Meet William Borrell, the man behind London's vodka revolution

Meet the man who transformed a public toilet into Kentish Town’s hottest drinking den, says Susannah Butter
Spirit of the age: William Borrell on his houseboat, which is now a floating distillery
Charlie Forgham-Bailey

It's 3pm and William Borrell is trying 80 per cent gin. “Just have a bit,” he encourages me, showing off his new copper machine that distills the spirit. It’s strong but delicate and floral. “A prediction: soon people will be making gin at home, on your street.”

We’re at Ladies and Gentlemen, Borrell’s cocktail bar, so called because it’s in a subterranean former public toilet in Kentish Town. There used to be a urinal where our table is and there’s still a sink on the wall, although it’s now used as an alcohol fountain.

All wiry energy in skinny jeans and a denim shirt, Borrell, aged 37, is a master of recycling. The red bar stools are ones that Pret was throwing out and the round marble tables are ex-Pizza Express. But he’s planning a redesign, replacing them with a long wooden affair hewn from a fallen tree, and a periscope so they can keep watch on the comings and goings above ground.

Ghostface Killah and Florence + the Machine are regulars — they come after secret gigs at the Forum across the road. It’s also popular with locals: “The older ones initially think it’s a toilet. I tell them it hasn’t been for 25 years but they can come back for a drink. They start in the corner with a sherry and three cocktails later they’ll be on the mescal tequila having a great time.”

Convenient: Ladies and Gents is in a former public loo

Borrell has come from a meeting about renting another toilet that hasn’t been used in 25 years. Is it the one outside The Ritzy cinema in Brixton that’s recently been put up to let (pun unintentional)? He only smiles naughtily. “I can’t say anything. It’s a real battle dealing with councils and planning,” he says, ordering martinis that are “dirty but not filthy”. “I called the council every day for six months to get this place.”

Since Ladies and Gentlemen opened two years ago it has become a landmark because of the topical wordplay on the sign outside. “If Donald Trump is elected there will be hell toupee” was a recent viral hit. Borrell was called by CNN and Sky News about it and says, “the sign allows me to fulfil my bad-dad jokes”.

Borrell looks just like his younger brother Johnny, of the band Razorlight. “I like to say I’m taller and better looking,” he says, before playing the proud older sibling role, talking about how he went on a tour bus and backstage when Johnny was “one of the most successful artists around”. “Unfortunately he was given blanket deals to produce albums he thought were becoming too formulaic. They told him this thing called Twitter would be big but he didn’t go on it because he didn’t want to be famous for being famous.” Now Johnny is a devoted uncle to William’s sons and lives between France and Hampstead Heath.

Restaurants and bars in former public loos

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Ladies and Gentlemen is firmly in Borrell’s patch. He went to William Ellis School, just up the road. His mother was a primary school teacher in Tottenham and his father John was a war correspondent.

The idea for the bar came through his father: “Twenty-eight years ago he married a lovely Polish lady and bought a farm in northern Poland, on land that hadn’t been ruined by pesticides because they couldn’t afford them during communist rule.”

Summers in Poland meant drinking potent vodka. “I tried regional vodkas unlike anything I’d tasted. They were unfiltered, 80 per cent, totally illegal but just exciting.”

When he left school and decided he “wasn’t cut out for university” he started to experiment with making his own. The result was Vestal Vodka, an unfiltered potato spirit which is now sold all over the world. Drinks giant Diageo once offered to buy the brand but he is waiting for a deal that will “respect its craft ethos”.

The best bars in London

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He founded the company from his houseboat in King’s Cross, where he settled after being involved in a couple of businesses with mixed success. “I had a kite-surfing business in Morocco when I was a lot fitter, I sold it to a German company. Less successful was my goji berry farm in the Channel Islands, although it was fun.”

Vodka was a hard sell initially. “When I asked bar managers if they wanted to try my vodka they would slam the door in my face. At that time the world didn’t need another vodka.” The Groucho was the first to take a chance on him.

‘A prediction: quite soon Londoners will be making their own gin on your street with new flavours’

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He opened up the boat where he makes the vodka to the public and it’s still a floating distillery that people can visit. “The canal is an underused resource,” he says. Just like public toilets then. He’s pro regeneration, although worries that rising rents “mean only corporates can afford to open new places” and thinks the redevelopment of nearby Archway Tower is “excellent”.

This is Jeremy Corbyn’s constituency, although the Labour leader doesn’t drink much. “He doesn’t have the requisite banter to carry the party, unfortunately,” says Borrell. “Sadiq Khan’s team celebrated here when he won. I’m not enamoured with the current Government but I don’t know what the alternatives are.” It’s good for satire though — he enthuses about the Diane Abbott impression on Radio 4 show Dead Ringers.

The boat is no longer home. He lives near Ladies and Gents and is “deeply happy with my wife Andrea and my two babies”. Andrea is the features director of Marie Claire and his children are four and 19 months. He shows me pictures of his youngest, Alexander dressed as a Christmas pudding for a professional photo shoot: “He earns more money modelling than all of us.” Meanwhile the four-year-old is an amateur mixologist. “He has a shaker and mixes his milk over ice.”

Does Borrell drink? “I just fill the bath with vodka, it’s easier,” he teases. His hangover cure is “more vodka”, in a Bloody Mary. He burns it off by swimming every day.

He is selling a lot of vodka in France. “When people celebrate there now it’s not with champagne but cocktails.” Borrell is already excited about autumn, planning Hot Voddies, like hot toddies but with vodka. “Autumn allows us to experiment with unusual flavours. Pumpkin purée pairs well with prosecco.”

We’re a few martinis down and the bar is starting to come alive for the evening. Borrell is a natural host, recommending drinks and even offering me one of the marble tables once he’s renovated. When I emerge from Ladies and Gentlemen the real world is a jolt. It’s time to plan a return trip to Borrell’s drinking den.

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