Promoting an international beer culture that recognises and celebrates beers of quality, distinctiveness and local character, brewed with care and passion.
Best beer and travel writing award 2015, 2011 -- British Guild of Beer Writers Awards
Accredited Beer Sommelier
Writer of "Probably the best book about beer in London" - Londonist
"A necessity if you're a beer geek travelling to London town" - Beer Advocate
"A joy to read" - Roger Protz
"Very authoritative" - Tim Webb.
"One of the top beer writers in the UK" - Mark Dredge.
"A beer guru" - Popbitch.
ABV: 6.1% Origin: Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England Website: www.roosters.co.uk
Roosters Brewery
Long before many of the current crop of in-yer-face British “craft” brewers had even reached legal drinking age, Roosters Brewery was challenging a market drenched in traditional brown bitters with the complex and distinctive aromas and flavours of imported US hops. Sean Franklin, who founded the Knaresborough brewery in 1993, was an early advocate of the beauty of hops in the UK, helping to shift the prevailing nervousness among breweries, and particularly brewery marketing departments, of the International Bittering Unit (IBU) dial creeping above 30.
At a time when British awareness of the great things starting to happen on the other side of the Atlantic was limited to a handful of enthusiasts and an even smaller scattering of specialist pubs, Roosters beers were some of the very few UK cask products that could line up alongside the likes of Brooklyn, Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada without causing too much of a double take. Yankee, a lovely pale ale focused firmly on the fragrant delights of the Cascade hop, was once a regular at the London’s legendary White Horse.
Then in 2011 Sean announced he was selling the brewery as a going concern and moving to Canada. Thankfully it’s been passed into what appear to be very safe hands, well placed to take advantage of the hard work of the past couple of decades, now that tastes are starting to catch up with it. The new owner is Ian Fozard of Market Town Taverns, a small Yorkshire pubco with a specialist beer focus, and the brewery is being run by his sons Ol and Tom. Both are longstanding homebrewers with professional beer credentials, the former with Copper Dragon, the latter with importer and retailer Beeritz.
Baby Faced Assassin is an IPA that originates from one of Tom’s favourite homebrew recipes, using a single malt – pale Golden Promise – and a single hop – Citra. It was first brewed at Roosters, on the trial kit, as a cask special for the live beer blogging event at the European Beer Bloggers Conference in Leeds in May 2012, but hopefully it will become more common as it has considerable potential.
The yellow-gold beer had lots of dense pinkish head, thanks to traditional Yorkshire service through a sparkler, smudging a slightly sweaty coconut and pine aroma with a slight but pleasant note of buttery diacetyl. The palate had plenty of soft body to support a complex mix of tropical fruit, mint and pine flavours, subtly stated against cereal sweetness. A crackly burr of hops, like bitter salad leaves or young nettles, made itself felt on a slightly salty finish, rounding off a subtle and interesting beer.
I’m coming to the conclusion, as more British brewers experiment, that strong and heavily hopped IPAs aren’t always best suited to cask dispense, as they can easily become too thick and cloying, and work better in bottle or from a keykeg with a more assertive carbonation. Baby Faced Assassin is a happy exception – despite a robust ABV for a cask beer it was an easy drinking delight.
The closure and demolition of an historic brewery is always a loss in economic and heritage terms and, depending on how embedded it was in the life of its surroundings, a potential loss to local culture too. But take a step back from the immediate bad news story and you might get a different perspective.
Since beer consumers first started campaigning against such closures in the 1970s, times have changed dramatically. Back then a dwindling stock of Victorian breweries was all we had. Today brewing is once again on a growing trend, with approaching a thousand breweries in Britain, most of them small and innovative micros. You could say that brewery closures are just part of the cycle of renewal.
The closure of Tetley’s brewery in Leeds by owners Carslberg is a case in point. Since it opened in 1822 the brewery had played a major role in the economic and cultural life of the city, ultimately dominating pub outlets in the area and becoming part of its sense of place. Its departure also reminded us that the old school cask ale of the sort for which Tetley’s was famous is no longer Britain’s most popular drink.
Vessels at Leeds Brewery. Pic: Leeds Brewery.
