08/10/2026
The New Landlords of The Horseshoe Pub Clerkenwell.
When I arrive at the Horseshoe in Clerkenwell, London, Daniel Craig is sitting at the bar hearing about Gilbert, the pub’s resident ghost. Gilbert, according to Pauline Tucker, the landlady, was once the local hangman and still sometimes lurks down in the cellar. “You don’t see him. You feel him,” Tucker says.
She is retiring after running the pub with her husband, Richard, for 36 years and Craig has just become co-owner. Of all the many and varied challenges of owning a pub he possibly hadn’t expected this one, but the actor takes it in his stride, simply noting with dry amusement that the sitting tenant had not been mentioned in the particulars of the sale. “I don’t know what he drinks but we might have to leave a pint down there: ‘Here you are Gilbert,’” he says.
The former James Bond actor is the son and grandson of publicans and is making his own debut in this role with a A-list team from the world of hospitality. His partners in the venture are Nick Jones, the founder of Soho House, and Charlie Carroll, who is part of the team behind the Devonshire, which opened in Soho in 2023 and has become a packed, pulsating pub success story. The fourth partner is Justin O’Shea, creative director of the b**r brand Bad Belze, which he and Craig quietly launched this year.
The pair struck on the idea of brewing after Craig rejected various other beverage opportunities. “People have thrown vodkas towards me to run on the back of Bond and make something of that. And I’ve never been very interested,” he says. “I mean, I like vodka, but…” Not a huge martini drinker? “You know, occasionally.”
Craig as Benoit Blanc in the Knives Out film series
ALAMY
After a year working with a Camden brewer they came up with something they liked and which is named after the Ring O’Bells pub in Frodsham, Cheshire, which Craig lived above as a young boy when his father ran it. “It’s a crisp l***r. I don’t like complicated b**rs. I don’t like fruity. I like something that is cold and you can drink three or four — or more, if you are in the mood. To do something like that and do it properly is just a lovely challenge.”
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Simultaneously, they were looking for a pub with Carroll, who founded the Flat Iron steakhouse chain, and Jones, who has been friends with Craig for 30 years.
Meet the new pub landlords: why Daniel Craig is running a boozer
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When he was a child, people partied hard at his grandparents’ tavern. Now the actor is hoping for lively sessions at the Clerkenwell watering hole he co-owns with Nick Jones and Charlie Carroll
Nick Jones, Daniel Craig and Charlie Carroll at their new pub, the Horseshoe
Well that’s it From Pauline & Richard, it’s been a amazing experience for us over the 36years so much so we may write a book 😂 Thanks you to everyone who has made this journey so wonderful and given us and our family some wonderful memories.
In the words of a lovely man ,
Got bless and may your god go with you 😪🥰😎🙏
