Daniel Craig’s arrival as a co-owner of The Horseshoe opens a new chapter for a Clerkenwell pub with a considerable life in darts, music and film. The takeover could give it a prosperous future. For the people who live nearby, the question is whether it will continue to function as their local.

The Horseshoe closes its doors tomorrow, 8th October, in its current guise, ahead of a major refurbishment. The new owners have not yet announced a date for its reopening.

Craig has joined Soho House founder Nick Jones, restaurateur Charlie Carroll, who is behind Flat Iron and The Devonshire, and Bad Belze creative director Justin O’Shea in taking over the pub at 24 Clerkenwell Close.

The central question is whether The Horseshoe will become a destination venue while losing the everyday life of a local pub: neighbours dropping in for a natter, a bit of gossip and talk about local matters.

A destination venue is a pub people make a particular journey to visit, perhaps for its food, reputation or atmosphere, or to meet friends. For many of its customers, going there is a planned outing: the pub itself is the attraction.

At the other end of the spectrum is the local pub, or local boozer. Its place in people’s lives comes from being part of their neighbourhood and their ordinary daily routine. Neighbours can drop in without making an occasion of it or arranging to meet anyone, knowing they are likely to find familiar faces to talk to. The destination pub is somewhere people plan to go; the local is somewhere people living nearby can simply pop into. Those ordinary exchanges are part of how a neighbourhood knows itself.

Destination pubs are fine in their own right. They can offer good food and drink, attract visitors and become successful businesses. The concern here is what happens to the local community when the people who live around a pub stop using it as an ordinary place to meet.

I was visiting The Horseshoe and knew its landlord, Richard Tucker, years before moving to Clerkenwell; I now live directly opposite. Richard helped preserve one of the area’s remaining straightforward local boozers while so much of the neighbourhood changed.

Neighbours I spoke to expressed excitement at the prospect of seeing Craig, alongside concern that another pub might be gentrified and price out the people who live nearby. The fear is that The Horseshoe could remain popular, perhaps become busier than ever, while turning into a destination venue where existing neighbours no longer feel at home.

The Crown Tavern, just down the road on Clerkenwell Green, illustrates why that concern matters. It remains very busy, but it has become a destination venue for office workers coming from further afield to meet friends. When I moved to Clerkenwell, it was somewhere neighbours could stop for a chinwag before or after shopping. Its continued popularity accompanies a change in the way it fits into the everyday life of the neighbourhood.

A pub can remain busy and commercially successful while that network of local conversation fades away. Its doors stay open and its tables stay full, yet the people living around it lose a place in their shared daily life. That is the change the Crown Tavern illustrates, and the possibility that makes The Horseshoe’s future matter to its neighbours.

There is an opportunity here too. A substantial refurbishment and an experienced hospitality team could give The Horseshoe a strong future, with a downstairs bar that continues to feel like a proper pub for its neighbourhood.

The pub’s farewell announcement, issued on 28th September, explained that the brewery had sold The Horseshoe and that major renovations were planned, with reopening not expected until sometime in 2027. After 36 years at The Horseshoe, Richard and Pauline Tucker are stepping back.

The announcement also revealed the effort to preserve its darts tradition:

“For the past 18 months, we have tried to find a buyer who would continue the proud darts tradition at The Horseshoe.”

That attempt was unsuccessful. The announcement acknowledged how deeply the loss of The Horseshoe as a darts venue would be felt across the community, while wishing the incoming owners success.

The pub’s reputation in darts extended well beyond its immediate neighbourhood. With seven boards upstairs and two downstairs, it became an unofficial home for the City of London Darts Association, or COLDA. The upstairs boards were regularly fully booked on midweek evenings.

Its popularity was captured in a public comment under Richard Tucker’s name in August 2022: “So busy you need to book”. In January 2024, Scott Wilson praised “Reasonable price beer and lots of darts”. Another player, Rob Nunn, wrote in July 2026 about returning each year for his group’s own tournament.

There were organised competitions too. The Horseshoe was the scheduled venue for COLDA’s Grand Prix Final on 5th December 2025. Qualification involved four handicap opens during the year, leading to a final for qualifying winners and players who had accumulated sufficient points. This was a pub capable of accommodating an established sporting community.

