Also known at various times as Craft Academy and A Head in a Hat.
Brewpub no longer brewing
133 Dulwich Road SE24 0NG (Lambeth)
florencehernehill.com
First sold beer: September 2007
Ceased brewing: by end 2018
Also:
Cock and Hen (now known as the Cock Tavern)
Brewpub no longer brewing
360 North End Road SW6 1LY (Hammersmith & Fulham)
First sold beer: April 2007
Ceased brewing: by end 2008
These two pubs played a role in the early stages of London’s current brewing renaissance, linking back to serial pub entrepreneur David Bruce, founder of the Firkin and Hedgehog and Hogshead brewpub chains, both of which had been active in London. In April 2007, he dipped his toe into the brewpub concept once again by installing a tiny brewery at the Cock and Hen pub in Fulham, then part of his Capital Pubs chain, co-founded with Clive Watson in 2000.
The experiment was repeated in September with a slightly bigger 8 hl brewery in what was formerly a big Irish pub called Ganleys opposite Brockwell Park at Herne Hill, now renamed the Florence. Cock and Hen brewer Tony Lennon at first covered both sites, though the Cock was later sold to Young’s and brewing discontinued.
Tony, who also played a key role in setting up the Euston Tap pub, moved on in November 2010. The Florence brewhouse remained unused until the following February, when Peter Haydon, a longstanding London brewer and beer writer who had been involved in setting up Meantime, moved in as brewer, initially on a profit share basis.
The sale of Capital to national brewer Greene King later that year prompted fears for the brewery’s future, which turned out to be unfounded when the new owner retained the pub’s identity, and its brewing activities, as part of its Metropolitan chain. In April 2012, Peter bought the kit and agreed to pay rent on the site, an unusual arrangement of one brewery operating from premises owned by another. As well as brewing Florence beers for the pub, he created his own brand, A Head in a Hat, focusing on historical recreations.
At the end of 2015, Peter decided to retire from brewing and sold the equipment back to Greene King. During 2016, it was rebranded as Craft Academy and was used intermittently, primarily as a training facility for its owners, with some beers sold in the pub, although Craft Academy beers sold more widely through the Greene King estate were from the main facility in Bury St Edmunds. By the end of 2018 it seems even these activities had ceased.
The brewhouse remained in place for some time, and before the lockdowns there was an aspiration to recruit a new brewer, restoring the Florence brand. But this never happened, and the kit was finally removed to create additional dining space when the pub was refurbished in April 2023.
David Bruce, meanwhile, continued his involvement with brewing, spending several years as owner of West Berkshire brewery: see the Firkin brewery page for a little more.
Updated: 10 June 2024.
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