On 1 June, Nancy’s is set to open its doors in the heart of London Bridge.
Situated within the Brutalist egg-box style Colechurch House, designed by E.G. Chandler in 1973, Nancy’s overlooks the tracks of London Bridge and the north side of the Shard from four floors up. While the bar's exterior may evoke the raw functionality of 70s British architecture, its interiors reflect the excesses of the same era.
“We want big, maximalist 70s glam,” Nancy’s general manager, Max Wolff, formerly of Swift Bars and most recently Library by the Sea in Grand Cayman, told Class.
“The first thing you're going to see when you walk in, aside from the windows, are big tiger print sofas that will create a shared space for 12. We want this to immediately feel like a social venue.”
The bar will feature a disco ball, DJ booth, and abutting the main floor, a private hire room with a pool table featuring tiger-print baize. It’s as if Denys Lasdun had joined Parliament-Funkadelic before designing the interiors for the National Theatre.
Joining Wolff at Nancy’s will be another Swift bars alum, Martha May Markham, who will head up the bar’s cocktail program as head bartender.
“Martha’s developed a market-to-glass menu, where all of the drinks are either in collaboration with, or inspired by, a Borough Market vendor,” explained Wolff.
“There's an olive company there and have amazing olives in their own marinades, and normally just chuck away the brine. What we've done is created a brine blend with them – five parts nocellara, one part unlabelled green pitted, and half a part gordal for acidity – we use that as dilution with a touch of oloroso sherry and Belvedere as it’s just incredible.”
Other drinks include Scatter Fall, a riff on the Airmail cocktail, made using lemon curd from Borough Market’s Pimento Hill, Nouvelle Vague, a twist on the Sazerac that champions Spice Mountain, and Anko, a sour made using spiced carrot syrup, bell pepper juice, gochujang distillate and Toki whisky.
(l-r) Nancy's Dirty Martini and Anko
“We want to take the drinks really seriously, but we don't want every guest to be there taking notes. We want the drinks to be super approachable but also appeal to me as a cocktail nerd as well.
“I remember how it used to feel in Callooh Callay,” said Wolff. “The industry recognised that they were making the best drinks in London, but you’d be on the dancefloor next to people who had never drunk anything other than a Woo Woo before. Nowadays, it feels like you should either be good or fun; we intend to be both.”
At the menu’s heart sits Nancy’s Lady Luck Negroni cart, where guests are invited to roll a die to choose from six distinct serves.
“Everyone loves the elegance of a trolley, but the existing format, where a guest orders, the bartender comes over and makes the drink, felt too clunky for our venue,” said Wolff. “So instead, our trolley will be constantly going around like a drinks cart and if you want to play, you roll a die, and the number you roll will correspond to one of six Negroni riffs that we’ve developed. It gives our bartenders the opportunity to create a little bit of theatre.”
Nancy's soft launches from Tuesday 19 May, with the official opening and full menu following on Monday 1 June 2026.