Peter Spanton spent much of his time building venues where other people wanted to stay late in. It was an important skill in the London restaurant business of the 1980s and 1990s. A dining room couldn’t run on food alone so long. The places people remembered were dependent on the mood and timing and conversation and music and lighting and the personality of the person operating the room. Spanton knew it, and for years he was part of the fabric of Clerkenwell’s evolving social scene through his restaurant and bar, Vic Naylor’s.
Today his name will crop up for many people because of his association with broadcaster and journalist Janet Street-Porter. Their extended partnership and eventual marriage brought him back into the public conversation after years spent mostly away from celebrity society. But Peter Spanton’s narrative is significantly more than the story of someone’s husband. He developed enterprises, battled drunkenness, rebuilt himself in the premium soft-drinks market and discreetly became part of a bigger revolution in British food and drinking culture.
Unlike the very prominent TV personalities, Spanton has always kept his private life quite quiet. This implies that several aspects of his early life are only lightly documented. There is, however, sufficient credible material to map out a life of hospitality, recuperation, risk-taking, and an extraordinarily keen grasp of adult social interaction.
Family Background and Early Life
There are not many specifics surrounding Peter Spanton’s youth and family life, and very few facts publicly confirmed. Official company records show him as British and his birth as January 1955, but specific stories of his upbringing, schooling or parents have rarely surfaced in interviews. And the omission is essential, because it makes Spanton stand apart from many media personalities whose lives have been well recorded in newspaper and television profiles.
What we know of him suggests a growth up via the old pub culture of London and the working-class social rituals around food and drink. Later material linked to his drink brand recalled recollections of his father’s whisky-and-dry habit and drinking culture of the East End. Those analogies were couched in part in the language of commercial storytelling, but also implied the sensory effects that influenced Spanton’s tastes and beliefs about adult drinking.
Not many people realise this, but the hospitality instincts that later defined Spanton’s businesses appear to have been less a product of official training than observation. He was from a generation of restaurateurs who learnt from working rooms, from understanding people, from reading atmosphere, not from celebrity-chef culture or corporate restaurant companies. That difference was to characterise the way he did business throughout his life.
Making a Name for Yourself in London’s Restaurant Scene
By the mid-1980s, London’s dining culture was changing. Parts of the city that would later become the hip creative districts were still a little seedy, full with workshops, warehouses and faltering commercial premises. Clerkenwell was not yet the slick restaurant neighbourhood it would become renowned as.
In 1986 Peter Spanton launched Vic Naylor’s in St John Street, Clerkenwell. The venue will become one of the defining projects of his career. Opening a sophisticated restaurant in that neighbourhood was a gamble at the time, as Clerkenwell had yet to attract the concentration of media professionals, designers and well-heeled customers that came later.
Vic Naylor’s was the one that jumped out since it didn’t feel produced. Subsequent accounts by restaurant critics and cultural journalists characterised exposed masonry, easygoing service, and a setting that was designed for personality rather than conventional elegance. Spanton was often regarded as a hands-on host, who knew how to make guests feel part of something a little hidden and special.
The fact is, eateries like Vic Naylor’s helped shape the reputation of whole neighbourhoods. Before the big developers and corporate hospitality organisations arrived in force, the smaller independent operators built destinations that attracted artists, journalists, musicians and advertising people to the area. Spanton’s venue was part of that earlier effort.
Creative Crowd with Vic Naylor
Eventually, Vic Naylor’s reputation was not just for the cuisine. It was a name synonymous with the artistic atmosphere in London during the time of the Young British Artists movement. Different profiles associated the restaurant with personalities including Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas and the Chapman brothers, all artists tied to Britain’s confrontational contemporary art movement of the 1990s.
The filmmaker and artist Sam Taylor-Wood, subsequently Sam Taylor-Johnson, who worked there before becoming internationally known, was also mentioned in contemporary accounts. Those subtleties key because they position the restaurant in an authentic cultural period rather than just tacking on famous names after the fact.
Spanton himself seems to prefer informality rather than exclusivity. Vic Naylor’s was a restaurant that got noticed by reputation and word of mouth rather than by the extreme control of star eateries. The ambience was of a hospitality style that London formerly did so well: chic but not too managed.
But now it becomes intriguing. Also, the success of the theatre was related very tightly to Spanton’s own personality and presence. Friends, journalists and restaurant writers often regarded him as dynamic, gregarious and very much a part of the life of the room. That quality helped foster loyalty among regulars, while it also took personal sacrifices.
Alcohol, Overspending and a Crossroads
In the night-time economy of London in the 1980s and 1990s, bars and restaurants operated on the edge of labour and excess. Eventually, alcohol became a severe problem for Peter Spanton. Later he talked frankly of his alcoholism in the years he ran Vic Naylor’s.
