Richard Caring is in advanced talks to buy iconic City restaurant 1 Lombard Street, marking his first foray back into the restaurant business since the £1.4bn sale of his empire.

A deal for the Lombard St restaurant, located in a stunning former banking hall, is understood to be in the final stages of negotiations following a lengthy pursuit by Caring.

The sale, which could be finalised as early as next week, will bring to an end almost 30 years of ownership by former Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs banker Soren Jessen.

Caring and Jessen both declined to comment.

Caring’s restaurant group – which included The Ivy Collection, Sexy Fish, Scott’s, J Sheekey and the night clubs Annabel’s and George – was sold to Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the younger brother of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed.

Richard Caring: From fast-fashion to fashionable restaurants

Caring, who made his fortune in the fast-fashion business, had never run a restaurant when he acquired celeb hotspots The Ivy, Le Caprice and J Sheekey for £31.5m in 2005. In the years that followed he built them into one of the world’s most successful restaurant groups, courting controversy for his decision to create a global franchise from the Ivy brand.

Located beside Bank Station, 1 Lombard Street, which opened in 1998, helped to change the culinary reputation of the Square Mile, encouraging workers to branch out from long lunches into evening meals. It was also among the first City companies to run a seven-day operation, with its weekend brunches introducing the brand to a new clientele.

“It’s a chicken and the egg thing,” Jessen told City AM in a 2023 interview to coincide with the restaurant’s 25th anniversary. “There weren’t any restaurants because people escaped as soon as they finished work. And there weren’t any people hanging around the City because there weren’t any restaurants. Someone had to be brave and turn that tide. So we went for it.”

The sale of 1 Lombard Street coincides with major changes at fellow City icon Coq d’Argent, which will move to a new – as yet undisclosed – location in the coming months after ending its current lease at No.1 Poultry.