Wednesday 03 December, 2025: Sicilian Avenue, central London’s historic pedestrianised dining and lifestyle destination announces its first three retailers, all London brands - the trendy Flying Horse Coffee, BACKWORKS offering massages for all, and Japanese tea, café and retailer MATCHADO.
Flying Horse Coffee officially opened its doors this December, 2025 at No.1 Sicilian Avenue – on the corner of Southampton Row – and is the first to fuel the area's office workers, tourists, students and residents. The other two London-founded independents will open in Spring 2026 when visitors will have the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the beautifully restored and architecturally delightful Grade II listed pedestrianised avenue that has been captivating walkers, laureates, creatives and authors for over 115 years.
Just 90 seconds from Holborn Station and set against the backdrop of Bloomsbury Square - and a six-minute walk from the UK’s most visited 272 year old attraction, The British Museum, Sicilian Avenue’s developers are revitalising this heritage destination to create a vibrant consumer destination in the heart of Bloomsbury.
With 70,000 sq ft of renovated contemporary offices sitting above 17,500 sq ft of retail / food and beverage space and al fresco seating, Sicilian Avenue’s iconic buildings have been perfectly reimagined into a premium lifestyle destination that will reconnect Bloomsbury's residents, workers, Londoners, students and visitors in a calm yet joyful pedestrianised environment.
Flying Horse Coffee Selects Sicilian Avenue as its First Central London Location
Much-loved coffee roastery, brunch and lifestyle brand Flying Horse Coffee will be the first to open at No.1 Sicilian Avenue on Monday 1 December, 2025.
Flying Horse Coffee chose Sicilian Avenue as its first central London location thanks to its culturally rich heritage and grade II listed architecture, a stunning backdrop for one of London’s brightest coffee companies.
At No.1 Sicilian Avenue, Flying Horse Coffee will offer customers their finest freshly ground signature brews complemented with delicious toasties and bagels for Londoners on-the-go and tourists looking to explore the city.
Philip Way, Owner and Founder of Flying Horse Coffee, adds: “We are super excited to get started, and it’s our most beautiful setting yet to open in. We’ve really taken our time to respect its heritage down to details like matching the colour of our coffee machine with the Grade II listed oriel window frames. These details matter to the experience and lifestyle we’re creating for our customers - we want them to feel that they’re in a special place, because they are!”
Loyal fans will be rewarded with a regular free cup of coffee through its Magic Stamp Loyalty App.
BACKWORKS Prefers Pedestrianised Locations to Grow its Self-Care Brand
Since opening its first ever wellness space in Angel’s heritage-rich, pedestrianised Camden Passage in 2024, creating a serene, safe and modern enclave for its clientele has been high on the agenda.
BACKWORKS was formed to make wellness accessible for incredibly busy people, adding a crucial lifestyle element to the Bloomsbury area.
The new drop-in wellness space offers fully clothed, seated massages on ergonomic chairs – perfect for time-pressed business owners, workers, students, visitors and locals who need a quick reset. BACKWORKS’ highly skilled therapists blend deep tissue and sports massage techniques to create personalised 15 to 45 minute sessions that release tension fast. In addition to in-store massages, BACKWORKS offers a corporate package that converts events and offices into wellness experiences with minimal fuss.
Douglas Anderson, Co-founder of BACKWORKS, adds: ‘Sicilian Avenue captures the experience we want for our clients. Its beautiful oriel windows allow for more natural light, and its culturally inspiring location is perfectly in line with our vision: quiet, yet lively and making wellbeing accessible – like grabbing your morning coffee. Our mission is to offer an alternative to lengthy, expensive massage treatments that require booking weeks in advance, having to undress and be covered in oils. Sometimes you just need that 15 minutes of dedicated time-out without thinking about work or worries in a peaceful space – and BACKWORKS offers an accessible, affordable solution to wellness for everyone.’
BACKWORKS creates little waste thanks to its through-clothing massage techniques making the business one of the most sustainable wellness spaces in London.
