London is having a New York summer. After an apparently very popular pop-up, Dante has permanently moved in at Claridge’s. West Village favorite Buvette just opened in Neal’s Yard. Cult NYC chicken joint Coqodaq is being hosted at Lucky Cat for two weeks.
Somewhat ironically, the latest international export has links closer to home: Margot Heuer-King, daughter of London restaurateur legend Jeremy King, is bringing her Greenwich Village club People’s (co-founded with filmmaker Emmet McDermott) to the city for five-days only. And where else would it be hosted but in the basement of the father’s newest project, Simpson’s in the Strand?
Running only from July 7 through 11 (strategically timed for Wimbledon finals), People’s is taking up residence in Simpson’s sultry basement cocktail lounge, Nellie’s. A Belvedere martini trolley will be weaving its way through tables, and Moët & Chandon will be flowing freely.
The injection of People’s late-night and self-proclaimed ‘less polite’ nature is welcome in London, where the after-hours scene is continuously marred by licensing disputes, noise complaints, and, in some cases, decreased footfall. What else does London lack? “Downtown elegance,” Heuer-King says. “New York stubbornly pushes back on the overly organised and orchestrated. There’s an insistent spontaneity and unexpectedness. We wouldn’t say London doesn’t have that, but it’s certainly a spirit that thrives in NY, and one we’re excited to be bringing to London. London is also a city that has long been home to the membership model. What does it mean when access is granted by something less rigid?”
While New York was People’s first home, a London residency marks something of a homecoming for Heuer-King, who grew up among her father’s restaurants in the city, including Le Caprice, The Ivy and The Wolseley. “[It is] both entirely natural and entirely bizarre,” she said on returning to London to host a pop-up under her father’s latest project. “People’s had to happen in New York. It’s where I met Emmet, it’s where I first felt the pull to create something in this space. And yet London will always be home in so many ways, and of course my father’s restaurants are a huge part of that. There’s a clarity to the story that I love, but it’s an emotional full-circle that I love even more.”
“So much of our DNA took shape in the hallowed halls of Duke’s and Chiltern Firehouse that coming back now feels almost inevitable, like prodigal children returning, if only for a week,” added McDermott. “To do so inside Jeremy’s dreamscape at Simpson’s in the Strand makes the whole thing feel all the more fated.”
Heuer-King and McDermott launched People’s in late 2024, and it quickly and quietly became one of the city’s hottest late-night hangouts. Although very much a member’s club on the face of it, the duo are keen to position it otherwise, referring to it instead as an ‘evening club and art salon.’ It’s true that People’s doesn’t ask membership fees, but access is highly limited and via invite from existing members only. Just like at its home location, People’s London is only admitting select invited guests, with ‘select applications considered.’ Essentially, this is very much a who-you-know type of joint.
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“With People’s we have always aimed to give our guests a sense of belonging that money can’t buy, and to bring that back to the place and people that raised me is special: it’s a community I cherish,” McDermott added. “We are honored, delighted, and enormously excited to bring a little of our world back to the city that first breathed life into it.”
The founding duo have previously hinted at expansion plans beyond the New York original – could a permanent London People’s be on the cards? “Time will tell,” says Heuer-King. “We feel the appetite for it, but our hands are deliciously full in NY for the immediate future.”
