PRESS

 
 
Screen Shot 2020-04-29 at 12.12.41.png

James Blunt pulls us a pint at his new Chelsea pub

James Blunt and his wife Sofia Wellesley turned a Chelsea football pub into a local gem where royals stop by.

James Blunt was in the loos at Soho House Berlin last year when he was caught by a guest at the urinals taking a sneaky photo. ‘There was no explaining it,’ he says, as he shifts in his seat. ‘The guy recognised me and probably thought “James Blunt is a complete freak.”’ However, the object of Blunt’s interest was not the guest, but the dashing Kohler Branham almond urinal itself. He went online and bought three. James, 44, relays the story with a boyish, triumphant grin.

Review: The Fox & Pheasant, Chelsea

The revived Fox & Pheasant in SW3 is charming and authentic, with excellent food and even better service, writes William Cash

The Fox & Pheasant pub is back. After years of being something of Chelsea’s Checkpoint Charlie pub for SW3 drinkers located in a posh no mans land between Chelsea and Fulham, the pub has been saved and transformed by singer-song writer James Blunt and his wife Sofia – former local residents of the Billings. Instead of the famous old local becoming another over-priced flat development, the new F & P has quickly become a hit, with James even pulling some pints of Cornish ale in this hidden away cul de sac.

Fire Place
Screen Shot 2020-04-29 at 12.18.29.png

'The answer to political blues? Come to the pub'

In a refreshing change from the prevailing political mood, the singer James Blunt thinks everything is going to work out. What, even Brexit? “I have a song called OK about how it is going to be OK,” he says. “It was No 1 everywhere in the world except for the UK. Maybe that’s OK in itself.”

“I’m much more positive than perhaps the national sentiment is,” he continues, explaining his fix for political blues. “Maybe that’s because I always have half a pint in me, so the answer ultimately is come visit the pub.”

He means The Fox and Pheasant, a 17th-century pub in a picturesque Chelsea mews, which he has bought and renovated. Blunt, 44, is a welcoming landlord, pulling me a pint of Estrella (he drinks it when he’s at his house in Ibiza). He lives just down the road from the pub and works shifts on the bar. “I’m kept to simple jobs — I’m often on the pot wash.”