But it certainly didn’t leave a vacuum behind. Indeed Leeds already had several breweries producing beer which was often superior to Tetley’s in its last days.
The simply named Leeds Brewery became the biggest in the city on Carslberg’s departure. Opened as recently as 2007, this is a professional and ambitious operation that was already enjoying great success with a highly competent and consistent range of cask ales, such as its award winning mild Midnight Bell.
Though its approach is contemporary, the brewery appears to be following in the footsteps of the old style local and regional family breweries in seeking to become a vertically integrated business with its own estate of pubs. It already owns five and good pubs they are too, civilised and forward thinking places with decent food, and one of them – the Brewery Tap in the city centre, right by the station – equipped with a microbrewery of its own.
Like most smaller breweries, though, Leeds continues to depend on selling beer through other outlets, including nationally through several pubcos, and the Carlsberg closure has given it new opportunities locally. Though the core Tetley brands are still available, the fact that they’re now brewed under contract at Marston’s Banks’s brewery in Wolverhampton, 180km away, hasn’t played well with Leodensians. Consequently Leeds brewery pumps are now popping up in former Tetley pubs in response to customer demand for a genuinely local product.
Those pumps normally dispense the best selling Leeds Pale, an excellent example of an easy going light cask ale that fills the traditional role of English session beer while adding a slightly contemporary twist. Sampled in the brewery’s flagship Midnight Bell pub at Holbeck, an attractively regenerated industrial area just outside the city centre, this poured a light amber with a creamy yellow head.
A bready, grainy aroma had a hint of buttery diacetyl – not too much to be unattractive. The palate was also bready and grainy, quite full bodied with a hazelnut note and a touch of orangey fruit. The nuttiness played through into a nicely balanced finish with more cereal, a very gentle rooty hop note and a hint of autumn fruit.
Leeds Gathering Storm
At the Brewery Tap I sampled Leeds’ cask stout Gathering Storm, which is billed as a winter seasonal but was still being brewed in May. This was near black with a thick and persistent fine grained beige head and a creamy, slightly woody aroma with a pencil lead note.
A very smooth and comforting palate was rich but dry and again well poised, with plenty of chocolate and dark malt and a well judged roast note that wasn’t too aggressive. A soothing finish had more luscious chocolate, turning slightly pursing later on. It’s by no means the world’s most complex stout but it’s clean, well made and approachable, which typifies the brewery.
Leeds Brewery has also recently started brewing its own ‘real’ keg lagers. A golden lager, Leodis (4.6%), began as a short run on the kit at the Brewery Tap but is now a permanent beer produced at the main brewery, while the Tap experiments with other lager styles including a Dunkel.
I found Leodis rather sweet and malt-accented, like a very sweet Helles, with a slightly unwelcome note of sweetcorn besides lemon squash and vanilla, but again it was easy to drink and a credible alternative to industrial products of the sort pushed by the multinational that closed down Tetley’s. It’s good to see that Leeds’ status as a brewing city is still secure.
Tap East craft beer bar at Westfield Stratford City E20, within a javelin’s throw (or a shot’s put) of the Olympic Park. Pic: Rob Howard for Tap East.
With the 2012 Olympic Games taking place between 27 July and 12 August 2012, followed by the Paralympics between 29 August and 9 September, we’re in for a few hectic months here in London, with visitors pouring in to enjoy the Games themselves and the carnival atmosphere that always grips a host city.
If you’re here for the Games but also fancy a good pint or two along the way, welcome to London and its flourishing beer scene. Let me help you find your way around.
But don’t expect to see anything of London’s beery glory at the Games venues themselves. In a multimillion deal, Heineken has secured the right to offer a meagre two beers at the venue bars – its standard Dutch lager, and Yorkshire-brewed pasteurised keg John Smith’s Smoothflow bitter. The latter will be sold unbranded and simply labelled English bitter.
Even at Lords cricket ground, the cask Marston’s beers usually on sale are banned during Games events. Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised given the big business ethos that pervades major sporting events these days, but it’s still infuriating in the capital of one of the world’s great beer nations, particularly at a time when London itself is enjoying a major beer renaissance.
The answer, then, is to get out of the venues as quickly as possible and spend some time exploring the rest of the capital and its flourishing pubs and beer scene.
