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Closed brewery Arches 29-30, 24 Old Jamaica Road SE16 4AW First sold beer: March 2015 Ceased brewing: September 2019
Opened following a crowdfunding campaign by charismatic Canadian Matt Denham with graphic designer Wilf Horsfall in two railway arches behind the old Neckinger Mills in February 2015, this was the seventh of the current generation of Bermondsey breweries, though with a rather different business plan to its neighbours. It was an ‘open brewery’ analogous to the co-working spaces currently popular with urban start-ups and freelancers, and perhaps an echo of the communal brewhouses once found in some areas of central Europe. Would-be brewers could become members as individuals or groups, claiming their own small fermenting vessel and booking space on one of six 50 l or 100 l Braumeister homebrewing kits, with training, individual advice and supplies also offered. As well as homebrewers, the facility was pitched at small scale commercial cuckoos and people testing the water or piloting recipes before graduating to their own kit.
By the end of May, 150 brewing teams and individuals had signed up. A taproom was included from the start, initially selling third party products as at first UBREW lacked its own brewing license, though some of the cuckoos were selling beer brewed here at an early stage under separate licenses. In August 2016, the enterprise added a brewhouse of more professional proportions, an 8 hl kit sourced from Canada and the UK, with some tanks acquired secondhand from Heineken. It used this to brew and sell its own brand bottled and kegged beers for the first time, as well as helping some of its more serious cuckoo members to upscale.
At its peak, UBREW brought together commercial brewers and homebrewers in a uniquely productive atmosphere which spawned several well-regarded standalone breweries, including Beerblefish, Ignition, Mechanic, ORA and Spartan in London and Beatnikz Republic, now in Manchester, as well as continuing notable cuckoos like Mothership and Seven Sisters. It hosted the regular meetings of homebrewing club London Amateur Brewers for several years. But as time went on, there were complaints about matters like hygiene and management failures, increasing as the company stretched resources on developing promised branches in Berlin, Copenhagen and Manchester. The premises closed unannounced on a temporary basis in June 2019, and despite reopening a few weeks later with Matt promising to sort the problems in a lengthy statement, UBREW went into liquidation a few months later, the first casualty of the Bermondsey ‘mile’.
While I’ve heard some colourful stories about the place from former users, the overall consensus is that this was a great idea which failed in the execution. Nobody in London is currently offering anything quite like it — Brew Club in Hackney and London Beer Lab in Brixton have shared homebrewing kits, and the latter also sometimes hosts cuckoo brewers on a bigger production brewhouse, but neither offers similarly open facilities to aspiring professionals. It remains to be seen whether anyone else will have another go at making the model work.
Here’s a (likely incomplete) list of brewers known to have sold beer brewed at UBREW, or at least to have intended to sell it: I’m grateful to John Paul Adams for tracking most of them, and welcome further additions and corrections.
Brewpub no longer brewing 78 Norman Road SW19 1BT hopback.co.uk First sold beer: March 2015 Ceased brewing: November 2015
In a South Wimbledon back street, the well-loved Sultan has been the only London pub owned by Wiltshire’s Hopback brewery since 1995. A small brewhouse was installed in a shed in the garden early in 2015, producing cask beers for sale in the pub. But the brewer left in November 2015 and was never replaced, and the equipment was subsequently removed, leaving this as one of the most short-lived London brewpubs of recent times.
The owning brewery has historical London connections as its founder John Gilbert was one of the first generation microbrewers in the capital in the 1980s, beginning his career in 1983 a brewpub owned by Mike Conway, the Prince of Wales in Battersea, and later brewing at the Warrior in Brixton, part of the same group.
In 1986, John moved to his own pub outside London, the Wyndham Arms in Salisbury, where he began brewing under the name Hopback in 1988. Moving to a standalone site in 1991, Hopback became one of the most successful UK microbreweries, noted for Summer Lightning, the beer that popularised a new style of cask golden ale and laid some of the groundwork for the hoppy pale ales of today. Hopback is still around today, though John himself retired in 2018.
Closed brewery Original site: 6 Émigré Studios, 274 Richmond Road E8 3QW (Hackney) Second and final site: Arch 77, 878 Old Kent Road SE15 1NQ (Lewisham) First sold beer: June 2013 Ceased brewing: January 2015
This very small brewery was originally in an arch near London Fields but soon outgrew the site and in December 2013 crossed the river to another arch on the boundary of New Cross and Peckham. Beers were bottle conditioned in limited quantities. In January 2015, the brewery announced it was suspending production and this eventually became permanent.
Closed brewery 16 Glenville Mews, Kimber Road SW18 4NJ (Wandsworth) First sold beer: 29 September 2012 Brewing ceased: by December 2017
Rocky Head once claimed to be “possibly the most ramshackle brewery in the UK”, with an 8 hl kit pieced together by wine importer and former Oddbins staffer Steve Daniel and friends from bits and pieces sourced with the help of former Roosters brewer Sean Franklin, including recycled components from the demolished Tetley brewery in Leeds. It produced mainly in bottle and keg.
