Our Story - St. JOHN

About

From a humble smokehouse beside Smithfield Market to a small family of restaurants, bakeries, and wines, all guided by the same simple principles.

In the early 1990’s, the derelict Georgian walls of 26 St. John Street stood covered in the graffiti of squatters, the latest occupants of a building that over two centuries had housed a socialist newspaper, a bean sprout factory and a bacon smokehouse, whose smoking towers still rise above us today.

When a shared olive oil supplier introduced Trevor Gulliver to Fergus Henderson, the talked-about young chef at the French House Dining Room, an idea began to take shape over many long lunches. In 1994 they opened St. JOHN Smithfield with whitewashed walls, skylights over the old courtyard, a room that unnerved people at first, then charmed them, then won their devotion.

There was never a grand plan, only a habit of doing the next thing that made sense. Trevor began importing wines directly from small French growers, and St. JOHN Wines was born. Our loaves outgrew the pastry counter and so St. JOHN Bakery moved into its home in Bermondsey.

In 2009 we gained a Michelin star, which we have quietly kept ever since. Through it all, St. JOHN has remained what Fergus hoped a restaurant could be: woven into the fabric of the city, a healthy constant, always yet never the same.

NOSE-TO-TAIL EATING

A respect for the whole.

Fergus’ Nose to Tail Eating, published in 1999, gave a name to the way we have always cooked and the phrase has since passed into everyday language. At its heart is a simple idea: if an animal is to be eaten, every part of it deserves respect, care and a place on the plate. That respect runs through everything we do. It is in the small-scale vignerons we work with, whose biodynamic and minimal-intervention methods reflect a reverence for their land. It is in our bread and doughnuts, made slowly and by hand. And it is in our belief that a restaurant and a bakery should serve the community around them. There is no quick way and no shortcut, and those principles run like an artery through all we do.

The Founders

FERGUS HENDERSON

The son of two architects – father a keen diner, mother a keen cook – Fergus first studied architecture before turning to cooking. After occasional stints at The Globe in Notting Hill, he and his wife Margot took over the dining room at The French House in Soho, quickly earning a loyal following and critical praise. Introduced to Trevor Gulliver over supper, and with Jon Spiteri, the trio opened St. JOHN.

TREVOR GULLIVER

When Fergus and Trevor first met, Trevor had recently created The Fire Station across the road from The Old Vic Theatre in Waterloo. Its success and sale led to the offer of a derelict site in Smithfield – somewhat back to square one, but for Trevor it was always about the site and the building. He went on to create Wine Wharf and the Brew Wharf microbrewery and restaurant in Borough Market, and built Putney Bridge among other ventures.