Might I recommend that if you haven’t done so already, you equip yourself with my book The CAMRA Guide to London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars? Although it was published a year ago, I’ve been issuing regular updates since, most recently in July. With the book, the update and an Oyster card, you’ll be able to treat yourself to a beer experience few other world cities can offer.
The latest update even includes a list of Olympic venues with nearby pub and bar recommendations, and you might also want to work your way through my most recent Top 25 Places to Drink list.
If this is your first visit, don’t expect business as usual. London in Games Time will be a changed place. Transport will be under huge pressure, with particular ‘hotspots’ expected to be very crowded. And even many pubs and bars that normally avoid screening sport are likely to show Games coverage. Some places will undoubtedly be much busier than usual, others much quieter. If your visit gives you a taste for London and its beers, do try to come back when things are more settled!
Please take even more care than usual to plan your journey – see www.tfl.gov.uk, including the Get Ahead of the Games section with advanced information about potential difficulties.
The regular slot for the Great British Beer Festival falls during Games Time and CAMRA has taken the decision – the wisdom of which remains to be seen – to go ahead anyway on 7-11 August. As Earls Court is being used as a Games venue, the GBBF has returned to its previous home at Olympia, and will be smaller than normal, but still provides a great opportunity to try a dazzling range of beer from the UK and elsewhere.
The London CAMRA branches are promoting London as City of Beer during July and August, starting with the open air Ealing Beer Festival in Walpole Park W5 on 4-7 July and running to the end of the GBBF. There’s a programme of events at a variety of pubs, bars, breweries and other venues and a special edition of London Drinker as a guide.
A special event I’ll be participating during Games Time is the Alelympic Ale Trail around Newington Green — on Saturday 28 July, the first day of the Games proper, you’ll find me spinning the discs at participating pub the Snooty Fox, with my usual eclectic mix of retro soul, rhythm and blues, easy listening, ska, punk, rock and roll and who knows what else. Perhaps I’ll see you there for a gold medal beer or two.
The CAMRA Guide to London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars (2011)
When my book The CAMRA Guide to London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars was published a year ago in July 2011, London’s specialist beer scene was in its healthiest state for years, and the expansion hasn’t stopped since. And with so many more great places to drink, the Top 25 seems in need of a refresh.
Craft Beer Co
So here’s my updated list showcasing pubs and bars that should be regarded as essential calls for anyone on a beer odyssey in London. Most are independent specialist pubs and bars offering a notably wide range of unusual beers; a few are exceptional brewery and chain pubs. I’ve cheated a little in excising the specialist shops that appeared in the original list, and giving them a Top 5 of their own.
Note the list is in alphabetical order, not order of merit.
Asterisks indicate the new entries, most of which have opened since the book went to press. A couple were in the book but not in the original Top 25. I’ve had to drop some venues from the list – not because they have fallen in quality individually, but to make space for others I now consider more deserving of a place.
The list represents a personal choice and wasn’t drawn up according to any formal scoring or assessment, but I feel confident that in visiting all these pubs and bars in turn you’d be treating yourself to a beer experience few other cities in the world could rival. If you choose to test this suggestion, please bear in mind the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines on alcohol consumption and ensure you build in some alcohol-free days.
If you have you have any comments, objections or suggestions of other pubs that should have been there, I’d be delighted to hear from you.
Euston Tap NW1 Bloomsbury, Euston and St Pancras (p49), www.eustontap.com
A TARDIS of rare delights with 8 cask, 19 specialist kegs and up to 100 bottles.
Harp WC2 Covent Garden (p75), www.harpcoventgarden.com
8 top local casks in the first ever London pub to win CAMRA Pub of the Year.
Hoopers SE5 Camberwell, Dulwich and Peckham (p174), www.hoopersbar.co.uk
Refurbished local with rare casks and a classic bottled list.
NOTE: This pub sadly closes on 8 October 2012.
Jolly Butchers* N16 Stoke Newington (p158), jollybutchers.co.uk
Craft beer pub for mere mortals, with great beer and food matching.