Despite the quality of its beers, the brewery remained a part-time business operating only at weekends, an arrangement which clearly proved unsustainable as it eventually closed in 2017. There was a suggestion it may re-emerge as a cuckoo brewer but nothing has been seen since.
Brewery moved from London Original site: 275 Poyser Street E2 9RL (Tower Hamlets) redchurch.beer Current site: 15 River Way, Harlow CM20 2SE (Essex) First sold beer: September 2011 Ceased brewing in London: May 2019
Former solicitor Gary Ward and partner Tracey Cleland named this brewery after Redchurch Street, where they lived in Shoreditch, first launching the brand with a homebrewed trial batch at nearby Mason & Taylor (now BrewDog Shoreditch) in August 2011. The first commercial brew from their 13 hl PBC kit in a Bethnal Green railway arch followed shortly afterwards.
By February 2013, the site had expanded into a neighbouring arch and added a taproom. The brewery’s reputation continued to grow, particularly in 2015-16 under head brewer James Rylance, formerly at the Kernel and Beavertown, who began experimenting with wild and mixed fermentation brews and barrel ageing.
Following a major crowdfunding campaign, Redchurch moved its main production facility out of London during 2016 to a much bigger new brewery in Harlow, Essex. The arch at Bethnal Green was retained both as a taproom and a dedicated facility for wild and mixed fermentation under the sub-brand Urban Farmhouse. James led this project until 2018 when he moved to Harbour Brewery in Cornwall to produce similarly creative beers.
The company became the first major casualty of the recent boom in May 2019 when it went into pre-pack administration, with the brands and Harlow site sold on to new owners and almost £900,000 of crowdfunding investment lost. Gary retained the arches which he reopened as a bar called Sundays and there was talk of reviving the production of wild and mixed fermentation beers, but later in the year some of the brewing equipment was for sale on eBay.
In October 2022, Redchurch was bought by Laine, another company with a previous history of brewing in London.
Brewpub no longer brewing 183 High Street W3 9DJ (Ealing) georgeanddragonacton.co.uk First sold beer: May 2014 (as Dragonfly) Ceased brewing: January 2019 (as Portobello at the George)
Now Acton’s oldest building, the George is a coaching inn likely created by knocking two 17th century houses together, and happily escaped the rebuilding mania of late Victorian times. Once a Courage house, in 2006 it was taken on and restored by the beer-friendly Remarkable Restaurants chain. In 2014, a gleaming 8 hl microbrewery with stacked fermenters was installed in the barn-like space at the back which is now the main bar. Conor Donoghue, previously at the Lamb and Botanist brewpubs (see Brewhouse and Kitchen), was the initial head brewer, working under the Dragonfly brand.
Brewhouse at the Dragonfly W3, once one of London’s newest breweries in one of its oldest pubs.
In September 2014, Conor became head brewer at Carlow Brewing Co in Ireland and brewing at the pub gradually became more erratic. It continued on an occasional basis into 2017 through a linkup with Clouded Minds in Warwickshire, which had sometimes cuckoo-brewed here in its early days. In June 2018, Portobello brewery nearby took over operations, with a plan for the pub to become an unofficial brewery tap selling its core brands as well as house-brewed short runs and specials. Following technical problems with the equipment, this arrangement was broken off early in 2019. The brewhouse is still in place but at the last report it hadn’t yet been restored to working order.
Closed brewery Original site: Cock Tavern, 315 Mare Street E8 1EJ (Hackney) Second and last site: 214 Ponsford Street E9 6JU (Hackney) First sold beer: September 2015 (at original site) Ceased brewing: January 2019
After Howling Hops shifted production from its original home in the cellar of Hackney’s Cock Tavern to a much bigger facility at its Hackney Wick tank bar in June 2015, the pub’s assistant manager Ian Morton took over the old brewhouse, still housed in the pub but now run as a separate business. As Ian was first inspired to homebrew while living in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, he named the new project Maregade as a part-Danish translation of Mare Street (Hoppegade might have been even more appropriate).
Following early success, Ian suspended brewing at the Cock in November 2017 and resumed in March 2018 with a bigger kit in a Homerton railway arch, not far from the cluster of arch-based beer venues along Hackney’s Bohemia Place. But planning and licensing problems frustrated attempts to establish a regular taproom, and the brewery ceased trading early in 2019.
Meanwhile, the brewery at the Cock was returned to use by Howling Hops under the name Short Stack.
Closed brewery no longer in London Original site: Unit 21, 43 Carol Street NW1 0HT (Camden) First sold beer: June 2012 Ceased brewing in London: October 2013
The name Little Brew referenced both the size of the operation, a 1.5 hl kit installed in a Camden Town back street late in 2011, and the last name of founder Stu Small. He planned to supply mainly bottled beers on a very local scale, working in as sustainable a way as possible and delivering to some outlets on foot using a trolley. His logo nodded to local brewing history by featuring an elephant, the trademark of the Camden Brewery, which operated around the corner from 1859 to 1926. Some remains of this still stand today, including the bottle store and cooperage, now Elephant House.
