ABOUT US
What we are
Lant Street Wine are independent wine merchants, and an evolution of the Waterloo Wine Co that has been at home in the Borough since 1986. The shop and warehouse - rather aptly once a cork factory – are located less than a minute's walk from Borough Underground Station.
At Lant Street Wine we try to do a simple thing well, finding and importing interesting wines from small quality producers and selling them to the UK trade and public at reasonable prices.
We have long-standing relationships with our producers who are for the most part family-run estates, and as such we are selling wines that we feel we know – how they've evolved, who makes them, how much they care. Customers can stroll into the shop and know that nine times out of ten we will have tried the bottle they're looking at and can offer advice on its style and flavours.
Where we are
Lant Street of Borough, Southwark, runs from Southwark Bridge Road to Borough High Street just south of the river Thames. Historically the area was known as ‘The Mint’ and was notorious for its poverty, overcrowded and insanitary conditions and high levels of crime and disorder. Lant Street itself is probably best known for being where a 12 year old Charles Dickens lodged in 1824 while his father was imprisoned for debt in the nearby Marshalsea prison.
In The Pickwick Papers (1837) Dickens paid a kind of tribute to the area when he wrote:
“There is a repose about Lant Street, in the Borough, which sheds a gentle melancholy upon the soul … If a man wished to abstract himself from the world; to remove himself from within the reach of temptation; to place himself beyond the possibility of any inducement to look out of the window, we should recommend him by all means to go to Lant Street.”
Today Lant Street and the Borough are very different places, but hints of Dickensian London can still be found tucked amongst the alleys and buildings of SE1 (to say nothing of its residents), and although less restive than in Dickens' day Lant Street can still evoke a little timeless charm.
Who we are
Ben Wilcock
Director
Ben worked at Waterloo Wine from 2006 and acquired plenty of knowledge of their producers and wines. Over the years Ben has covered almost every aspect of a wine merchant's world from vineyard to consumer - buying, selling, transporting, storing and delivering wine to countless customers - and now he turns his hand to management. His personal favourite? This varies depending on the time of day and occasion, but will generally come back to a dry, crisp Loire Valley white. An English fry-up accompanied by Champagne is also not out of the question.
David Wilcock
Director
David has been in the wine trade since the origin of Waterloo Wine Company, Lant Street Wine's previous incarnation, in the early 1980s. With 20 years of experience directing a wine company he and his son Ben took the business on in 2015.
Rudi Honjo
Operations
A comparatively late starter, Rudi has been exploring the world of wine for about 5 years, and has taken on the roles of operations manager, web content development and social media analyst at LSW. When not casually swirling (or swilling) a glass of red Côtes du Rhône he's usually out riding his motorcycle.
Peter Ledgerwood
Wine Consultant
Peter has worked for Waterloo Wine since the original shop opened in 1986, and as such is extremely familiar with our wines and producers. He has spent 40 years in the wine business and so brings a great broad knowledge to our team. He hosts private tastings in the shop and warehouse and is particularly knowledgeable about his personal favourites, the wines of Austria and Germany.