The Mercury Gardens restaurant shuts to the public on Thursday, and so does every other Beefeater. The Premier Inn stays open and guests keep their meals.

The Liberty Bell on Mercury Gardens serves the public for the last time on Thursday. Beefeater’s own page for the Romford restaurant now carries a closure notice: “We hope to see you again before this restaurant closes to the public on 10 September 2026” (Beefeater, Liberty Bell).

Until then it is open as normal, 11.30am to 11pm Monday to Saturday and noon to 10.30pm on Sunday, at Mercury Gardens, RM1 3EN. The same page warns that “in the lead-up to closure, some food and drink options may not be available during your next visit”. Beefeater’s loyalty scheme has already gone: its homepage says “our Loyalty scheme, Rewards Club, has now closed”.

This is not a Romford decision

It is the whole chain, on the same day. We checked the page of every Beefeater listed on the brand’s own locations directory on 8 September. All 90 of them carry the identical sentence and the identical date, 10 September 2026.

The four others in Essex go at the same time:

  • Harlow Mill, Harlow
  • Strawberry Field, Southend-on-Sea
  • The Watermill, Basildon
  • The Haywain, Stanford-le-Hope

The nearest Brewers Fayre has already gone. Chequers Corner, on the Dagenham side of the boundary in Barking and Dagenham, about four miles south-west of Romford town centre, closed to the public on 7 September (Brewers Fayre, Chequers Corner).

Why: Whitbread is getting out of restaurants

Beefeater’s owner, Whitbread, announced on 30 April 2026 that it intends to become “a pure-play hotel business focused on Premier Inn”. Its own statement, republished for guests on 18 June, sets out what that means:

This change will involve exiting all of our remaining branded restaurants, which trade under brands including Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, a number of which will be converted into approximately 600 additional Premier Inn rooms, with the remainder expected to be sold as going concerns.

The company also expects the plan to cut “around 3,800 roles of a total UK and Ireland workforce of around 30,000”, subject to consultation, and says it will try to redeploy as many affected staff as it can. Whitbread has not published a figure for how many people work at the Liberty Bell, and we have not seen one.

There is an irony in the source. Whitbread put that statement out in June precisely because artificial intelligence tools were telling people restaurants had already shut when they had not. This time the closure is real, and it is the restaurant’s own page that says so.

The hotel is not closing

The Premier Inn next door stays open, and Beefeater’s notice is explicit about what that means for guests: “following the restaurant closure, Premier Inn guests will continue to enjoy breakfast, evening meals and drinks throughout their stay.”

The hotel is still taking bookings and, two days out, its own page still sells the restaurant. It invites guests to “come back to great food at our Beefeater restaurant”, and its driving directions still finish with “next to the Liberty Bell Beefeater”.

What replaces it is the open question. Whitbread’s plan describes rolling out “an integrated restaurant in each hotel” to every hotel that currently has a branded restaurant, while converting others into rooms and selling the rest as going concerns. It has not said which of those three applies to Mercury Gardens.

What we could not confirm today. Havering’s planning register, which would show any application to change the building, returned a server error every time we tried it. The council’s own service disruptions page acknowledges that residents “may have problems viewing planning documents and images in our planning application search system at the moment”. So we cannot say whether anything has been applied for, only that we could not look.

What it means for you

  • If you have a table booked after Thursday, it will not stand. Bookings are being taken up to and including 10 September only.
  • Staying at the Premier Inn? Nothing changes for you. Breakfast, evening meals and drinks continue, in Whitbread’s own words.
  • The menu may thin out before Thursday. Beefeater says some food and drink options may not be available in the run-up.
  • Rewards Club points and vouchers. The scheme has closed. Beefeater directs members to log in to My Account for details, and that is the only route it gives.
  • Going before Thursday? The restaurant sits on the ring road beside the Premier Inn, which puts Romford station 0.3 miles away on its own page. The Mercury Mall and Brewery car parks are both a short walk; our parking in Romford page has the tariffs and the Sunday rules.
Whitbread's restaurant exit, by the numbers Four figures from Whitbread's own statement and Beefeater's own website. 90 Beefeater restaurants listed on the brand's site, all closing to the public on 10 September 2026. Approximately 600 additional Premier Inn rooms to be created from converted restaurants. Around 3,800 roles expected to go, out of a UK and Ireland workforce of around 30,000. Over 200 restaurants were already converted to rooms under the earlier 2024 plan. Whitbread's exit from restaurants, in its own figures Whitbread guest statement, 18 June 2026, and Beefeater's own locations directory, checked 8 September 2026 90 Beefeater restaurants all closing 10 Sept 2026 3,800 roles expected to go of around 30,000 in UK & Ireland 600 extra Premier Inn rooms from converted restaurants 200+ already converted under the 2024 growth plan The job figure is Whitbread's own estimate and is subject to consultation. The 90 is our count of the restaurants listed on beefeater.co.uk; we opened every one of those pages on 8 September and each carried the same 10 September closing date. Graphic by Romford Today.
Whitbread says restaurants that are not converted into hotel rooms are "expected to be sold as going concerns". It has not said which category Romford falls into.

Sources