It’s not often a bar has a real story to tell, but The 40 Elephants, tucked inside the Hyatt just off Whitehall has exactly that. Housed in the highly salubrious buildings of Old Scotland Yard, its USP is its history that they celebrate here, but not so much in the stories of the police as the perps.
One set of perps in particular – an all-women gang based around Elephant and Castle and known, perhaps not completely flatteringly, as the ’40 Elephants’. Active from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, they were notorious for audacious heists, cunning disguises and meticulous planning. The bar tells their story through their cocktails and if you’re waiting for a friend to join you, you won’t be short here of fascinating reading…
This is not a big space though it does have a huge chandelier hanging in the centre made of broken glass shards to symbolise the gang’s frequent escapes from justice. Below is a glass-topped table full of historic weapons and the décor is decidedly Deco with plush velvet seating and a fetching portrait of Rose Kendall – aka The Bobbed Hair Bandit – as well as an intimate vibe with lots of chat between staff and customers to a backdrop of relaxed jazz.
The cocktail menu is certainly interesting with lots of unusual ingredients and recipes invented to style themselves (at least loosely) to the characters. My first was ‘Punch to Beware of’, whisky-based and served in an elegant tulip glass, it was a pale, charming, rather ladylike drink, with layers of sometimes sharp, sometimes minty flavours, and gently effervescent (courtesy of some Veuve Cliquot).
My partner-in-crime, Christian, went for ‘Under the Table’ (surely a little too early in the evening for that?). Tequila based but with sweet, spicy and sour accents from lychee, jasmine and labdanum, the name comes not from promised inebriation but from the practice among the gang of wearing specially tailored clothing with hidden pockets so that stolen goods worth thousands of pounds would be plundered and pocketed with ease.
In the meantime, we chose something to accompany the drinks. The food menu here is not extensive but there’s a good range of sharing plates and staples such as burgers and pasta. We shared a couple of starter sized plates to begin – guacamole with roasted feta and homemade black tortilla chips and a nicely spicy chicken karaage. And then it was on to round two of the drinks…
Christian went for ‘Fencing’, standing here not for the sport but the ability to sell on stolen goods. Gin-based, the initial sweetness from the coconut cut with Everleaf Marine and Yuzu Tonka Bean and has, said Christian, a refined finish. I’m not particularly a whisky drinker but went nonetheless for a second whisky-based cocktail, ‘Flapper Looking Thief’, served in an old-fashioned coupe glass and with some really lovely flavours of hazelnut, coffee and butterscotch wrapping round the palate – is there such a thing as a comfort cocktail?
Perhaps something more substantial was required to soak it up, so Christian went for a burger (“very good, with excellent chips,” he proferred) while I didn’t need what was described as a large plate and chose instead a pork and stilton pie. I had expected this to arrive cold though it turned out to be hot, rather scrumptious and served with a chicory salad. But the question remained, could we manage one more glass, purely for research purposes?
Christian’s ‘Bright Little Diamond’ was a punchy whisky-based number with powerful sweet and sesame flavours (it comes served with a black sesame cracker). I went for ‘The Tempting 40’, which became, unexpectedly, my favourite. Rum-based this time, other ingredients included bergamot, basil and truffle giving it a gorgeously earthy umami taste.
Umami is one of the tastes on the diamond motif that appears next to each cocktail on the menu to give you a steer on the flavours. But what of the diamond? Annie Diamond was the second leader of the gang, achieving her powerful status at the age of just 20. Then again, maybe Diamond wasn’t her real name. She did, after all, use her diamond rings as weapons to pack quite a punch.
And you might say the same of the cocktails….
40 Elephants at the Great Scotland Yard Hotel, 3-5 Great Scotland Yard, London SW1A 2HN. For more information, please visit www.hyattrestaurants.com.
