Brewery
Unit 11, 160 Hamilton Road SE27 9SF (Lambeth)
gipsyhillbrewing.com
First sold beer: July 2014
Gipsy Hill was the creation of the three characters shown on the logo: founders Charlie Shaw (ex-Five Points), former City worker Sam McMeekin and head brewer Simon Wood, recruited from Dorset’s Piddle brewery. The first kit was a relatively generous 25 hl Malrex in a single unit on an industrial estate in Gipsy Hill. But production soon expanded with the addition of extra fermenters and warehousing.
A potential disaster in 2016 when the brewing floor began to collapse proved a turning point with investment in a new high-quality floor and an upgrade the following year to a 60 hl brewhouse with a pilot kit and a canning line. A dedicated taproom opened in 2018 across the yard from the brewery itself. By now the brewery had become one of London’s largest independents, occupying six neighbouring units and targeting an annual output of 24,000 hl.
The brewery’s pub the Douglas Fir, on the other side of Crystal Palace Park, opened as a popup in a former shop in 2016, soon becoming permanant. In April 2021, Gipsy Hill became London’s first employee-owned brewery, though as with many others in the industry it was now struggling with the fallout from the Covid-19 lockdowns.
On 30 October 2024, the brewery annouced it had entered a ‘strategic partnership’ with brewing group Sunrise Alliance, without which it ‘would almost certainly be looking at administration’. The company promised that the brewery will continue to function as before, on the same site, with co-founders Sam and Charlie still in charge.
The new owner originated in 2006 as St Peter’s brewery near Bungay, and began expanding in 2023 with the acquisition of Curious Brew in Ashford, Kent, which already owned the Wild Beer brand. A few weeks before the Gipsy Hill deal, Sunrise bought another London brewer, Portobello, and during 2025 some Gipsy Hill brands were brewed there.
The Douglas Fir closed in February 2025 but reopened again in April, once again as a ‘popup’, though it’s still open at the time of writing.
Sam moved on in October 2025, soon after the announcement that most of the brewing would be shifted out of London to Curious to avoid an ‘eye-watering’ rent increase. The company plans to give up much of its space in Gipsy Hill once beers have been satisfactorily matched in Ashford, though will retain its taproom, and there’s a hope that at least some brewing will continue on a small scale in London.
Beers are in keg and can, with some hand bottling for barrel-aged specials and occasional one-off casks.
Updated 16 December 2025.
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