King William IV E10 Leyton, Leytonstone and Walthamstow (p129), williamthefourth.net
Brodies’ rambling, quirky brewpub with up to 20 beers on tap.
Mason & Taylor* E1 Shoreditch and Hoxton (p103), www.masonandtaylor.co.uk
Relaxed contemporary refuge with well chosen craft choices near Brick Lane.
NOTE: This pub sadly closed in late September 2012 and is due to be converted into London’s second BrewDog bar.
Old Brewery SE10 Greenwich and Deptford (p180), www.oldbrewerygreenwich.com
Meantime’s upmarket beer hall in the heart of a World Heritage Site.
Rake SE1 Borough (p60), www.utobeer.co.uk
London’s international beer geek drop-in centre with a wide world beer range.
Southampton Arms NW5 Kentish Town and Tufnell Park (p157), thesouthamptonarms.co.uk
Outstanding contemporary ale house with 10 mainly local casks.
Star* SW1 Westminster, Victoria and Pimlico (p118), www.star-tavern-belgravia.co.uk
Fuller’s pub with award winning cellar in every edition of the Good Beer Guide.
Kris Wines N7 Kentish Town and Tufnell Park (p155), www.kriswines.com
750 specialist bottles, including many rarities, sourced by persistent beer hunter.
Utobeer SE1 Borough (p62), www.utobeer.co.uk
Shop with more than 700 international beers in Borough Market’s gourmet haven.
A display board listing the agenda for the second European Beer Bloggers’ Conference (EBBC) stood in the spacious foyer of the Leeds Metropole Hotel, provoking interest and, indeed, amusement among some of the guests at this landmark 1890s terracotta pile. Why does the idea of a beer bloggers’ conference seem so humorously incongruous? No doubt it’s partly the suspicion that it’s nothing more than a booze-up with a business disguise, offending that streak of British cultural Puritanism that views work and fun as mutually exclusive. But I suspect that an agenda for a food bloggers’ conference, or even a wine bloggers’ conference, might have elicited the envy without quite so many giggles.
At last year’s EBBC in London, the incongruity even provoked a disbelieving response among beer bloggers themselves, and some didn’t bother to turn up as a result. But those who did attend gave such glowing reports that this year several more bloggers overcame their cynicism and signed up, with attendance rising from 72 to over a hundred. We came with high expectations – last year’s had the buzz and freshness of something starting to happen, whereas this year’s was the ‘difficult second album’. And overall, those expectations weren’t disappointed.
Leeds landmark: the Dortmund drayman
EBBC is run by a small travel business, Zephyr Adventures, based in Boulder, Colorado, which also runs similar events for wine and fitness bloggers, and a US-based beer bloggers’ gathering that launched in 2010 (this year’s takes place in Indianapolis, Indiana, in mid-July). So far both European conferences have been in England, logically given the dominance of the local language in the beer blogging world, and unsurprisingly the vast majority of the attendees have come from Britain. This year there was a smattering from both parts of Ireland, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and even one lone soul from Bulgaria.
While it made sense to launch in London, Leeds proved an excellent next choice, drawing a welcome wave of new attendees from the north of England while not posing too much of a transport challenge from further afield. It’s one of those cities that’s important enough to boast a rich urban fabric and vibrant cultural life but in a compact and easily navigable space. And then there’s the impeccable beer credentials both of the city and the wider region.
Leeds’ brewing heritage is commemorated by its twinning with Dortmund, another city where the Industrial Revolution provided an eager market in proletarian thirst. A striking bronze sculpture of a portly drayman brandishing a beer cask, a gift from the German city, stands proudly in Dortmund Square. The great local survivor of large scale Victorian brewing was of course Tetley’s, which occupied a site on the southern edge of the city centre from 1822 until it was closed by longstanding owners Carlsberg last year. And while this was undoubtedly a sad loss, it was considerably mitigated by the presence of so many excellent small new breweries in the area, some of whom, like the eponymous Leeds Brewery, are now flourishing in the space left by Tetley’s departure.
Tetley’s Brewery, Leeds — or what’s left of it. May 2012.