Years later Spanton said in interviews that he realised his drinking had become toxic and checked into The Priory in 1999. He said quitting alcohol was one of the hardest things he’s ever done. He was refreshing in his honesty about not romanticising addiction or making recovery sound easy.
His relationship with Janet Street-Porter was a turning moment for him. Spanton said she had urged him to seek help and their relationship began when he was piecing his life back together. Sobriety was important and the timing was important also since sobriety made him reconsider not just his behaviours but the social milieu around him.
The surprise is how directly that experience informed his next business effort. Instead of quitting the hospitality industry altogether, Spanton was intrigued by what was truly available to non-drinkers in pubs and restaurants. He saw that non-drinkers were generally left with sugary sodas, fruit juice or mineral water while everyone else had wine, cocktails and well chosen spirits.
That frustration blossomed into a new career.
Reinventing Himself With Adult Soft Drinks
After quitting heavy drinking, Spanton turned his attention to quality non-alcoholic beverages. Before mindful drinking was a thing, he was trying to develop beverages that were sophisticated enough for grownups who still wanted ritual and flavour without the booze.
His drinks company, Peter Spanton Beverages, was trying to deliver complexity, not sweetness. The items were sold more as something like cocktails or mixers than soft drinks. The ingredients were spices, herbs, citrus oils, bitter undertones, and botanical flavours that were not typical in conventional sodas back then.
One of the products that attracted early interest was Beverage No. 7, an acai-based drink that had been in the works for several years. “I imagine a beverage that you sip slowly and enjoy with food rather than gulping down like a traditional soft drink,” Spanton said. It was said to blend acai with grape, clove and star anise to produce something more complex, richer.
At the time the British beverages market wasn’t ready for the serious alcohol-free offerings. There were premium tonics, but the wider low and no-alcohol industry was still limited compared with what it would become in the 2020s. Spanton was an early entrant, before supermarkets and multinational corporations started splashing out on adult soft drinks.
Constructing the Peter Spanton Brand
Spanton’s line included flavoured tonics and mixers that represented his interest in unconventional pairings. Associated products for the brand were cardamom, cucumber, lemongrass, ginger, chocolate, mint and bitter citrus components. The design and nomenclature were likewise retro in feel, setting the brand apart from vividly coloured mainstream soft drinks.
Food writers and drinks periodicals took notice, seeing the drinks as part of an emerging premium-mixer sector. It was sophistication, not mass-market sugaryness, that appealed. Spanton seemed to be interested in making drinks that functioned socially in the same settings that alcohol had traditionally ruled.
That notwithstanding, the business remained quite narrow. Peter Spanton Beverages did build a loyal following among select bartenders, restaurants and speciality stores, but never achieved the global size of some of the bigger mixer companies that would subsequently join the market. But its very existence was a reflection of the changed attitude to drinking culture in Britain.
Few people realise this, but the premium mixer and alcohol-free drinks movement grew, in part, because of personalities like Spanton who challenged notions about what adult beverages could be. His products emerged before the category became commercially flooded, giving them a certain cult status with hospitality insiders.
Relationship with Janet Street Porter
His connection with Janet Street-Porter became one of the most well known aspects of his life. Street-Porter had been in the public eye for decades before she met Spanton, thanks to her journalism, television work and outspoken attitude.
It is said the two started their partnership in the late 1990s. They were viewed as a long-term couple who made things work throughout the years, despite their very public occupations and strong personalities. Street-Porter would sometimes talk about Spanton in interviews, but the duo mainly kept much of their private life out of the limelight.
Some contrast was in the public interest. Street-Porter’s career was founded on exposure and confrontation whereas Spanton’s had a softer image centred on hospitality and business rather than television. Friends and profiles characterised them as smart, socially engaged and well compatible despite their differing public personalities.
In February 2026, Street-Porter told the ITV show Loose Women that she and Spanton had married after 27 years together. The news generated widespread media attention, as it was an unusual late-life celebrity wedding conducted with humour instead of spectacle.
The wedding itself felt deliberately understated. Reports dwelled more on the tenderness and length of the partnership than on celebrity theatrics. The marriage rekindled interest in Spanton for many readers, and brought him to an audience who had never been to his restaurant or drinking profession.
Business and Financial Issues Interests
People also search peter spanton net worth & financial status. But there are few reliable public persons. Spanton hasn’t divulged comprehensive personal financial details, unlike the heads of large publicly traded companies or entertainment superstars.
His involvement in companies linked to hospitality and drinks, including Peter Spanton Drinks Ltd, is confirmed by Companies House documents. The reports reflect actual business activity but not the full extent of his personal wealth or private assets.
Some entertainment websites post speculative net worth estimates but many of those figures are not sourced and should be viewed with caution. The fact is that independent hotel enterprises might have times of healthy profitability, but they also have substantial operational costs and economic hazards.
