Italian restaurant near Percy Circus, Clerkenwellan 18-minute walk to Fiena

Percy Circus is a ring of townhouses with a central garden in Clerkenwell. It sits where Great Percy Street meets Vernon Street. The houses are Italianate in design, but they keep the stock-brick fronts and Georgian feel of the wider estate. Circular layouts are rare in London's residential streets; writers have compared it to the Circus in Bath, Edinburgh's Royal Circus, or the more urban Finsbury and Piccadilly Circles.

In 1939 the architectural writer Christopher Hussey called it "one of the most delightful bits of town planning in London". The Second World War was harder on it: bomb damage led to the loss of several houses, though the circus fared better than nearby Holford Square, which was later rebuilt as Bevin Court. Of the original 27 houses, 15 survive, with nine of the remainder rebuilt in a historicist style, and Nos. 1 to 15 have been Grade II listed since 1972. A blue plaque at No. 16 marks a brief stay by Vladimir Lenin in 1905.

The circus was built on land belonging to the New River Estate and the Lloyd Baker Estate — once open fields around the New River Company's reservoir at New River Head. Development of the area began in 1819 and ran into the 1850s, largely under William Chadwell Mylne, whose name still appears on nearby streets.

Percy Circus and Great Percy Street are named after Robert Percy, one of a family who worked for the New River Company. The circus itself was laid out from 1841 and finished by 1853; the first accepted house designs came from Richard Cromwell Carpenter. Background from Wikipedia's Percy Circus page.

The New River is an artificial waterway opened in 1613 to bring fresh drinking water to London from Chadwell and Amwell Springs near Ware in Hertfordshire. It was completed by Hugh Myddelton and run for nearly three hundred years by the New River Company; today Thames Water still uses a large section of it. The New River Path follows as much of the old course as possible. Background from Wikipedia's New River page.

It's about 1.4 kilometres, around 18 minutes on foot (walking route from OpenStreetMap). The route leaves the circus via Vernon Rise onto King's Cross Road, turns along Acton Street to Gray's Inn Road, then follows Sidmouth Street, Wakefield Street and Hunter Street up to Leigh Street and Judd Street. Making a day of it? See our posts on Exmouth Market, Argyle Square, Mecklenburgh Square and the Postal Museum.

Morning: breakfast is served daily from 08:00 to 14:00, with coffee all day. See brunch near King's Cross.

Lunch and dinner: the main menu starts at midday. Try the Linguine Fiena, a Diavola pepperoni pizza, or the Whole sea bream. Finish with Tiramisu. See our pasta, the grill and our outdoor seating.

Guests often mention the setting.

“This cafe had delicious food and a lovely little patio!”

Kathleen, Google reviews, 2026

And after pasta: Mushrooms, pasta, and chicken cooked to perfection (Robin, Google review).