Historic Fleet Street wine bar El Vino's is sold

London’s best known journalists’ watering hole, El Vino’s wine bar on Fleet Street, has been sold by the family that founded it in 1879.

The haunt of reporters, editors and lawyers - famed for not serving women until 1982 - has been bought from the Mitchell family by the Davy’s wine bar chain. The deal include five London venues in total but the flagship will retain the El Vino name.

El Vino was launched as Bower & Co by Sir Alfred Bower, a future Lord Mayor of London and was taken over by his son Frank Bower who turned it into the fabled institution of the golden era of newspaper publishing. It appeared in the Rumpole books at the fictional barrister’s favourite hangout Pomeroys.

El Vino was subsequently chaired by his nephews Christopher Mitchell and his brother Sir David Mitchell, a cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government. Sir David’s son is Andrew Mitchell, the former Conservative chief whip at the centre of the “Plebgate” saga.

For much of El Vino’s existence men were required to wear a tie and women had to drink in a back room and were not allowed to approach the bar until journalist Anna Coote won a discrimination case at the Appeal Court.

Lord Justice Griffiths said female journalists might be prevented from “picking up the gossip of the day” if they were not able to mix with their male counterparts at the bar.

In recent decades the departure of Fleet Street’s newspaper community and a less enthusiastic drinking culture among the new office workers who replaced them has made it harder for El Vino to flourish.

Anthony Mitchell, a fourth generation of the  founding family said he was happy the bar would be in “such good hands” and “confident that our customers will enjoy a seamless transition”.