London’s eating out hotspot sells off table, front door and doormat in unique auction

For years, it’s been one of the hardest spots in which to get an eating out reservation in London. Now, as The Ivy closes for refurbishment, it is auctioning off a number of fixtures and fittings that has made the Covent Garden venue famous.

The Ivy in Covent Garden. Image by Jack Torcello / CC BY 2.0

If you were lucky enough to get a table in the famed eaterie chances are you were close to ‘A’ list celebrities such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, The Beckhams or Elton John.

Mindful that getting a table was a tough thing to do, owner Richard Caring will actually put one – Table Six – under the hammer so some lucky punter can have one in perpetuity, once he comes up with the top bid.

Hundred of items – from artwork on the walls to restaurant napkins – will be on sale as the establishment closes for refurbishment which will see it reopen in time before centenary celebrations in 2017, the Evening Standard reports.

Next month’s auction at Sotheby’s will see items go for as little as £50 for drinking glasses to as much as £100,000 for painting currently on the wall.

The deputy director of the auction house’s Modern & Post-War British Art department, Simon Hucker, reeled off some unlikely items for sale, including the doormat on which many famous people wiped their feet and the front door itself.

Other auctionable items include the doormen’s tip bowl as well as stained-glass windows and the banquet seat.

Mr Caring said that people have often asked if they could buy some of their belongings. “And now they can,” he said. The proceeds from the auction will support the Child Bereavement UK charity.