Regulars arriving for a pint at one of west London’s grandest Victorian pubs were met this week with an unwelcome sight: a notice on the door of the Warrington Hotel in Maida Vale announcing the pub has closed “for the foreseen future”, effective from 4 October.
A photograph of the poster, taped to the entrance and shared on Facebook, confirms the shutdown. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) lists the pub as shut for refurbishment, noting a possible reopening on or before 31 March 2027.
A Maida Vale landmark falls silent
The closure brings a temporary hush to a building that has anchored its corner of Warrington Avenue since 1857. With its white stucco frontage, the hotel is among the most recognisable sights in Maida Vale, in the City of Westminster — and its interiors are just as striking.
The pub’s Grade II listing celebrates an array of Victorian showpieces: white stucco columns, glazed ceramics, lion-head motifs, mosaic floors and stained glass windows. The designation recognises the building’s special architectural and historic interest, placing legal protection around the very features that make a visit feel like stepping back in time.
Until this month the pub was operated by Ewe Hospitality Ltd. Beyond the bar, the venue ran quiz nights, karaoke evenings, open mic sessions, live music and sports screenings, while ten boutique hotel rooms upstairs welcomed visitors to the area — at a time when a proposed overnight visitor levy for London hotels has put the capital’s hospitality trade in the spotlight.
From brothel lore to the silver screen
Long before it became a much-loved local, the building carried a racier reputation. Local legend holds that in Victorian times the premises worked as an upmarket brothel — and that neighbouring Randolph Avenue is the unlikely origin of the word “randy”.
In the 1890s the pub was given a lavish makeover designed to draw a more upmarket crowd. The refit installed a grand marble fireplace, an ornate bar and a sweeping staircase salvaged from an old passenger ship — fittings that still define the interior today.
The 1930s brought an unlikely industrial chapter, when a workshop behind the pub became home to the Vale Motor Company, which built around 100 Vale Special sports cars on the premises.
Later decades saw the Warrington play itself on screen. It featured in the 1965 thriller Bunny Lake is Missing, starring Laurence Olivier, and turned up in episodes of television staples The Sweeney and Minder — cementing its place in London’s cultural memory.
What happens next
The precise scope of the refurbishment has not been made public. But the building’s listed status means its celebrated Victorian detailing — the stucco, ceramics, mosaics and stained glass — enjoys legal protection, so any works must preserve the character that earned the listing in the first place.
CAMRA’s entry suggests drinkers will not have to wait indefinitely: it records the pub as closed for refurbishment with a reopening date on or before 31 March 2027. The pub’s operators have been approached for comment.
In the meantime, the shuttered frontage on Warrington Avenue is a quiet contrast to the bustle the pub once generated most evenings. For regulars, the hope will be that the refurbishment restores rather than remakes one of Maida Vale’s most characterful rooms — and that the marble, mosaics and stained glass are there to greet them when the doors finally reopen.
Until then, Maida Vale loses one of its liveliest evening venues — the quizzes, open mics and live music that filled its week, and a small hotel that welcomed visitors to the neighbourhood. Its regulars are not alone: another London pub recently faced its own planning battle over its future.
