Bridge Brewery

Formerly Simon’s Tower Bridge Brewery, Tower Brewery

Closed brewery
218 Tower Bridge Road SE1 2UP (Southwark)
First sold beer: February 1980
Ceased brewing: by December 1983

Following the example of Godson’s and the Goose and Firkin brewpub, former local government finance officer Simon Hosking set up London’s second standalone microbrewery in 1980. It was partly funded by CAMRA (Real Ale) Investments (CAMRAIL), a commercial initiative set up by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) primarily to run exemplary cask pubs, on the understanding that it would supply CAMRAIL pubs at a discount.

Initially named Simon’s Tower Bridge Brewery, it was located in a former rope factory on the southern approach to Tower Bridge, with a lower level entrance on Horselydown Lane, opposite the giant Courage brewery, which was preparing to close. Assistance was provided by former Bass brewer Colin Lloyd, who had worked at another pioneering new brewing project, the John Thompson Inn in Ingleby, Derbyshire. The aim was to brew around 1,200 hl a year, nearly all in the form of Simon’s Tower Bridge Bitter (around 4.3%).

In what now seems a remarkably prescient move, Simon successfully applied to convert the upper part of the building into a taproom, clearly recognising the potential of the iconic site. But before this could open, the business found itself struggling with quality and cash flow, and was sold in July 1981 to Arthur Collins, a now-redundant former Courage brewer, and his business partners.

The new owners renamed it Tower Brewery, and finally opened the tap in May 1982 under the name Ye Olde Bridge House. It continued to produce beer in almost exclusively cask format: Bermondsey Bitter (around 3.7%), Bridge Special Bitter (around 4.6%) and a strong ale, Old Yeoman’s (around 7.5%).

Following objections from Bass, the name was changed again to Bridge Brewery in 1983, though production had ceased by the end of that year. For a while afterwards, the beers were cuckoo-brewed at Crouch Vale in Essex.

The taproom remained in operation, and in 2004 was acquired by much-respected regional family brewers Adnams of Southwold as its only London pub, now known simply as the Bridge House. In 2019 it was taken over by Bloomsbury Leisure/Pivovar as one of a small chain of beer-friendly pubs and renamed the Raven, though they chose not to reopen it after the 2020-21 Covid-19 lockdowns. It was finally reopened by a new operator in June 2022, still known as the Raven though with reduced beer interest.

Simon Hosking went back to local government, though returned to the beer world in 1997 by taking over the Wharf House in Oxford with a business partner and turning it into a specialist beer pub. It finally closed in 2006, after Simon’s involvement had ceased. He died in 2023: you can read an interesting obituary of this overlooked pioneer of London (and Bermondsey) craft brewing by Roger Warhurst here.

Updated 6 June 2024.

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