Nightjar Carnaby will close its doors this Saturday after owners Roisin Stimpson and Edmund Weil agreed a deal to sell the venue’s Kingly Court lease.
The cocktails and live music bar, which opened in 2022, is the sequel to Nightjar Shoreditch, which celebrates 15 years of business this year.
The owners first decided to close the West End site after last year’s “nail in the coffin” Budget, which cut profits and was followed by a period of down-trading at the venue.
The lease is being sold to a group of hospitality, music and creative industry veterans fronted by Soho publican Martin Ashley of the Blue Posts. The deal completes at the end of September.
Named The Flamingo Club, the new venue aims to "bring back the low lights and the late night; live blues and jazz with a nod to 1960s Soho".
Weil told CLASS: “Up until end of 2024 Nightjar Carnaby was on a positive trajectory – it was hard work but we were finding a way to connect with the people of Carnaby. The watershed was the Budget. Our business rates have doubled and the National Insurance has really added up - not just venue staff but for our head office too.
“At all our other venues, we can accept reduced margin and they’re still viable but at Nightjar Carnaby the property costs are not cheap.
“Spend per head was getting lower too, which is symbolic of a change to how people are going out. Previously a nice table-service venue was an incentive to spend a bit of money, now it’s an invitation to nurse a drink. And the costs of servicing that table have gone up dramatically. Price sensitively is not going away. People have less disposable income than they ever did.”
Stimpson told CLASS that despite the impending closure, she will look back at the venue fondly, having hosted some of the best musicians in the UK. “Carnaby is an historic area for musicians," she said. "They all played here – including the likes of The Beatles – so it was exciting to bring that back, to see the stage alive again."
While the venue’s spend per head was down, the volume of guests at the venue remained high. “It meant our musicians got a lot of exposure,” said Stimpson. “And will continue to. The people who will take it on, will honour that tradition and keep our musicians.”
Nightjar Carnaby staff’s contracts will be taken on by the new owners, should they wish to remain. While, of those leaving, a number of the venue’s employees have been absorbed into the original Nightjar site. “We’ve now got a dream team at Nightjar Shoreditch,” said Weil.