London, July 2025 – Vagabond Wines, the self-pour wine bar group, has agreed terms to take 6,000 sq ft of space at British Land and AustralianSuper’s 53-acre Canada Water Masterplan, with doors set to open later this year.

The new Vagabond bar will be home to the UK’s largest urban winery – bringing large-scale winemaking, immersive experiences, and over 100 wines by the glass to Central London.

Backed by investment from owner Majestic Group, the winery is expected to quadruple Vagabond’s English wine output, supporting the growth of its small-batch, multi-award-winning still and sparkling range – including the recent Best English Still Wine win at the Independent Wine Awards for Solena, as well as WineGB’s Boutique Producer of the Year 2024.

Under the guidance of José Quintana, Vagabond’s Head Winemaker, the winery will feature standout design details such as a striking concrete egg fermenter and an experimental solera system, allowing guests to see, smell, taste and enjoy wine at every stage of its journey.

The unit is located on the ground floor of the recently completed Dock Shed, a mixed-use building with HQ-ready workspace above and the new Canada Water Leisure Centre to the rear.

The space will feature a working 100-tonne winery, a Vagabond bar with the brand’s signature self-pour wine machines, and multiple event and private hire spaces – from weddings to tastings, winemaker dinners to corporate events. With production capacity of up to 100,000 bottles per year, and space for more than 300 daily visitors, the new winery will offer visitors the chance to see, smell, taste, and enjoy wine at every stage of its journey.

The new Vagabond location will sit alongside a host of experience-led offerings in Canada Water, including the area’s newest leisure and entertainment venue, Corner Corner – home to the immersive Minecraft experience – and the upcoming Titanic exhibition in adjacent venue Dock X. The urban winery is the latest in a series of indoor F&B production spaces, following the opening of Harvest London’s indoor farm earlier this year, which grows salad and herbs used within Corner Corner’s food hall as well as in local restaurants and cafes.

Wine tourism in the UK is booming, with a 55% increase in visitor numbers since 2022, according to WineGB – reaching over 1.5 million wine tourism visits last year¹. Vagabond’s urban winery will bring that trend to central London for the first time at this scale.

The launch forms a key part of Vagabond’s wider growth strategy, working exclusively with the retail and leisure team at Savills to double the size of its estate in the next three years. The first tranche of openings later this year includes new bars in St Paul’s and at British Land and GIC’s Broadgate, Liverpool Street.

Vagabond Managing Director Christobell Giles said: “This urban winery is unlike anything we’ve done before. It’s a cathedral to wine – a space that lets people get up close to the winemaking process and connects them to the stories and passion behind every bottle. Wine shouldn’t live on a dusty shelf. It should be alive, expressive, and social – and that’s exactly what we’re building.”

Majestic Group CEO John Colley said: “We are really excited to be launching the Uk’s largest urban winery, in a prime central London location. This is a project we have been working on for a number of months and we can’t wait to welcome our first guests later this year. This significant investment from Majestic Group demonstrates the huge potential we see in the Vagabond brand, and we are committed to supporting its expansion into major towns and cities outside of London in the coming years.”

Alice Keown, Leasing Director Restaurants and Leisure at British Land, added: “The addition of Vagabond to Canada Water forms a key part of our vision to create one of the most vibrant cultural and experiential destinations in London. It will be in a prime position surrounded by brand new homes, workspace and the Leisure Centre. The in-house winery will be a flagship attraction, combining innovation, hospitality, and community under one roof.”

The first phase of the Canada Water masterplan completes this summer, delivering 300,000 sq ft of workspace and 13,000 sq ft of retail at Three Deal Porters and Dock Shed, a new leisure centre for Southwark Council and 186 new homes at The Founding. Two further restaurants will also be opening soon, Sushi Revolution and Village Tree, adding to Canada Water’s destination appeal.

For more information on Canada Water, visit www.canadawater.co.uk. For more on Vagabond, visit www.vagabondwines.co.uk.

