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"Very authoritative" - Tim Webb.
"One of the top beer writers in the UK" - Mark Dredge.
"A beer guru" - Popbitch.
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London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Clerkenwell and Smithfield
 St John, London EC1 Bar, restaurant (St John)
26 St John Street EC1M 4AY
T (020) 3301 8069 W stjohnrestaurant.com
Open 1100 (1200 Sun)-2300 (1700 Sun). Children welcome.
Cask beers 3 (Black Sheep, Wadworth, guest), Other beers 4 keg (Meantime), 3 bottles, Also Wines, a few malts, cocktails, real bottled ciders.
Food Well-rated British cooking, bread & tapas. Disabled toilet.
Occasional tastings, functions.
This converted former smokehouse, which once hosted the offices of Marxism Today, will need no introduction to London foodies — since it was opened by Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver in 1994, it’s become one of the most influential eateries in Britain, and has even appeared in international Top 20s. It was in the vanguard of the 1990s movement that rejected French-influenced haute cuisine in favour of a reworked version of British traditional cooking, and traces of its impact are detectable on the vast majority of food conscious pubs in this guide. Just round the corner from Smithfield Market, it makes a big deal of meat, and famously champions eating the parts more squeamish diners avoid, like hearts, tails and offal. Less visceral is its espousal of great bread, with an on site bakery that also offers a takeaway service.
What you might not realise is that St John is also quite a decent place to enjoy a beer. As a traditional British drink closely related to bread, beer fits the profile well and it’s pleasing that Gulliver and Henderson have not neglected it. A reasonably sized bar area sits beside the restaurant, more than just a waiting room for diners where drinkers are welcomed, with its own bar snacks menu including quite substantial items in the house style but at more affordable prices. It’s a whitewashed, stone floored space with a glass roof that reveals its industrial past, but it’s comfortable enough — you’ll find the bakery counter here too, and crisply dressed staff are friendly and informative. The beer selection isn’t huge but it’s well chosen — Black Sheep Bitter, Wadworth 6X and a guest ale, often from Redemption, on cask, Meantime Helles, London Lager, London Pale Ale and a seasonal on keg, and a few bottles from the always admirable Kernel in the fridge, alongside Budvar, the only non-British interloper. Prices are in line with the more expensive pubs.
National Rail Farringdon Underground Farringdon, Barbican Cycling LCN+ 0, 7, 39 Walking Clerkenwell Historic Trail
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
East London: Leyton, Leytonstone and Walthamstow
 Red Lion, London E11 Contemporary pub, specialist (Antic)
640 High Road E11 3AA
T (020) 8988 2929 W www.theredlionleytonstone.com tw red_lion_e11
Open 1600 (1200 Sat-Sun)-2300 (2400 Thu, 0200 Fri-Sat). Children very welcome until 2100.
Cask beers 10 (unusual often local guests) Cask marque, Other beers 5 keg, 60 bottles (mainly UK), Also 4 real ciders, 20+ wines.
Food Short imaginative pub grub/gastro menu, Outdoor Picnic tables on street, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Sun fortnightly jazz, seasonal theme events, bar billiards, board games.
Pubs that are part of the Antic “collective” can usually be relied upon for a few decent beers, but the Red Lion is the innovative pubco’s most serious commitment yet to satisfying the eclectic tastes of London’s growing number of fine beer connoisseurs. It’s a big, chunky street corner pub just across from Leytonstone church and very near the Tube, which until reopening under its original name in June 2011 had endured a brief interlude as a South African theme bar called Zulus. Inside is a big single space with Antic’s usual mix of quirky decorations, lounge furniture and standard lamps and heritage features including an entrance floor mosaic that is crying out for restoration. You do wonder a little about the success of deliberately distressed decor when staff feel the need to tell you that the bare bricks and patchwork stripped paint doors are “meant to look that way.”
