The Review - RESTAURANTS Published: 18th October 2007
Philippe Sands QC with The Wells Tavern floor manager, Kate Smith
Escape to the Wells of happiness
Author and lawyer Philippe Sands leads a frenetically busy life, so when he has an hour to spare, he’s only too happy to spend it relaxing in The Wells Tavern, writes Sara Newman
PHILIPPE Sands is the outspoken member of the Matrix Chambers in Gray’s Inn that Cherie Booth co-founded in 2000.
His relationship with the fellow QC can certainly not have been strengthened since he accused her husband of being a war criminal.
When the University College London law professor is not gallivanting across the globe
sorting out various border disputes, interviewing lawyers in the US for his new book, Torture Team – out in April next year – or accusing the government and its ministers of breaking international law, you might find him sipping a coffee at The Wells Tavern in Wells Walk, Hampstead.
“I have a completely frenetic life,” says Philippe, the father of three young children – Katya, 7, Lara, 10, and Leo, 12 – all at New End Primary School. “So sitting in here, for one or two hours on my own, is heaven,” he sighs.
The special today is omelette, at a steep £7.50. Most people would not consider it possible to judge a chef’s culinary prowess on a few cooked eggs but Philippe proved otherwise. “It was a seamlessly integrated whole,” he mocked. He may jest, but the stuffed aubergine with cinnamon mushrooms, pine nuts, grilled courgettes and tomato, is seriously delicious.
The historic pub, dating back to 1721, seated at the centre of Hampstead’s winding residential streets, was once a brothel for the landed gentry.
Just a hop away from Ricky Gervais’s new house, the gastropub is still a regular haunt of the well-known and well-to-do of Hampstead and has been owned by Evening Standard critic Fay Maschler’s sister, Beth Coventry since 2003. “I have always lived here,” says Philippe with feeling. “It’s a special place. It just has such a fantastic sense of community and history.”
A former student of Hereward House on Strathray Gardens, he credits his politics teacher, Ed Burke, as the inspiration behind his crusade for justice.
Before that it was his staunch socialist grandfather, who fled from Vienna and Nazi persecution to the safety of the French shores in 1938, that educated him. “He suffered the most terrible atrocities,” says Philippe, “but never lost his life spirit.”
Although his father, a dentist, and his mother, an antiquarian, split up when he was 14, their lives are still very much intertwined.
They live across the road from each other in Belsize Park and this year they celebrated what would have been their 50th wedding anniversary with a big party.
Quite bizarrely, his father’s living room window gives a perfect view to his mother’s bedroom. “They are still very good friends but they couldn’t live together,” says Philippe.
We set to work on a mixed berry crumble, that would put a smile on even Gordon Brown’s face, and Philippe began to reminisce about the time he and his New York-born wife Natalia Schiffrin shared their first kiss in the elevator of the World Trade Centre.
When both Natalia, also a lawyer, and Philippe are working, Denise – a teaching assistant at New End School– lends a hand.
Since she is unconvinced by the new gastropub style venue, Philippe asked me to pass on to her this message, which I think just about sums it up: “The Wells Tavern is not poncy. It’s the best place to have lunch.”
• The Wells Tavern, 30 Well Walk, Hampstead.
Tel: 020 7794 3785
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