The story
In October 1994, Wilmott found Mary-Jane Brook and Nelly Benstead to run the first outlet. The first bar was opened in December 1994 in Sutton, London, town centre by Bass Taverns, run by Sir Ian Prosser, who also owned Fork and Pitcher and Harvester. Bass bought Harvester in 1994. In its style, many pub chains have followed where All Bar One led.
Five outlets opened in 1995 (including Islington, Wimbledon and Richmond in London). By 1996, Bass had 15 All Bar One bars, 69 O'Neill's pubs and 102 Harvesters. By 1999 there were 46 in the chain. Jeremy Spencer, a friend of gastropub-inventor Mike Belben, was responsible for creating the brand. In 1999, Jeremy Spencer was replaced by Karen Forrester (who previously ran O'Neills, and who now runs T.G.I. Fridays UK) who stayed until May 2001.
In August 2001 it opened its first overseas establishment in Cologne. Bass Leisure Retail (BLR) became Six Continents in June 2002.
As of 2016, there were "close to 50" outlets in the UK, mostly based in Central London however they have expanded throughout the UK as far as Aberdeen, where they opened a bar in the new Marischal Square development in March 2018.
From Wikipedia’s article on All Bar One, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3