MATCHADO adds Japanese Tea Culture and Matcha Baked Treats to Sicilian Avenue
Steeped in the harmony, seasonality and attention to detail that define Japanese culture, MATCHADO brings a thoughtful, handcrafted approach to tea and sweets to its newest café on Sicilian Avenue. Founded in 2019 by Japanese tea specialist Hiromi Matsunobu, MATCHADO was created to share the authentic flavours of Japanese tea and sweets — and the deep craftsmanship of Japanese tea culture — with the UK.
At Sicilian Avenue, guests can experience MATCHADO’s signature style of Japanese tea preparation. The café uses ceremonial-grade matcha and premium hojicha hand-sourced from family tea farms across Japan, with every drink hand-whisked to order for smoothness, aroma and balance. MATCHADO’s carefully selected tea tools and tableware highlight the beauty and ritual of Japanese tea-making, while its London-made baked treats showcase Japanese flavours including matcha, hojicha, yuzu and black sesame.
Founder Hiromi Matsunobu, adds: “It’s wonderful to open MATCHADO in such a heritage-rich location just minutes away from The British Museum. For this opening, I’ve created a new baked treat exclusively for guests at Sicilian Avenue — our Matcha Florentine. Inspired in part by the fascinating architecture of Italian marble and classical details, it pairs crunchy almonds and rich caramel with high-quality matcha. I can’t wait to share it. The calm, heritage surroundings on Sicilian Avenue are the perfect setting to experience the thoughtful, mindful nature of Japanese tea culture.”
At MATCHADO Sicilian Avenue, guests can enjoy signature drinks — from matcha and hojicha lattes to Japanese loose-leaf teas — alongside award-winning sweets such as Great Taste Award-winning gluten free matcha brownies, vegan matcha cookies, cheesecakes, dorayaki pancakes and a rotating selection of seasonal creations inspired by Japan’s flavours and traditions.
Jonathan Eastwood, Head of Retail Agency, Knight Frank, adds: ‘We’re curating a high quality, premium destination that combines creative and joyful experiences whilst redefining London living, shopping and dining. Sicilian Avenue’s London-founded brands are exactly the kind of high quality experiences people desire and these three retailers selected this location not only for its heritage, but its access to provide the lifestyle consumers want. Both operators overcame fierce competition for the avenue and we look forward to announcing further arrivals.’’
Hannah McNamara, co-founder, P-Three, concludes: ‘Sicilian Avenue is a beautiful, characterful and a slightly unexpected destination in the heart of London. Having homegrown London brands like Flying Horse Coffee, BACKWORKS and MATCHADO bring something distinctive to the spirit and heritage of the avenue says everything about the energy this place inspires. At P-Three, we’ve always been passionate about curating destinations that feel genuine and full of life, and Sicilian Avenue perfectly embodies that.”
For more information about retail lettings, please visit: https://sicilianavenue.com/commercial-opportunities
Notes to Editors:
For images and headshots: https://sicilianavenue.com/press
About Sicilian Avenue
Sicilian Avenue is central London’s unexpected iconic pedestrianised destination, offering high quality dining, lifestyle and socialising venues immersed in historical grade II Edwardian architecture, peacefully set in the heart of Bloomsbury - a stone’s throw from Holborn Station and a seven minute stroll from Tottenham Court Road Station. Established in 1910 and previously home to bookstores and boutiques, Sicilian Avenue is undergoing a complete restoration to offer exciting and intimate dining and socialising options away from Holborn’s busy surroundings. With its vibrant mix of restaurants, cafés and bars, Sicilian Avenue will provide all its visitors - from London-based foodies to visiting tourists, students and local workers - with a peaceful, yet joyful and sociable space that transports you to another world. https://sicilianavenue.com/
About Flying Horse Coffee
Established in 2018 by founder Phillip Way, Flying Horse Coffee began its journey as a roastery in Hackney, shipping its globally sourced coffee beans and serving its signature brews out of a hatch window. Queues very quickly became the norm, so in 2019 they expanded the café experience from East to West London at the iconic BBC Television Centre in White City, followed by its third location on the corner of Golborne Road in Notting Hill. In 2024, Flying Horse Coffee opened its fourth location in Shoreditch serving up delicious all day brunches, coffee and slick merch. In 2025, they opened the doors to its first central London location at No.1 Sicilian Avenue.
