Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings, London: brunch review

Published: May 22, 2015 at 1:46 PM

Our content is updated regularly but it’s advisable to check opening times and availability with the venue before you plan to visit.

We review the Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings, the latest venue from the group that have bought us Reverend JW Simpson bar on Goodge Street, B&H bar Charlotte Street, and the infamous Blitz parties. It's open all day, but the brunch is worth getting up for.

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It’s official: we’re obsessed with brunch. And can you really blame us? It’s the meal we most look forward to. Being able to spend a relaxed couple of hours catching up with friends over some good food and a few bloody marys feels like a real luxury without the price tag of dinner. Luckily for us, London agrees, and there’s now an expansive list of restaurants offering diners everything from posh toast to confit duck.

One of our current favourites is at the Bourne and Hollingsworth Buildings. In a quiet pocket of Clerkenwell, just round the corner from Exmouth Market, the building interior takes inspiration from the faded grandeur of a stately home with a modern twist. The space is clean and bright, with whitewashed floorboards juxtaposed with antique furniture and interestingly textured upholstery. It’s a huge space, with several distinct areas; private dining room, bar, restaurant and more relaxed, café-style sofas, which gives you the feeling that you could really spend all day there.

We pulled up a couple of stools at the bar for brunch and got stuck in to their cocktail menu, which features bottomless house bloody marys and seasonal bellinis alongside signatures like the Bloody screwdriver; vodka, Aperol, blood orange and Seville orange sherbet, and Frappé cubano; basically a rum-spiked iced coffee – heaven.

You can eat at the bar, too. The menu from Alex Visciano, previously of the Connaught, covers all bases, offering everything from homemade granola or buckwheat porridge if you’re feeling virtuous, to French toast with banana and chocolate, and crisp potato hash with braised beef. The hero for us though, had to be the huevos benedictos; golden, runny poached egg served with crisp chorizo, avocado, punchy pico de gallo and a tarragon-spiked béarnaise on an English muffin. Utterly delicious and nothing breaks the £10 mark.

Brunch at the Bourne and Hollingsworth Buildings is available Saturday and Sunday 10am-4pm.