and credit and marketable alternative investment strategies, as well as financial advisory services, such as mergers and acquisitions ,...
, and, after further changes of ownership, the Savoy Hotel and Simpson's were split off from the rest of the group in 2005 and are run by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is a Canadian-based operator of luxury hotels and resorts. Currently, Fairmont operates properties in 18 countries including Canada, the United States, Mexico, Bermuda, Barbados, United Kingdom, Monaco, Germany, Switzerland, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, the...
. As at February 2007, Simpson's was managed by Jeremy Hopkins, and the Master Cook was Paul Muddiman.
Simpson's continues to serve classic British style cuisine. The restaurant's dinner specialty is aged Scottish beef on the bone, carved at guests' tables from antique silver-domed trolleys, a tradition that the restaurant has maintained for over 150 years. Other signature dishes include potted shrimps, roast saddle of lamb and steak and kidney pie.
Simpson's and chess
Just as WimbledonWimbledon, London
Wimbledon is a district in the south west area of London, England, located south of Wandsworth, and east of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated within Greater London. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas...
is considered the home of tennis and Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
the home of cricket, Simpson's could, in the 19th century, justifiably claim the equivalent title for chess. Almost all the top players of the century played there at some stage, including Wilhelm Steinitz
Wilhelm Steinitz
Wilhelm Steinitz was an Austrian and then American chess player and the first undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894. From the 1870s onwards, commentators have debated whether Steinitz was effectively the champion earlier...
, Paul Morphy
Paul Morphy
Paul Charles Morphy was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was a chess prodigy...
, Emmanuel Lasker, Johannes Zukertort
Johannes Zukertort
Johannes Hermann Zukertort was a leading chess master of German-Polish-Jewish origin. He was one of the leading world players for most of the 1870s and 1880s, and lost to Wilhelm Steinitz in the World Chess Championship 1886, which is generally seen as the first World Chess Championship match, he...
(who had a fatal stroke while playing there), and Siegbert Tarrasch
Siegbert Tarrasch
Siegbert Tarrasch was one of the strongest chess players and most influential chess teachers of the late 19th century and early 20th century....
. It was in Simpson's in 1851 that one of the world's great games, the famous "Immortal Game", was played between Adolf Anderssen
Adolf Anderssen
Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen was a German chess master. He is considered to have been the world's leading chess player in the 1850s and 1860s...
and Lionel Kieseritzky
Lionel Kieseritzky
Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky was a 19th-century chess master, famous primarily for a game he lost against Adolf Anderssen, which because of its brilliance was named "The Immortal Game".-Early life:...
. It also hosted the great tournaments of 1883 and 1899, and the first ever women's international in 1897.
When the refurbished Simpson's reopened under its new management in 1904, chess was no longer the principal feature. This alone was sufficient to shift the centre of the chess world away from London permanently, with similar clubs in Vienna and Berlin filling its role. Chess reappeared at Simpson's in 1980, when the finals of the National Chess Club Championship were held there. In September 2003 a small tournament was held there to celebrate the 175th anniversary of chess on the site, and named after the unofficial world champion
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....
during the 1840s and 50s, Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton was an English chess master who is generally regarded as having been the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Saint-Amant. He promoted a chess set of clearly distinguishable pieces of standardised shape—the Staunton pattern—that...
. By 2006, the fourth Staunton Memorial was declared the strongest London all-play-all tournament since 1986, with high calibre grandmasters such as Michael Adams, Ivan Sokolov
Ivan Sokolov
Ivan Sokolov is a chess grandmaster born in Jajce, SFR Yugoslavia, who currently resides in the Netherlands. Sokolov won the 1988 Yugoslav Championship....
and Jan Timman
Jan Timman
Jan Timman is a Dutch chess Grandmaster who was one of the world's leading players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known as "The Best of the West"...
competing. The fifth Staunton Memorial in 2007 featured a field of twelve players, six British and six Dutch.
In film and literature
In film, one of the restaurant's most famous mentions is in The Guns of NavaroneThe Guns of Navarone (film)
The Guns of Navarone is a 1961 British-American Action/Adventure war film based on the 1957 novel of the same name about the Dodecanese Campaign of World War II by Scottish thriller writer Alistair MacLean. It stars Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn, along with Anthony Quayle and Stanley...
, when David Niven
David Niven
James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
's character leans over his wounded companion and tells him that he will recover in no time, and they will return to London and go straight to Simpson's and have roast beef. In E. M. Forster's
E. M. Forster
Edward Morgan Forster OM, CH was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society...
Howards End
Howards End
Howards End is a novel by E. M. Forster, first published in 1910, which tells a story of class struggle in turn-of-the-century England. The main theme is the difficulties, troubles, and also the benefits of relationships between members of different social classes...
, Henry Wilcox is a devotee of Simpson's. P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
devoted several paragraphs of Something New
Something Fresh
Something Fresh is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published as a book in the United States, by D. Appleton & Company on September 3, 1915, under the title Something New, having previously appeared under that title as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post between June 26 and August 14,...
to the restaurant, and in his novel Psmith in the City
Psmith in the City
Psmith in the City is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 23 September 1910 by Adam & Charles Black, London. The story was originally released as a serial in The Captain magazine, between October 1908 and March 1909, under the title The New Fold.It continues the adventures of...
, his two heroes dine there: "Psmith waited for Mike while he changed, and carried him off in a cab to Simpson's, a restaurant which, as he justly observed, offered two great advantages, namely, that you need not dress, and, secondly, that you paid your half-crown, and were then at liberty to eat till you were helpless, if you felt so disposed, without extra charge." Simpson's is also featured in Wodehouse's "Cocktail Time
Cocktail Time
thumb|1st UK editionCocktail Time is a comic novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on June 20, 1958 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on July 24, 1958 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York...
" as the restaurant that one of the characters, Cosmo Wisdom, chooses to lunch at after leaving Prison. Simpson's also features in the Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
stories. Watson joins Holmes there during the story "The Illustrious Client"; the detective is sitting "looking down at the rushing stream of life in the Strand".