That departure has already left a literal space too, as I discovered when I wandered across the river Aire on the Friday morning before the formal proceedings had started. A green heritage plaque still hung on the wall on the corner of Hunslet Road and Waterloo Street, but its narrative of the ongoing importance of the brewery in the city’s life was belied by the demolition site that lay beyond. Nearly all of the complex had already been flattened, with workers in hi-vis and heavy and rumbling yellow vehicles putting paid to the rest. The distinctive main frontage and the gatehouse still stood, presumably to be incorporated into whatever upmarket reinvention is planned for the site.
Writing and blogging can be quite solitary, and real life contact and conversation with others who share your interest immediately demonstrates its superiority over the semi- and pseudo-interaction of social networking and blog comment chains. Much of the EBBC’s value was in the informal socialising and the plenary discussions, chewing over issues such as motivations for blogging and the ethics of receiving free beer.
European Beer Bloggers Conference 2012: Spiegelau glass tasting
The formal sessions and presentations had plenty of content too, and on blogging as well as beer. Liz Cable, who started the UK’s first social media consultancy before the term was even invented, encouraged us to adopt listening and engagement strategies, imparting along the way the surprising statistic that, while only around 5% of people trust advertising, a third trust what even big companies say about themselves on social media.
One fascinating highlight was provided by Steve McGraw of drinking glass company Riedel UK, who helped us compare the effects of glassware on the sensory experience. Beers were served from a variety of different vessels: a standard pub-style pint pot and four specialist beer glasses developed by Bavarian company Spiegelau. I’ve long argued that standard British and American pub glasses fail to flatter good beer, and developed my own preference for stemmed and tapered wine-style glasses, but I’ve never tried a direct comparison before, with the same beer in each glass.
I was relieved to find myself vindicated. There’s an argument in favour of the waisted shapes and more open rims of the pils and tall Weissbier glasses for the appropriate styles, which help with head formation and dispersing the aroma, but my favourite was consistently the stemmed tulip glass, which concentrated the aromas and flavours superbly for serious tasting. The poor old pint pot did badly every time, though there were some suggestions it had been spiked with dishwasher powder. The thinness and clarity of the Spiegelau glasses adds to their appeal, but then they do retail at around £7 a piece, though we were all given a set to take away. “A beer glass is a precision instrument,” said Steve. The giggles in the foyer would doubtless have risen to guffaws at that.
Bottles line up at the Saturday night dinner, courtesy of MolsonCoors, European Beer Bloggers Conference 2012
Then there was Paul Corbett of hop merchants Charles Faram talking on current trends in international hop growing. Paul is a familiar figure in the brewing industry and one of the leading experts in his field, and his information-packed presentation commanded rapt attention, reflecting both his own skills and knowledge and the current interest in hops among beer connoisseurs. He covered everything from the reason why certain cult US varieties like Amarillo are in such short supply to the sad fact that the UK is now only seventh in the world league table of hop producers – in Paul’s view, if hop growing in Britain continues to slip below its current 1,040ha, it’s in real danger of becoming unsustainable.
Such insights from the industry are a key strength of these conferences. Many of the delegates – I’d guess the majority – are genuine ‘citizen bloggers’ who make no money from their beer writing but blog simply to share their passion and interest, and perhaps have less contact with industry people than those who also earn money from print writing, so such learning and contacts can only help raise awareness levels in both bloggers and readers.
Mark Dredge, Zak Avery and Marverine Cole take things to the next level, European Beer Bloggers Conference 2012.
While some are content with their citizen status, others are more ambitious, seeing blogging as a way in to paid writing work or jobs in the industry. The issues that arise from this were articulated by Zak Avery and Mark Dredge, both respected bloggers who have made careers for themselves both in paid writing and in beer retail and brewing respectively. They were joined in an engaging session by Marverine Cole – an already successful regional TV journalist and presenter with a sideline as a blogger, beer advocate and host of tasting events.
Established professional beer writers who happen to blog, both part time like me and full time like Adrian Tierney-Jones and Simon Jenkins, and various brewers, licensees and other industry figures added to the mix. Any potential dividing lines between professional and amateur (in the best possible sense), full time and part time, producer and consumer, were quickly eroded by shared passion and interest. It might sound cutesy, but this passion and enthusiasm for the subject – the sort of thing that can make even a veteran brewer working for a multinational grin with childlike delight at the scent of some exotic hop – is one of the things that makes the beer world such a pleasant place to live in.
