New York meets Checkers

St Germain
80-90 Turnmill Street,
Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 5QU
United Kingdom


Where is it?

From the entrance go right and follow to the end of the bar, just before the restaurant. You’ll see a doorway on the right (you can see this point in the picture above by the second pendant light on the right). Go through it and follow around to the right and down the stairs. Tackle the stairs (it’s amazing how far they go down!) and at the bottom keep going. The rest rooms are on the right.


What’s it like?

This restaurant is just down the street from the famous Turnmills nightclub, but caters more for the City crowd. Converted from a 19th Century print house it has a cool New York loft feel. The décor in the bar relies on black and white checks. It was quiet when I arrived, and only the fact I was on serious business stopped me from playing checkers using the floor.

The checked theme is carried through to the toilets. Bright and clean these toilets aim at cool style like only the city restaurants can. A large mirror over the sink is surrounded by small black and white tiles. Small tiles always have the potential to make me feel dizzy, but I was so distracted by the shine on the towel dispenser I hardly noticed. Shiny chrome like I have never seen! Followed through with a cool soap dispenser with equally stylish soap, you could hardly fault the place.


Marks out of 10:

9. Cool and chic as only the City can pull off.


Comments to the management:

Sorry we kept the table without eating, but hey we needed to do the interview!