For reservations or more information,
please contact us:
La Grande Marque
47 Ludgate Hill
London EC4M 7JU
[Click here for map]
Telephone:
0207 329 6709
Email:
catherine@lagrandemarque.co.uk
Opening Hours:
11am - 11pm
Monday to Friday
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About La Grande Marque
Singing carols at St Paul's
There's nothing like the spirit of the season and the sight of Wren's masterpiece to make you want to throw back your head and let rip. Sadly they run a tight ship at St Paul's, and trying to join in with the choir, especially after a dose of festive cheer, can bring the bouncers charging down the pews, cassocks aflap. But don't let that stop you. The streets outside are nicely suited for a good old sing-song, and when the seasonal chill and the difficult high notes start giving your throat a twinge, you can head down Ludgate Hill to a place where you can both repair the damage and still feel slightly elevated.
WHAT'S IT LIKE? Housed in a fine old bank building, La Grande Marque is the perfect come-down after a session of vaulted ceilings and soaring harmonies. Like the bigger place up the hill. it has a high ornate ceiling and the carved wooden panelling on the walls conveys a faintly ecclesiastical tone, while big arched windows allow light to stream in during the daytime, filling the generous space with a misty brightness wholly suited to the season. Even the big island bar has a whiff of the altar about it, with its fine pink marble top and metal columns, and it attracts plenty of worshippers at any season, mostly chaps in suits and equivalent chapesses, often intent on doing deals but doing them in a very civilised way.
WHAT TO DRINK? If the vast empty champagne bottles lined up on every spare surface don't give you the hint, the grape motifs here and there and the huge arched racks going all the way up to the ceiling should make it pretty clear that wine is the speciality at La Grande Marque. An extensive list covers everything from the friskiest New Zealand riesling to deep, dark, blood-like stuff and the whole miraculous rainbow of flavours in between. As if there weren't enough reasons to sing already.
The Times Magazine 16.12 2006
2 prime ministers at La Grande Marque in 1 week! On Monday 4 December 2006, one of our directors entertained over lunch at LGM Middle Temple Lane an old friend who just happens to be a former Prime Minister of Russia. His guest was very complimentary about our premises and service, and especially about the food: he remarked to our chef that it was of the very best he had tasted!
On Friday evening, 8 December 2006, an unannounced guest arrived to join a party of barristers who were gathered at La Grande Marque, Middle Temple Lane. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, joined friends and former colleagues in our Lounge Bar for champagne and canapes to celebrate 25 years' service of his former senior clerk. Mr Blair practised as a barrister before entering the political fray and referred nostalgically in his speech to his visits in years past to our premises which in those days were the common room of the Middle Temple.
8 December 2006
"A grand (and listed) Victorian bank building (with an impressive interior and more evocative of Vienna than London) provides the setting for this superior wine bar, just down the road from St Paul's. Champagne is quite a house speciality, but, with Bitburger on draught, beer drinkers need not dispair."
- Harden's 2006
“Look for an elaborate “M” engraved in the glass on the doorway: that’s the main clue as to the location of this subtle, sophisticated and gorgeous champagne bar. Inside you’ll find a stunning, intricately carved Victorian ceiling. The premises, dating from 1891, were once a banking headquarters: the marble topped bar stands precisely where the bank counter used to be (try to spot the outline marked in the original mosaic floor). Walls are wood panelled, seats are wooden — and buttock bruising hard. The operation, presided over by charismatic French manager, Olivier, is focused on champagne (La Grande Marque is an old French term signifying a brand of superior quality). The stuff dominates what is a first-rate wine list.”
- Time Out 2006
La Grande Marque was named as one of the best 3 champagne bars in Britain!
"A City institution, La Grande Marque is famous for its diverse list of champagnes and well-heeled customers. A great place in which to celebrate your bonus!"
- Mail On Sunday November 2005
Champagne takes pride of place behind the bar of this stunning bank conversion, where suits splash their cash on a fine range of wines beneath beautifully ornate ceilings. Food has never been the focus here but ther's a nice selection of sandwiches at lunch (evening nibbles need to be ordered in advance) and we hear there are plans to turn the under-used basement into a small dining room, where buffet food will be matched with wines from a retail-priced cellar.
- Square Meal 2006
In 2002, La Grande Marque was awarded the Gosset Champagne Trophee Celebrise
- Gosset Champagne
"Beautiful old-style wine bar, where the decor is as attractive as the excellent cellar. Original moulded ceilings & marble tiles provide a grand backdrop for power booze-ups, while wimps-who-lunch take their pick from a wide selection of sandwiches - crab & mayo, Thai tuna, egg & mayo et al."
- Square Meal 2002
"Very popular & decidedly grand wine bar notable for its fantastic moulded ceiling, marble floor tiles and sober wood panelling. An upmarket crowd pack in lunch & evening, eager to explore the marvellous wine list.... Good choice for flattering your smarter clients."
- Square Meal 2001
"La Grande Marque has come from nowhere to being one of the City's best in a remarkably short space of time; a new Leadenhall Market branch is planned for next year. The ex-Midland conversion is superb: varnished wooden tables, screens carrying grape motifs, a pretty tiled floor and marbled central serving aisle, uplighters lifting even unsquiffy eyes up towards the fine plasterwork on the ceilling. The wine list is fine, to a big range of champagne... but an excellent range of wines, too, at all price levels from a tenner up and including top-notch producers. The food is simple...but well executed, fuelling greater endeavours with the bottles. For those with work on their plate, there's usually a dozen or more wines by the glass and around the same number of half bottles"
- Evening Standard 1996
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