The truth is, Spanton’s public profile has less to do with outward wealth and more with cultural capital in the hotel and alcohol industries. His reputation is more about taste, individuality and survival than corporate scale.
Public Reputation and Character
Peter Spanton was recognised by many who knew him professionally as a fashionable, assertive and socially perceptive man. He seemed to care more for authenticity and mood than for strict commercial formulas. That mindset helped shape Vic Naylor and his drink businesses.
But his story includes a subtler emotional thread, one that speaks of recovery and renewal. Spanton didn’t vanish after battling alcoholism. Instead, he applied his experience to a fresh theory about how adults socialise without relying completely on booze.
Now, the change feels more contemporary than it might have looked when it happened. Britain’s attitude to drinking has changed enormously in the last decade. There’s been a rising demand for premium alcohol-free products and a more open conversation surrounding sobriety. Spanton was in on that conversation years before it became commercially fashionable.
His involvement with Street-Porter also added to his public image but generally not directly. He was generally portrayed as a stabilising influence in her life, not a man hungry for the limelight himself. And the longer they were acquainted the more that feeling was confirmed.
The Private Life and the Unknown
There has been some media interest again and again, but much of Peter Spanton’s private life remains out of the media spotlight. Information regarding children, extended relatives, education and past relationships has not been publicly published or has been kept purposely private.
That restraint is remarkable in an age when many prominent personalities spill every aspect of their private life on social media and television appearances. Spanton is more of an old-school hospitality personality, someone you know from venues and conversations and reputation rather than incessant public self-disclosure.
Nor is there much indication that he actively cultivated a celebrity status. Spanton was not a TV personality or a lifestyle brand, at least not at the height of Vic Naylor’s fame; the restaurant was the one in the spotlight.
That privacy has influenced the way his biography must be approached. A responsible profile can record his businesses, relationship and public utterances but not fill holes with guesswork.
Cultural Impact and Legacy
Peter Spanton is a rather odd character in British cultural history. Although not a national star, his work was of its time, coinciding with a number of significant changes in urban life, hospitality and drinking culture.
Vic Naylor’s was from a time when individual restaurants helped change the character of London neighbourhoods before the big hospitality firms came along. The venue was connected to artists and media personalities and the growth of Clerkenwell as a social attraction.
His drinks firm had foreseen a considerably bigger move on to the premium non-alcoholic drinks. Today, pubs and restaurants commonly serve sophisticated non-alcoholic mixers and drinks. Those possibilities were much rarer in the early days of Peter Spanton Beverages.
There is also a personal history of survival and regeneration. Spanton’s life is an example of how someone so steeped in drinking culture may distance themselves from alcohol without distancing themselves from hospitality, enjoyment and social connection altogether. That view lent a rare legitimacy to his subsequent work.
Where is he now, Peter Spanton?
As of 2026, Peter Spanton is most publicly recognised for his long-standing connection and marriage to Janet Street-Porter and his previous hospitality and beverage ventures. Online references to the brand and its products still persist, however public company documents suggest Peter Spanton Drinks Ltd was dissolved in 2022.
He seems to lead a significantly more secluded life than most persons associated with television stars. But recent media coverage has concentrated on the marriage announcement, not new business endeavours or public appearances.
That said, his effects can still be seen in more subtle ways. London’s hospitality scene may still prize personality-led spots such as Vic Naylor’s, but the luxury non-alcoholic drinks scene has exploded since Spanton first entered it.
What is surprising is how relevant many of his ideas sound now. Years after he began operating in those settings, adult soft drinks, sober socialising and neighborhood-driven hospitality have all become big cultural conversations.
Common Questions
Who’s Peter Spanton?”
Peter Spanton is a British restaurateur and beverages entrepreneur, best known for founding the Clerkenwell restaurant Vic Naylor’s and then creating the Peter Spanton brand of premium soft drinks and mixers. He is also married to the broadcaster and journalist, Janet Street-Porter.
How old is Peter Spanton?
Public records give Peter Spanton’s birth as January 1955. In 2026, he was 71, although his real birthday is not generally known.
Vic Naylor’s. Was?
Vic Naylor’s was a restaurant and pub opened by Peter Spanton in 1986 in Clerkenwell, London. It became a place where London’s creative and media world rubbed shoulders, and it earned a reputation for a laid-back vibe and trendy crowd.
Janet Street Porter is married to Peter Spanton.
Yes. In February 2026 Janet Street-Porter revealed she had married Peter Spanton after 27 years together. They had been an open couple for several years before the announcement of their wedding.
Peter Spanton was not known to have had an alcohol problem.
In his years running restaurants and bars, Peter Spanton has spoken publicly about his descent into alcoholism. He entered treatment at The Priory in 1999 and got sober, an event that would have a profound effect on his later drinks business.