Events like this depend on sponsors and it’s good to see that some people in the industry with access to serious moneybags have been listening to the statistics quoted by Liz Cable, recognising the influence of new media and the citizen blogger. And given the obvious dangers, it’s also good to see that ethics, honesty and transparency are firmly on the agenda of the beer blogging community. Two big names have stumped up for this event two years running: MolsonCoors and SAB-Miller, the latter fronting with their Pilsner Urquell brand. Wisely, both had also left room for smaller producers, including an array of fine brewers like Camden Town, Ilkley, Leeds, Magic Rock, Marble, Otley, Roosters, Williams Brothers and craft names from Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden that featured across the weekend.
I said last year that MolsonCoors get craft beer better than others in their bracket, and they proved it again this year largely through the presence of Sharp’s brewer Stuart Howe as keynote speaker and beer sommelier for the Friday night dinner. SAB-Miller, though, strayed rather too far into corporate territory for my taste by attempting to stage manage Saturday evening, when a dinner and a quiz proved a pretext for some not-so-soft marketing of Pilsner Urquell, perpetuating some dodgy myths about the beer’s history.
But that’s a small gripe about what was overall a well organised, well balanced and useful weekend. Let’s hope that EBBC gives many more hotel patrons the opportunity to snigger.
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates Southwest London: Other locations – Surbiton
The Lamb, Surbiton KT6 (London)
Contemporary pub (Independent)
73 Brighton Road, Surbiton KT6 5NF T 020 8390 9229 Open 1200-2300 (2400 Thu-Sat). Children very welcome until 1900. Cask beer 3 (Surrey Hills, 2 unusual often local guests) Cask Marque, Other beer 2 bottles, Also 19 wines, some whiskies. Food Specialist English cheese boards, Outdoor Beer garden with play area, Wifi. Thu afternoon mums’ pub quiz, regular charity events, monthly cheese nights, board games, big screen rugby.
The place name Surbiton even sounds like suburbia – the sprawl of genteel housing downriver from Kingston would once have been referred to as the ‘stockbroker belt’, although these days you’re as likely to find a stockbroker in a converted Docklands warehouse than in the leafy Surrey fringes. It’s worth the trip to discover this gem of a local pub which, perhaps contrary to what you might expect from the area, is bursting with individuality and character. Don’t expect a huge range; the philosophy here is ‘less is more’ and the cask beers are deliberately restricted to three so all can be served in immaculate condition, one of the reasons why the pub was named Pub of the Year by the local CAMRA branch in 2012. One beer is always Surrey Hills Ranmore, the others may well hail from local breweries like Redemption, Sambrook’s or Twickenham. Leffe in the fridge provides another option. A second speciality is artisanal English cheeses, and the monthly themed cheese event, Homage de fromage, is often sold out in advance.
Landlord Adam, who first took over as a tenant in 2007, persuaded Enterprise to sell them the freehold in 2010, enabling the pub’s personality to shine through even more strongly. He describes it half apologetically as “Bohemian” – appropriate for a pub in Brighton Road. Giant spiders, trolls, cacti and a curious industrial art installation bedeck the walls of this smallish single room space, and there are board games rather than the TV for distraction. Children will also find plenty to amuse them, including a charming garden with play equipment. The pub has a proud record of near-monthly fundraising events, some of which are organised elsewhere, and has chalked up £70,000 for local charity Creative Youth. And you’ve got to love a place where you’re as likely to find the landlord building a giant Ker-Plunk game in the garden as pulling pints behind the bar.
National Rail Surbiton Cycling LCN+ Kingston, Tolworth, link to NCN 4, LCN+ 3 Walking Link to Thames Path
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates Southwest London: Other locations – Putney
Mural at Citizen Smith, London SW15
Bar (Lost Society)
160 Putney High Street SW15 1RS T 020 8780 2235 whttp://citizensmithbar.co.ukf citizensmithbartw citizensmithSW Open 1200 (1700 Mon)-2300 (2400 Thu, 0200 FS, 2230 Sn). Children welcome until 1800. Cask beer 2 (Windsor & Eton, 1 unusual guest), Other beer 7 keg, 35 bottles, Also Cocktails, champagne, wines, specialist spirits. Food Pizzas, hot dogs, salads, Wifi. Tue pizza promotion, Wed, Sun live acoustic music, Thu mojito night, Fri-Sat DJs, TV for major sporting events.