Flying Horse Coffee roast seasonal coffee beans, adding a marked layer of sustainability into its signature blends. Its caffeine free blend is particularly unique in using a specialised ‘Swiss water’ extraction process to gently remove caffeine without losing the smooth, chocolatey tasting experience. Its subscription-based model also means customers can enjoy their blends nationwide. For more information and to subscribe and buy, please visit: www.flyinghorsecoffee.com
About Backworks
Founded in 2024 by co-founders Doug Anderson and James New, on-the-go wellness company BACKWORKS is addressing a much-needed gap in the market to make wellness accessible and affordable for everyday busy people. Expertly trained therapists with decades of experience create personalised 15 to 45 minute sessions. They infuse deep tissue and sports massage techniques across the back, neck, shoulders, arms and hands – comfortably delivered on ergonomically designed seated chairs. All massages are through-clothing and every minute is spent on the massage after a brief consultation. BACKWORKS’ minimal fuss massages means that the company is able to offer massages as part of an everyday self care routine.
BACKWORKS also has a corporate offering that converts offices and events into complete wellness experiences for businesses and their teams, event attendees and event staff. Its ability to mobilise and quickly include everyday self care into a working day has led to an increased demand for massages, leading to an incredible second location on heritage site Sicilian Avenue in Bloomsbury, the first being on Camden Passage in Angel. BACKWORKS creates little waste thanks to its through-clothing massage techniques making the business one of the most sustainable wellness spaces in London. For more information, please visit: https://www.backworks.london/
About MATCHADO
MATCHADO was founded in 2019 by Japanese tea specialist Hiromi Matsunobu to bring authentic Japanese tea and matcha sweets to the UK. What began as an online store during the pandemic quickly grew in popularity, leading to successful pop-ups at Pantechnicon, MUJI, and Japan House London.
In November 2023, MATCHADO opened its first bricks-and-mortar location in Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross, followed by a café in Chiswick in December 2023 and a larger production kitchen and café in Acton in 2025. The Acton kitchen prepares MATCHADO’s baked treats for its London cafés, using premium UK ingredients — such as milk, butter, eggs and flour — combined with Japanese flavours including matcha, hojicha, yuzu and black sesame.
MATCHADO’s premium matcha and hojicha are sourced directly from family tea farms across Japan and are hand-whisked to order in all cafés for a smooth, balanced flavour.
MATCHADO products are available for home delivery across mainland UK. Order at matchado.co.uk and follow on Instagram at @matchado_london.
For images: MATCHADO Sicilian Avenue - media kit
About Knight Frank
Knight Frank LLP is the leading independent global property consultancy, serving as our clients’ partners in property for 128 years. Headquartered in London, Knight Frank has more than 20,000 people operating from 600 offices across 50 territories. The Group advises clients ranging from individual owners and buyers to major developers, investors and corporate tenants. For more information, please visit www.knightfrank.com.
About Tristan Capital Partners
Tristan Capital Partners is a real estate investment manager, specialising in value-added investment strategies across all property types in the UK and Europe. Tristan’s pan-European real estate funds include core+, opportunistic and debt strategies, with total assets under management of over €15 billion and a loyal client base of institutional and private investors. The company was founded in 2009. Tristan’s headquarters are in London, and it has offices in Luxembourg, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt. Milan and Madrid. Tristan is an affiliate of New York Life Investments. It is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and is MiFID compliant. www.tristancap.com
About P-Three
P-Three is a London-based retail, leisure, and placemaking agency working across some of the UK’s most high-profile destinations, from single ownership assets to great estates and major development opportunities. P-Three is at the forefront of securing category-defining operators for major destinations. Focusing on prime retail, leisure, and restaurants, P-Three’s current leasing projects include St James Quarter in Edinburgh, Wimbledon Quarter, Greenwich Peninsula, Trocadero London, East Bank in Stratford, Bloomsbury Quarter, Elephant at 318 Oxford Street and Elephant & Castle Town Centre. The agency was co-founded in 2019 by senior retail and leisure advisers Hannah McNamara, Thomas Rose, and Justin Taylor. For more information, please visit www.p-three.co.uk.