Meal Deal – The Admiral Codrington

Welcome to a new series where leading retail executives recall memorable occasions spent celebrating a new job, cutting a big deal, winning a large order, or just enjoying life in a specific pub, bar or restaurant.

Robin Terrell, executive director of multi-channel and international at House of Fraser recalls good times in The Admiral Codrington pub in West London.

“The ‘Cod’ as we called The Admiral Codrington was next door to the John Lewis Direct offices where I was managing director [from 2008 to 2010] so it was kind of like an extension to the business. There was always people from the office in there.

It was a big part of the social scene and we did a lot of social drinking, which was all part of working in e-commerce at the time. For us it was the place to go and we were very regular visitors. There was food there but we were mainly there for the alcohol. I drank no particular beer, maybe a Guinness sometimes.

Ironically we had a licence to sell alcohol on the premises of our offices as they were an ex-Peter Jones warehouse and in those days every John Lewis location had a PDR (Partners Dining Room), which always included a bar. When the online team moved there it still had the licence to sell alcohol and so we had our own bar. It was a mixture therefore of either having a drink in the company bar or going to the Cod.”

Location: 17 Mossop Street, London SW3 2LY.
Likely to spend £40 on food (for a two-course meal with half a bottle of wine).
Likely to spend £15 on a bottle of wine.
Likely to find slow cooked shoulder of lamb on the menu.