Little Brew labels showing the elephant logo. Pic: Mr Drink ‘n’ Eat / Nate Nolan. Used by permission.
Little Brew faced challenges sustaining production, which was suspended the next year. Stu then relocated to York and revived brewing under the same name in June 2014, but had ceased trading by autumn 2016.
Includes some information for Ha’penny, Hops and Glory and Warrant Officer.
Closed brewery 223 Dyers Hall Railway Arches E11 4AF (Waltham Forest) First sold beer: March 2014 (at Warrant Officer) Ceased brewing: 17 December 2022
Closed brewery 8 Aldborough Hall Farm, Aldborough Hatch, Ilford IG2 7TD (Redbridge) First sold beer: October 2009 (as Ha’penny Brewing) Suspended brewing: by end 2014 Restarted brewing: May 2016 (as Solvay Society) Ceased brewing: May 2021
Warrant Officer (since renamed The Tavern on the Hill) Brewpub no longer brewing 318 Higham Hill Road E17 5RG (Waltham Forest) First sold beer: March 2014 (as Solvay Society) Ceased brewing: by end 2014
Hops and Glory (since renamed The Seveney) Brewpub no longer brewing 382 Essex Road N1 3PF (Islington) First sold beer: February 2014 (as Hops and Glory), January 2015 (as Solvay Society) Ceased brewing: November 2015
Solvay Society’s former farm brewhouse.
Solvay Society was one of London’s more unusual breweries, describing itself as “Belgian born, London brewed” and drawing on theoretical physics for some of its branding. Head brewer and founder Roman Hochuli, who grew up in Brussels, is a physicist who took time to complete his PhD before returning full-time to beer.
A keen homebrewer, Roman made his first steps towards commercial brewing in 2014 with a 500 l Braumeister homebrew kit in the cellar of the Warrant Officer pub in Walthamstow (since renamed the Tavern on the Hill), which had previously briefly been used by Wild Card as a distribution base.
This didn’t work out, and Roman and his business partner J P Hussey found a better home for the kit later that year under a Canonbury pub then known as the Hops and Glory, where the staff had already been experimenting with house-brewed beers at an even smaller scale. Solvay worked to perfect recipes here, with pub staff also brewing occasionally on Solvay’s kit, an unusual example of a beer producer cuckoo brewing in its own nest. All this activity ceased when the pub changed hands in November 2015: it’s since been renamed the Seveney and no longer brews.
On the lookout for a new site to relaunch Solvay at a more serious scale, Roman learned through the London Brewers Alliance about a suspended brewery known as Ha’penny, located in an unusually rural setting in an outbuilding on a farm at Aldborough Hatch in the Green Belt between Ilford and Romford. This had played a role in the early days of London’s brewing revival in 2009 when Gavin Happé and Chris Penny began work on a 10 hl kit originally built as a demonstration model by Malrex of Burton upon Trent. Gavin and Chris brewed part-time while holding down their day jobs as, respectively, a barrister and an accountant, an arrangement which ultimately proved too challenging, and by 2014 the equipment had been mothballed.
The building, likely originally built as a stable, had some claim to an earlier brewing history as it may once have housed a brewery attached to the Dick Turpin pub next door. This was so-named because another nearby house, Cuckoo Hall, is one of hundreds of places claiming to have sheltered the peripatetic highwayman. More recently the unit was used as a pottery.
Following delays in obtaining a license and essential work on the floor, the beer started flowing again in May 2016 under the Solvay Society name. The setting was idyllic: surrounded by fields, it was a working farm until the early 21st century and retained an old farmhouse, a pond, ancient willows, ducks, geese and a few white peacocks for good measure. But there were numerous practical problems, particularly in winter, and it was too inaccessible for a taproom.
The situation eased a little in March 2019 when Solvay opened an offsite taproom in Leytonstone, in an arch under the Gospel Oak to Barking Overground railway line. In 2021, the arch next door became vacant and the brewery took the opportunity to relocate the brewhouse here, with production resuming in May.
Following “struggles with the COVID hangover and rising costs”, the brewery sadly closed for good in December 2022.
Beers were Belgian-influenced but with a contemporary sensibility favouring lighter, drier flavours, discreet dry hopping and British-style session strength ABVs. Some barrel-aged and blended beers were produced. Packaging was in kegs, cans and 330 ml and 750 ml bottles.
Closed brewery 106 Fulham Palace Road W6 9PL (Hammersmith & Fulham) First sold beer: March 2013 Ceased brewing: by end 2013
Californian expat homebrewer Travis Mooney installed a 2 hl kit in a basement under Hammersmith’s Symposio restaurant (now Kenta) during 2012, and after a few pilot runs, began selling US-influenced beers in keg and bottle the following year, some of them through the restaurant. But the brewery struggled and by the end of the year, Travis had sold the kit. Despite a suggestion that the business would continue as a cuckoo brewer, this seems to have been the end of the story.
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