One of a cluster of southwest London venues under the same ownership as Powder Keg Diplomacy in Battersea, Citizen Smith has actually been around a few years longer than its stablemate but has only recently evolved its beer range sufficiently to catch my notice, thanks in part to new manager Juan, formerly of the Draft House Tower Bridge (p55). Conveniently situated right opposite Putney station, it’s a late arriving product of London’s 1990s fashionable flirtation with cocktail bar culture, but was always intended as a dressed down, shoes off sort of place rather than a glitzy temple of mixology – probably a wise policy in Putney. It’s a single big room bedecked with pop culture murals (Grace Jones figures prominently), dining tables, slobby sofas and an 8-track cartridge collection. They still shake, strain and perform elaborate procedures with exotic spirits, fresh mint and citrus fruits here, but in a sure sign of the changing place of beer in the capital’s drinking culture, they increasingly pump real ale and pour good bottles too.
Two different and regularly changing beers from Windsor & Eton feature on the handpumps, with a guest that might come from Arbor, Dark Star or Thornbridge. Among the familiar US names on the keg taps you’ll also find more unusual beers from Kernel and a house-branded Belgian lager, plus a changing craft porter or stout (Odell when I called). There’s more Kernel in the fridges, alongside BrewDog, Flying Dog, Goose Island, Orval and Redchurch. Pizzas with imaginative toppings emerge from a wood fired oven – tweet about the place and they promise 10% off your food bill. The music policy tens towards retro and rock’n’roll.
Pub trivia. The name recalls a 1970s sitcom featuring Robert Lindsay as a would-be suburban revolutionary – except that someone seems to have forgotten his rallying cry was “Freedom for Tooting!”, which for some reason is marginally more amusing than “Freedom for Putney!”
National Rail Putney Underground East Putney River Putney Cycling NCN 4, LCN+ 3 37, links to NCN 20, CS8 Walking Thames Path
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates Southwest London: Other locations – Carshalton
The Sun, Carshalton SM5 (London)
Contemporary pub (Independent)
4 North Street, Carshalton SM5 2HU T 020 8773 4549 wwww.thesuncarshalton.comf The-Sun-Carshalton Open 1200 (1700 Mon)-2300 (2400 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children very welcome until 1900. Cask beer 5 (Sharp’s or Timothy Taylor, 4 often unusual guests) Cask Marque, Other beer 3 keg, 5 bottles, Also 26 wines. Food Upmarket pub grub, Outdoor Large beer garden, Wifi. Disabled toilet. Mon poker, Tue quiz, Wed wine night, Thu gourmet supper club, monthly acoustic music, board games.
Carshalton boasts an outstanding small pub, the community run Hope (p216), which is well worth a train trip into suburbia on its own account, but the Sun, only a short walk from the station, has possibilities too. This cheerful, comfortable and rather eccentrically decorated place is a multipurpose community local, with a busy programme of events and promotions. A mix of spaces includes a rather blokey main bar complemented by a soft centred family room complete with high chairs and games. Expect to see Doom Bar or Landlord as a cask staple, with guests sourced from a large range of often small breweries. Acorn, Blindmans, Cheddar, Dark Star, Downton, Fyne, Thornbridge and Triple fff are among those featured in the pump clip display on the wall of the rear corridor leading to an extensive and very verdant garden. Perhaps not a soaraway Sun, especially give the local competition, but it might still make you beam.
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates Southwest London: Wandsworth
Cats Back, London SW18
Contemporary pub (Harveys)
86-88 Point Pleasant SW18 1NN T 020 8877 0818 Open 1200-2300 (2400 Fri-Sat, may close 1430-1700 Mon-Thu). Children welcome until early evening. Cask beer 4 (Harveys), Other beer 12 bottles (Harveys), Also 17 wines. Food Imaginative enhanced pub grub, Outdoor Rear terrace, Wifi. Disabled toilet. Seasonal events, live music, functions.
