The Wells Tavern rides the pandemic and now the cost-of-living-crisis

Beth Coventry will celebrate 20 years at the helm of the Wells Tavern next year.

The freehold was sold by The Hampstead Wells and Campden Trust to Simon Bridbury Developments Ltd in November.

"I'm still in it," said Beth. "Next year it will be a 20 year anniversary as I got it in 2003."

She said the sale of the pub in Well Walk was "certainly a surprise", adding: "As far as I'm concerned, I can't control what anybody does with the freehold, it doesn't affect my lease, but I was surprised, I was very taken aback but it was their decision."

Beth Coventry at the Wells Tavern (Image: Polly Hancock)

She said when she bought the pub's lease it "was a really good deal".

"The people who had it wanted to make it into a flagship pub, so they spent a lot of money on it, as well as we did too, but they were happy to invest a lot of money into it.

"It's also a lovely building, which was a very attractive thing about it as well.

"I also live in Primrose Hill so it was nice to be local."

The pub remains very popular and Beth is discreet about the celebrity clientele.

"What's good is my staff haven't a clue who they are mostly so they are pretty incognito," she said.

"It gets pretty booked up, particularly on Friday, Saturdays and Sundays so it's wise to book. We do have tables for walk-ins because it is a pub and we don't want to turn anyone away."

She added: "During the week it's possible to get a table. I don't know how it's going to go for us with costs going so high. People will feel the pinch.

"At the moment it's very difficult to get staff for the kitchen. It's a mix of Brexit and people leaving during the pandemic.

"Lower down in the kitchen it's a pretty hard job. We've managed to keep going, we have a few agency staff. Things are just very dire in the country at the moment."

Beth turned 80 on August 10 and was gifted a cruise along the Danube by her sister, restaurant critic Fay Maschler.

She "fell into" becoming a chef without any training, in her 40s when her friend Carolyn Parker Bowles invited her to be a secretary for her husband Simon, who had a champagne bar in Piccadilly.

"I was a secretary before and I didn't want to be that anymore. She said they were going to turn the shirt shop next door into a restaurant and invited me to be the chef.

"Alistair Little, who was a consultant came into help me because I could cook but I didn't have a clue how to run a restaurant, so that's how I started really but without any training, I just did it."

She had previously been involved with the launch of the Langham Brasserie in Mayfair.

"I was involved with that right in the beginning in 1976. That was an amazing time full of artists. Then Michael Caine got involved with it and it became full of celebrities and there was paparazzi out there the whole time. It was a real experience that place."

From there she started as a chef at Green's Restaurant & Oyster Bar, "a very upmarket place with fantastic seafood".

In the early '90s she opened the Prince Bonaparte pub in Notting Hill, and then Golborne House.

Of the Wells she said: "There were ups and downs at the beginning but it's been very successful. I'd say partly because of the lovely building but I've had the head chef for many years and he keeps the standard of food very high even when he's not there and the food's really good and it's become really popular.

"I've been there such a long time now now. When I go all over the world people tell me they've been to it, so it's really well known now, which is nice, and everywhere I go people know about it now and where it is. It's ideal, residential and also near the Heath.

"We're very dog friendly. Dogs often lead their owners in because we have treats so they just make for the pub."