Hospitality veterans Will Hawes and Aaron Wall want to take the stuffiness out of London cocktail culture with their new Old Street bar, The Prince. The long-time friends and collaborators – who have worked together at multiple venues, including Callooh Callay and Wall’s Homeboy Bar in Islington – have taken over the Old Street space that housed The Gibson until it relocated to Berlin in 2024, and introduced an approachable menu of cocktails and bar snacks.
The name is a reference to Jamaican ska pioneer Prince Buster. The vibrant, collaborative ethos of the genre provides a blueprint for the venue – most obviously via a ska soundtrack, which Wall says creates the type of mood “that makes everyone in the room nod their head”.
The cocktail menu is the star of the show. It opens with three signatures: the House Martini, the Black Velvet and Buster’s Stout Punch. The House Martini is served ice-cold with vodka or gin. The crowd-favourite Black Velvet combines Guinness and champagne in a pewter tankard. And the venue’s namesake Buster’s Punch mixes three rums with cognac, lemon sherbet and Guinness. It’s topped with nutmeg and served directly from a large “Dickens-esque” punch bowl at the bar. “It’s soft and delicate,” says Wall, “the opposite of booze thrown in a bucket.”
The next section of the menu is deliberately concise, “to avoid feeling like you’re being handed a book”, says Hawes. Drinks are neatly grouped into categories, from aperitivos to daisies (a group of sour-style cocktails topped with soda), fixes (mixed drinks with citrus, a spirit, sugar and a fruit garnish) and sours (including a pear and pisco), and booze-forward numbers like the Nettle Gimlet, with gin and a house-made nettle cordial.
The bar is also on a mission to make Martinis approachable, with a how-to guide that breaks the drink down to its simplest form and explains Martini-related terms, so visitors can order with confidence. If you still can’t decide, there’s a menu of 10 team favourites – including the 1951, which is garnished with an anchovy-stuffed olive. The approachability is underpinned by thoughtful service: your Martini is quietly transferred halfway through drinking into a freshly chilled glass to keep it ice-cold.
And because, as Wall puts it, “after a few black stouts, you need something to eat”, there’s a line-up of bar snacks, including nuts, olives, charcuterie boards and a “simple and wonderful” ham-and-cheese toastie with crisps, inspired by one served at the pair’s favourite pub in Ireland.
While the bones of the venue remain largely the same as in its days as The Gibson, Hawes and Wall have dialled up the glamour with green velvet and gold finishes, giving the space a 1920s feel. Ska records line the walls, alongside a poster of Prince Buster himself.
The Prince
44 Old Street, EC1V 9AQ
07969325370
Hours:
Mon & Sun 3pm–11pm
Tue to Sat 3pm–1am