_{¹  https://winegb.co.uk/press-releases/winegb-tourism-report-launches-as-vineyard-visits-soar/} 

–ENDS–

Jack Merrylees
Head of Marketing & PR, Vagabond Wines
[email protected]
07481778827

Laura Sears
Communications Manager – Canada Water, British Land
[email protected]
07989 755671

Notes to editors

About Vagabond Wines:

Vagabond is a collection of experiential, self-pour and explorative wine bars. It operates across nine locations in London and Birmingham, and is staffed by a team of experts trained through the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET). Vagabond was founded in 2010 as a small local wine shop in Fulham, and has evolved into a unique wine bar business that allows its customers to ‘tap and pour’ more than 100 wines by the glass from its self-serve wine machines. Vagabond’s selection includes its own award-winning wines, which are produced by their own winemaking team at Vagabond’s Urban Winery in Battersea, from grapes sourced from within two hours of London. Vagabond was acquired by Majestic Wine in April 2024 and is committed to expanding its unique wine bar concept into new regions across the UK.

About Majestic Group:

Majestic is the UK’s largest premium wine specialist in retail, wholesale and hospitality. Founded in 1980 and initially trading as Majestic Vintners, Majestic was sold to Fortress Investment Group in 2019 and has since undergone an ambitious transformation and turnaround programme. The Majestic retail business operates a network of 213 stores across the UK and Jersey, staffed by more than 1,000 highly-qualified colleagues trained through the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET). Its growth plan is focused on curating a differentiated, high-quality product range, expanding its online presence and opening new stores. Through its on-trade specialist businesses Majestic Commercial and Enotria&Coe, which it acquired in April 2025, Majestic has rapidly grown into one of the largest wine and spirits suppliers in the UK, partnering with gastropubs, bars, restaurants, hotels and hospitality venues. Its on-trade strategy is built around an exclusive portfolio of high-quality wines, local, personalised service and expert sales teams. Majestic acquired its own wine bar business, Vagabond Wines, in April 2024 as part of its commitment to experiential retail and hospitality offerings. It has plans to grow its physical portfolio of wine bars outside of London and Birmingham in the coming years.

About British Land

British Land is a UK commercial property company focused on real estate sectors with the strongest operational fundamentals: London campuses, retail parks, and London urban logistics. We own or manage a portfolio valued at £14.6bn (British Land share: £9.5bn) as at 31 March 2025.

Our purpose is to create and manage Places People Prefer – outstanding places that deliver positive outcomes for all our stakeholders on a long term, sustainable basis. We do this by leveraging our best in class platform and proven expertise in development, repositioning and active asset management.

We have both a responsibility and an opportunity to manage our business in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Our approach to sustainability is focused on three pillars: Greener Spaces, Thriving Places and Responsible Choices.

Read more about us at www.britishland.com.

About AustralianSuper

AustralianSuper manages more than £180 billion (A$365 billion) in members’ retirement savings on behalf of more than 3.5 million members from more than 472,000 businesses (as at 31 March 2025). The Fund is an active investor across global financial markets, real assets, private credit and private equity, with the aim of delivering sustainable, long-term performance for its members. AustralianSuper is the 16th largest pension fund in the world by total assets, and the fastest-growing among the global top 20 (Thinking Ahead Institute, Global Top 300 Pension Funds, based on 5-year CAGR 2019-2024).

For more information, visit: www.australiansuper.com.

About Canada Water

The Canada Water Masterplan is a 50:50 joint venture between British Land and AustralianSuper, working in partnership with Southwark Council to create a new town centre for London.

The Masterplan is a 53-acre, mixed-use scheme that will deliver around two million sq ft of workspace, one million sq ft of retail, leisure, entertainment, education and community space, and around 3,000 new homes.

With wellbeing embedded and buildings to support low carbon living, the project will also create 12 acres of new open space, including a 3.5-acre park, 16 new streets, a new Town Square and the first new high street in London for 100 years.

The Masterplan was granted permission in late 2019. In March 2022 British Land entered into a 50:50 joint venture with AustralianSuper, Australia’s biggest profit-to-member pension fund, providing additional funding to accelerate the major regeneration scheme, with Phase 1 completing in 2025.