For many years the Royal Oak in Borough (p61) enjoyed the distinction of being the only pub in London tied to Harveys of Lewes. That changed in May 2012 when the Cats Back, only a stone’s throw from the river at Wandsworth, reopened under the banner of the well regarded Sussex brewer. Tucked away in what was formerly an industrial area around the confluence of the Thames and the Wandle, this former free house had previously enjoyed a reputation for live music and eccentricity, with a junk collection led by a full sized vintage petrol pump installed outside. Meanwhile the surroundings mutated into the Wandsworth Riverside development, with luxury flats overlooking the riverside terraces of rather bland-looking bars.
The petrol pump and the deliberate eccentricity have now gone, but in compensation a thorough restoration indoors has brought taste and gravitas to a lovely old building. Heavy wooden benches and tables cluster round a central servery downstairs, with a wall full of vintage photos of other Harvey’s pubs, while a pleasant first floor room adds to the space. A surprisingly extensive beer terrace and garden is down a few steps at the back. Friendly new tenants Stuart and Natalie serve up a short, frequently changing menu that might include smoked salmon and scrambled egg, sausage and mash or rösti with spinach and rocket. The beer offer demonstrates there is more to Harvey’s than the ubiquitous Sussex Best, with seasonals and specials on cask, and the complete range of the brewery’s noteworthy bottled beers, including strong stuff like Elizabethan Ale and the benchmark Imperial Russian Stout.
National Rail Wandsworth Town Underground East Putney River Wandsworth RQ Cycling NCN 4 20, CS8, NCN+ 37 Walking Thames Path, Wandle Trail
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates Southwest London: Brixton and Stockwell
Crown and Anchor, London SW9
Contemporary pub, specialist (Jolly Butchers)
246 Brixton Road SW9 6AQ wwww.crownandanchorbrixton.co.uktw crownanchorsw9 Open 1630 (1200 Sat-Sun)-2400 (0100 Fri-Sat, 2300 Sun). Children welcome until early evening. Cask beer 7 (Unusual, often local guests), Other beer 13 keg, 50 bottles, Also 3 real ciders/perries, some specialist spirits. Food Gastroish daily changing menu, Outdoor Benches on street, Wifi.
Turning decaying pubs with a fearsome local reputation into decent and successful drinking (and eating) houses through the medium of craft beer has become something of a trend in the London licensed trade. One of the early pioneers was the Jolly Butchers in Stoke Newington (p158) and now that pub’s owner Martin Harley is working his magic south of the river. When originally researching my guide I struggled to find recommendations in Brixton, so Martin’s reworking of the Crown and Anchor is particularly welcome. Admittedly it’s a little outside the town centre, among a rather ragged parade of shops, but it’s still a welcome addition to this diverse community.
It’s a big Victorian boozer with some heritage, claiming amongst other things to be the home of London’s first rock’n’roll club, but its original interior has long since been effaced and knocked through. The new owners have wisely stripped it back to big plain glass windows, bare brick and pillars offset by arty light fittings, but the old bar counter has been preserved and restored and there are a couple of unusual arches at the back. The pub adjoins Slade Gardens, a little known but rather pretty park, opening up opportunities for al fresco drinking.
Seven changing cask handpumps line up by style and strength from light to dark and strong, with local suppliers like Ascot, By the Horns, Redemption and Windsor & Eton joining craft beer favourites Dark Star and Thornbridge. BrewDog and Camden Town get two keg taps each, and Huyghe’s politically incorrect strong ale Delirium Tremens is a regular feature, joined by Brooklyn, Paulaner, Schremser and changing guests. Regular British mass market brands are conspicuously absent. The bottled list combines Londoners like Brodie’s, Camden Town, Kernel and Meantime with US and Belgian classics – don’t expect serious rarities but there may be a few surprises. The food menu is shortish, imaginative and changes daily – beer battered monkfish, broad bean and goat cheese risotto and German sausage platters are typical choices.
Underground Stockwell, Brixton Bus Groveway (numerous Brixton, Oval) Cycling Link to CS7
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London’s Best Beer
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