Marmalade Pub Company announces first site in Soho

Marmalade Pub Company, the Managed Investments partnership between Ei Group and The Marylebone Leisure Group, has announced it will open its first venue, the Compton Cross in Soho this summer.

The venue, currently known as Molly Moggs, will temporarily close for refurbishment work and re-open late summer as a stylish and vibrant bar that will serve home-infused spirits and cocktails alongside a range of craft beers.

Co-founder of the Marylebone Leisure Group and Marmalade Pub Company, Lawrence Santi said: “Soho is an incredibly vibrant area of London and we are so excited to be launching our first venue there.

“Molly Moggs has traditionally been positioned as an LGBT+ venue and we fully recognise the importance of this status for local people. As such we’ve been working closely with London’s Night Czar, Amy Lamé, to ensure that the Compton Cross continues to be a fully inclusive and welcoming venue for all members of the local community and visitors to the area.

“As with all Marmalade Pub Company sites, the back-bar will be made up almost entirely of our own spirits and liqueurs, with cocktails made by our fully-trained team of mixologists, so we’re bringing something different to Soho.”

Nathan Wall, Operations Director for Ei Managed Investments, said: “We are delighted to have found some fantastic venues for The Marmalade Pub Company set to open this year, the first of which being The Compton Cross. We’re excited to see them all open and help enrich the local communities they’ll serve.

“Our Soho site is the oldest pub in the area having opened in 1731. During that time it’s seen many different guises and has been known as Molly Moggs since 1996. We’d like to thank experienced publican Jimmy McGrath and his team for temporarily running the venue as the much-loved Molly Moggs while we prepare for refurbishment works that will take the pub in a new direction, but one that will continue to embrace all the local diversity and culture of Soho.”

London’s Night Czar, Amy Lamé commented: “The Marmalade Pub Company has become the first signatory of the new LGBT+ Venues Charter which I have developed alongside The Mayor to help safeguard venues for the LGBT+ community. We are delighted that The Compton Cross (formerly Molly Moggs) will continue to be an LGBT+ venue.”

The Marmalade Pub Company will take on a second site this summer in London’s iconic Portobello Road, Notting Hill. The Portobello Star is a popular bar which will also undergo a significant refurbishment before opening its doors under the management of the Marmalade Pub Company, while The Crown and Treaty in Uxbridge is lined up as its third venue due to open this autumn.

The Marylebone Leisure Group (MLG) is one of London’s most innovative young multi-site bar groups and focuses on high-quality infused spirits and liqueurs which are hand made in the company’s in-house laboratories. The company won the Neighbourhood Bar of the Year 2015 award for Barsmith in Farringdon.