El Vino, also known as El Vino's, is a

wine bar A wine bar is a tavern-like business focusing on selling wine, rather than liquor or beer. A typical feature of many wine bars is a wide selection of wines available by the glass. Some wine bars are profiled on wines of a certain type of origin, ...

and

off-licence A liquor store is a retail shop that predominantly sells prepackaged liquors – typically in bottles – usually intended to be consumed off the store's premises. Depending on region and local idiom, they may also be called an off-licence (i ...

in London's Fleet Street that was famously patronised by

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

s when many national newspapers were based nearby. It is still patronised by lawyers as the surrounding area is still London's legal district. The business was founded by the wine merchant Alfred Bower in Mark Lane as Bower and Co. in 1879. That was on the east side of the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

and, as the business prospered by selling imported Burgundy,

claret Bordeaux wine ( oc, vin de Bordèu, french: vin de Bordeaux) is produced in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, around the city of Bordeaux, on the Garonne River. To the north of the city the Dordogne River joins the Garonne forming the ...

, and

sherry Sherry ( es, jerez ) is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. Sherry is produced in a variety of styles made primarily from the Palomino grape, ranging from light versi ...

, he opened four more wine bars, including the famous branch in Fleet Street. In 1923, the business had to change its name, so that Bower could become an

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

, and so it was renamed ''El Vino'' – the Spanish name for wine. Bower then became Lord Mayor and the business continued in his family until 2015, when it was sold to the Davy chain of wine bars.

Law

While journalists are not so common in Fleet Street now, the bar is still popular with the barristers and solicitors who work in the surrounding courts and legal offices. The bar inspired the fictional Pomeroy's in ''

Rumpole of the Bailey ''Rumpole of the Bailey'' is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, a middle-aged London barrister who defended a broad variety of clients, oft ...

'' and El Vino now has a Rumpole Room to commemorate this. For much of its history, the bar required male customers to wear ties, and although women customers were permitted, they were not allowed to approach the bar to be served and drink. In 1982 in the case '' Gill and Coote v El Vino Co Ltd'', Tess Gill and Anna Coote successfully challenged El Vino’s ban on women being served at the bar and drinking there rather than having their drinks brought to them at a table; the ban was held to be an illegal violation of the

Sex Discrimination Act 1975 The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (c. 65) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which protected men and women from discrimination on the grounds of sex or marital status. The Act concerned employment, training, education, harassmen ...

Regulars

Regular characters and patrons included: *

Alan Watkins Alan Rhun Watkins (3 April 1933 – 8 May 2010) was for over 50 years a British political columnist in various London-based magazines and newspapers. He also wrote about wine and rugby. Life and career Alan Watkins was born in Tycroes, Carmar ...

, political commentator * Geoffrey Van-Hay, the imposing manager for many years, who kept order with charm and wit * Ian Fleming who worked in a nearby stockbrokers and subsequently wrote in Mitre Court *

Nigel Dempster Nigel Richard Patton Dempster (1 November 1941 in Calcutta, India – 12 July 2007 in Ham, Surrey) was a British journalist, author, broadcaster and diarist. Best known for his celebrity gossip columns in newspapers, his work appeared in the '' ...

, gossip columnist for the '' Daily Mail'' * Peregrine Worsthorne, columnist for the '' Daily Telegraph'' * Paul Johnson, political commentator

References

External links

El Vino Fleet Street
– now one of Davy's wine bars 1879 establishments in the United Kingdom Wine bars Pubs in the City of London {{pub-stub