Closed brewpub
19 Great Portland Street W1W 8QB
First sold beer: March 1998
Ceased brewing: by end 2006
An upmarket restaurant and brewpub just off Oxford Circus, Mash played a role in the prehistory of the current London craft brewing scene and in the career of one of the capital’s most prominent brewing visionaries, Alastair Hook.
Mash’s origin was outside London in Manchester. In late 1996, London-based restaurateur Oliver Peyton moved north with the opening of Mash & Air in Manchester’s ‘gay village’ on the corner of Canal Street and Chorlton Street. Alastair, who had helped set up London’s Freedom brewery, was brought in to add a house brewery, with a 16 hl Italian-built kit in operation by early 1997. The business deliberately set out to promote beer with food in an environment very different from a traditional pub, dispensing mainly from keg in a retro-futuristic space within a repurposed former mill building.
Mash in London, originally known as Mash 2, was opened as a sister branch in 1998, with a similar upmarket designer feel. It was equipped with another 16 hl Italian-built brewhouse making beer for keg and tank, again with the initial help of Alastair, who soon afterwards began work on his own brewery, Meantime.
Neither venue survived to witness the current resurgence in brewing in both cities. The Manchester brewpub had gone by the end of 2000, its kit sold to Grand Union, while its London sister continued for several years more. On-site brewing fizzled out during 2006 but Mash continued to commission beer from others until it finally closed in 2008. The address is currently occupied by the Italian restaurant chain Vapiano.
Updated 28 January 2020
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