Such a community needs space, available boards and regular opportunities to meet. Its continuity depends on the people who organise evenings, the teams who return and the landlord willing to accommodate them. With the established darts venue being lost and the upstairs space becoming a restaurant, that community will have to find another home. The challenge will be keeping its network together beyond The Horseshoe.

The pub has a music history too. It was home to Islington Folk Club from September 1999 until December 2017, following an earlier spell there in 1986. The club’s archive includes photographs of its resident Angel Band performing at The Horseshoe in 2006.

The folk club moved years before this takeover, but its long association illustrates what the building has offered. An upstairs pub room can sustain a cultural life of its own, giving musicians somewhere to perform and audiences somewhere to gather.

There is another unusual chapter in its history. In 1955, Cash Cooper organised the first meeting of the London Tattoo Society at The Horseshoe. A 70th anniversary gathering was planned there in 2025, bringing together tattoo artists from several countries. The pub’s role as a meeting place has extended across generations and different creative communities.

Its screen history is equally worth remembering. The Horseshoe was used as a location in Gangs of London, including the ferocious pub fight in the first series.

Terry Gilliam’s 2009 film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus also brought its travelling theatre to Clerkenwell Close. Scenes show the theatre performing outside The Horseshoe and Heath Ledger’s character, Tony, approaching the pub’s customers to drum up trade. The fantastical spectacle was placed among recognisable streets and a real neighbourhood pub.

The Horseshoe was also where Gilliam had his final conversation with Ledger, giving it a poignant place in the film’s history.

Nearby views of Clerkenwell Close also appear in About a Boy, A Fish Called Wanda, Dance with a Stranger and Love, Honour and Obey. The pub and its surrounding streets have a considerable place in London’s screen geography.

The Horseshoe has already welcomed people from beyond Clerkenwell for darts, music and other gatherings. Those visitors have shared a pub that also had a life among its neighbours. The concern is about whether that everyday local role will survive as the new venue attracts a wider audience.

Craig grew up with the pub trade: his parents and grandparents ran pubs. Carroll brings restaurant and pub experience, while Jones built Soho House into an international hospitality business.

The intention is to retain a traditional pub downstairs, with bar snacks and a first-floor restaurant overseen by Carroll. The dining room will replace upstairs space that has accommodated darts and music. The new team has also expressed an ambition to make the pub welcoming and accessible, offering grounds for optimism about the downstairs bar.

The strongest test will be downstairs. It should feel like a proper pub in its own right, somewhere people can come for a drink, meet friends and settle into conversation. Customers should feel welcome whether or not they have booked a table upstairs. A successful dining room would be a welcome addition; the bar needs its own life and atmosphere, rather than becoming a waiting room for restaurant customers.

Affordability will matter too. Until the new drinks list is available, pricing remains an open question. If regular visits become too expensive for neighbours, their place in the pub’s life can gradually diminish, even while trade from visitors grows. That is the concern behind the word gentrification here: a pub can keep its familiar name and appearance and thrive as a destination venue while its role as a meeting place for neighbours slips away.

How will the new team help existing regulars feel part of the pub’s future?

Richard and Pauline leave behind decades of work and relationships. Their contribution belongs in the story of this handover.

The Horseshoe is a unique place, with something of the feel of a time capsule from the 1970s or 1980s. There is a charm in that, and much to be fond of. But being a much-loved time capsule is hardly, on its own, a recipe for the future. Investment and change are welcome, and the pub needs a way to prosper in the years ahead.

The Crown Tavern shows why locals fear losing another boozer to a destination venue. The hope for The Horseshoe is that modernisation will secure its future while preserving somewhere neighbours can still afford to drop in, find familiar faces and have a natter about local matters.

The new owners deserve credit if they achieve that balance. A successful restaurant upstairs and a downstairs pub that remains part of the neighbourhood’s daily life would be a welcome result for Clerkenwell. The Horseshoe could become a destination pub and remain a local. Whether it manages both is the question.