A brand-new Wetherspoons pub is set to open its doors in summer 2025, with development work officially kicking off this week.
The pub, which will be named The Sun Wharf, will occupy the former London Dungeon space located within the arches at 50 Tooley Street, near London Bridge.
A spokesperson for Wetherspoons confirmed the news and revealed that the pub will replace the old London Dungeon attraction, a popular tourist spot that once thrilled visitors with its historical waxworks and theatrical walkthroughs.
The new pub is slated to open on August 26, 2025, with development work commencing as of March 10, 2025.
The plans for the venue were first submitted to Southwark Council in September 2024.
The latest edition to the pub chain will be open seven days a week, from 6.30am to 12.30am, offering punters a spot to enjoy food, drinks, and the unique charm of a Wetherspoons establishment.
An artist’s impression of the pub shows a bright, neon-lit sign reading: ‘The Sun Wharf Wetherspoon.’
The name is believed to reference one of the wharves east of London Bridge, where ships from Australia once brought in imports, adding a historical flavour to the site.
The pub, which will be named The Sun Wharf, will occupy the former London Dungeon space located within the arches at 50 Tooley Street, near London Bridge
The plans for the venue were first submitted to Southwark Council in September 2024
For years, the space has sat vacant after the London Dungeon moved in 2013 to its new home at County Hall
For years, the space has sat vacant after the London Dungeon moved in 2013 to its new home at County Hall, as part of the ongoing redevelopment of the London Bridge area.
Network Rail, which owns the building, had previously voiced concerns about the space’s appeal to potential tenants.
In 2017, the rail provider wrote to Southwark Council stating: ‘The residual premises provide a very poor-quality environment.
‘The former user (London Dungeon) was somewhat unusual in so far as the poor-quality environment was its main attraction.’
After a major refurbishment costing £20million, the new London Dungeon on the South Bank now welcomes more than 700,000 visitors a year, continuing to entertain tourists and locals alike.
The addition of The Sun Wharf will bring a second Wetherspoons pub to the London Bridge area, joining The Pommelers Rest at Tower Bridge.
The opening on this latest edition to JD Wetherspoon, is part of 11 new pubs in England that are set to open this year.
The Grand Assembly in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, was also opened in September last year
Wetherspoon opened The Lion & The Unicorn pub at London Waterloo station last September
New sites at Fulham Broadway Underground station in West London and Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 are also planned for this year.
The pub chain also confirmed new venues at Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, Wetherby in West Yorkshire, Bath in Somerset and Fareham in Hampshire.
This takes its total pub openings in its financial year to nine – after two new venues opened last September, at London Waterloo station and Marlow in Buckinghamshire.
Separately, the chain is also opening four new pubs at Haven holiday parks in England this spring in a £6.7million investment as the duo expand their partnership.
The new sites will be located at Devon Cliffs in Exmouth, Kent Coast in Allhallows, Cleethorpes Beach in Lincolnshire and Haggerston Castle in Northumberland.
This will take the total pub openings to 11 in 2025, and 13 over the financial year.
Wetherspoon is also planning to open a pub in Farnham, Surrey, after purchasing the site of a former Slug & Lettuce venue – but no opening date has yet been set.
Wetherspoon chairman Sir Tim Martin says the firm is set to face a £60million jump in labour-related costs in April, amid increases in employers’ NI contributions and the minimum wage
The business also confirmed in January that six pubs had been sold over the year, generating £4.1million – and the firm now has a trading estate of 796 pubs.
The announcements were made as the Watford-based hospitality giant, which employs 42,000 people, revealed stronger sales for the half-year so far.
Wetherspoon chairman Sir Tim Martin has called on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to cut pub food taxes ahead of a jump in costs linked to the Budget.
He said it faces a £60million jump in labour-related costs in April, amid rises in employers’ national insurance contributions and the minimum wage.
Mr Martin said the business is in a ‘reasonable’ position but that forecasting is ‘difficult’ in the face of impending tax and wage increases.
As a result, he renewed calls to equalise the VAT paid on food by pub and restaurant businesses with that of supermarkets.
Most food and drink in shops has zero VAT whereas restaurants and pubs have a standard rate of 20 per cent.
‘This tax advantage allows supermarkets to subsidise the price of beer they sell,’ Sir Tim said.
‘The VAT distortions that exist today will inevitably create more supermarkets and less pubs.
‘Wetherspoon therefore calls upon Sir Keir Starmer to redress this imbalance, thereby striking a blow for tax equality and ending discrimination in favour of dull dinner parties.’
