Wetherspoons announces £2.5 million Waterloo pub

Pub operator JD Wetherspoon has revealed that it will be investing £2.5 million into developing a new pub near Waterloo Station.

The pub will be situated in The Sidings Waterloo Station, a space that already includes a number of other restaurants and bars, including Black Sheep Coffee, Nando’s, and the world’s biggest BrewDog, which opened in 2022. It will occupy the upper ground floor of The Sidings, repurposing what was once a Eurostar Terminal.

“The Sidings at Waterloo is set to become one of London’s leading leisure and entertainment destinations,” suggested Sian Evans, asset management director for government-owned property developer LCR (London & Continental Railways). “The new Wetherspoon pub will provide another great reason for people to visit.”

It has also been revealed that the pub will be called The Lion and the Unicorn, in reference to one of the pavilions of the Festival of Britain, a national exhibition held nearby in 1951.

120 full and part-time jobs are expected to come from the opening of the pub, which is slated to take place this summer.

Whereas The Lion and the Unicorn’s neighbour/rival, BrewDog Waterloo, includes various features including a slide, podcast studio and bowling alley, the Wetherspoons pub seems to be a somewhat simpler affair, with one floor overlooking the station concourse.

Spoons tycoon Sir Tim Martin said that the new opening would “appeal to a wide range of people and be a great asset to the station itself”.

This is not the only sizeable investment that Wetherspoons has made into opening new pub sites recently. Earlier this year it was revealed that it has partnered with holiday park operator Haven, spending £1.1m on the development of its first site.