Last Call For Britannia Pub After 30 Years In Santa Monica

SANTA MONICA, CA — For generations of British expats, football fans and homesick travelers, The Britannia has been the closest thing Santa Monica had to a neighborhood pub back home.

Now, after nearly 30 years on Santa Monica Boulevard, the beloved British watering hole will pour its final pints on July 30 after the Cain family's lease expired. While the owners hope to reopen elsewhere in the city, the closure marks the latest change to a stretch of downtown that has steadily lost many of the independent businesses that once defined it.

"We're definitely going to stay in Santa Monica, if we can," co-owner Sonya Cain told Patch.

When Paul and Sonya Cain took over the property on St. Patrick's Day in 1996, they had never run a pub before. The building itself had previously housed an Indian-Mexican restaurant.

"Didn't know the first thing about running a pub," Cain said. "Only knew about being in one."

Over the next three decades, Britannia became one of downtown's best-known gathering places, serving fish and chips, shepherd's pie and pints while drawing loyal crowds for World Cups, Philadelphia Eagles games, Penn State football, karaoke nights and celebrations surrounding Britain's royal family.

"There've been lots of great times," Cain said. "I love doing the Eagles games."

Its closure also leaves Santa Monica with one fewer reminder of a British community that once had an outsized presence in the city. More than a decade ago, Santa Monica was home to several British-themed pubs and specialty shops, enough for BBC America to once rank it among the most British towns in the United States. The Cock 'n Bull on Lincoln Boulevard has long since disappeared as the Britannia prepares to close its current location, it leaves Ye Olde King's Head as the city's last long-established British pub. For the time being at least.

The Britannia has firmly established itself in the annals of Santa Monica history, hosting watch parties for royal occasions, Beatles events and international sporting tournaments that regularly transformed the pub into a sea of England shirts, Union Jacks and hopeful optimism that rarely survived a penalty shootout.

Even in its final weeks, the pub continued making memories. During the recent FIFA Club World Cup, actor Timothée Chalamet quietly watched England's match against Norway from an upstairs room without any patrons realizing he was there.

Despite the growing number of vacant storefronts downtown, Cain said finding a suitable replacement has proven surprisingly difficult.

"Although it looks like there's so many properties out, there really isn't," she said, explaining that many available buildings are either unsuitable for a bar or would require expensive renovations.

Rather than rushing into a lease, the family intends to wait until they find somewhere that feels right. "I don't want to get rushed into anything," Cain said. "I don't want to be somewhere where it's not a good fit."

If that happens, the next Britannia could be bigger than the current pub. "Hopefully bigger," Cain said. "Bigger bar area for sure."

For now, attention turns to the final night. While plans are still coming together, Cain said there will likely be live entertainment and perhaps even an auction of memorabilia that has adorned the interior for decades.

"We should really draw a crowd," she said. "A lot of people met in here and some even got married.”

For many of those punters, July 30 will feel less like the closing of a bar than the end of a familiar chapter in Santa Monica's history. If the Cain family succeeds in finding a new home, however, they hope Britannia's story is simply moving to a new address rather than reaching its final page.