LONDON • THEPEARLYQUEEN.COM
In the 1870s, enterprising street sweeper Henry Croft decided to do something unusual: he started wearing a suit adorned with a galaxy of mother of pearl buttons. This get-up, he found, was handy for attracting attention and filling the charitable coffers, while he collected money for working class East Enders. And so were born the Pearly Kings and Queens, after which Tom Brown’s latest opening is named.
Former finalist Brown is no stranger to East London. His Michelinstarred restaurant, Cornerstone, is in Hackney Wick, while The Pearly Queen is on Commercial Street in Spitalfields — the spiritual home of the cockney geezer. Alas, the geezers have long since gone, and on the Friday lunchtime I visit, my fellow diners