Still, such details are unlikely to trouble you once you take in the mouthwatering selection on offer at the big bar with its imposing wooden bar back. Ten handpumps offer a constantly changing selection that favours local breweries — Brodie’s, Camden Town, East London, Redemption — and unusual choices from further afield — beers from B&T, Blindman, Dark Star, Holt, Otley, Outstanding or Thornbridge might be on. Styles are likely to encompass dark beers and specialities. Camden Town Hells leads a craft keg quintet that might include BrewDog, Harviestoun, Thornbridge or a US import. Around 60 bottles are largely sourced from the UK with local offerings from Redchurch, quite a range from the rarely seen Grain, plus reliable quality from BrewDog, Dark Star, Otley and Thornbridge. Imports include Duvel-Moortgat’s Maredsous abbey beers and Sierra Nevada’s serious barley wine Bigfoot. It’s a well conceived list combining craft favourites with a few unexpected surprises that attests to the expertise of manager Mark and his staff.
Decent and not too pricey food from a shortish, changing menu is listed on the usual clipboards, ranging from snacks like chipolatas with spiced mustard to main courses of curried butternut squash, spaghetti with smoked salmon and puy lentils, steaks and posh pork chops. These can be enjoyed in the main drinking area or in a smallish, more secluded space set aside for diners. Dog friendliness extends to dog biscuits in a jar on the bar. Combining a great beer choice with a proper pub feel and a decent amount of space, this is a very welcome east London newcomer.
Insider tip. Remember your membership card — CAMRA members enjoy 10% discount on the cask beers.
Underground Leytonstone Cycling LCN+ Wanstead/Redbridge – Stratford Walking Epping Forest Centenary Walk
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Other locations — Westbourne Green
 The Cow, London W2 Bar, restaurant (Tom Conran)
89 Westbourne Park Road W2 5QH
T (020) 7221 0021 W www.thecowlondon.co.uk
Open 1200-2300 (2230 Sun).
Cask beers 4 (Fuller’s, 3 guests), Other beers 3 keg, 12+ bottles (mostly Belgian), Also 28 wines.
Food Oysters, seafood, gastro, Outdoor Small front terrace.
Functions.
Opened in the 1990s by gastropub pioneer Tom Conran, son of designer and restaurateur Terence, the Cow is now something of a veteran in offering beers that are a cut above average alongside upmarket food, taking its cue from the traditional pairing of Guinness and oysters. It’s located in Westbourne Park, once a group of country estates west of the river now also known as the Westbourne but once called the Kilbourne (thus Kilburn), another of London’s lost waterways which rises on Hampstead Heath, crosses the Westway by Royal Oak Tube and joins the Thames near Chelsea Bridge. Developed from the early 19th century, the area is now a well-heeled residential sprawl west of Paddington and north of Notting Hill, home to a cluster of specialist restaurants and bars including several owned by the Conrans.
The house cask is London Pride, joined by guest ales also secured through Fuller’s, which might include beers from Harveys, St Austell or Uley. Classic Antwerp ale De Koninck should be in reliably good condition on keg alongside Hoegaarden and Pilsner Urquell, and Guinness of course, while the bottled selection offers Trappists from Chimay, Orval and Westmalle and more exotic Belgians from De Ryck. The three different varieties of oyster and the whole crabs displayed on ice at the bar set the tone for a menu that’s big on seafood, though besides the likes of fish stew you’ll find coq au vin, sausages, steaks and some vegetarian options. The set menu looks good value but à la carte prices are highish, and get higher upstairs.
The room is long and narrow, with a front bar section where non-dining drinkers are (in theory) welcome, a dining area at the back and further dining space upstairs. It’s attractively and atmospherically done out in a curious mixture of Belgian café and Irish pub, heralded by the Guinness and De Koninck signing outside, with wood panelling, long benches and price lists written on mirrors, recalling the classic Brussels pub Mort Subite. It should be a comfortable place to settle down with a bolleke of Antwerp’s finest or a decent pint of British ale, but unfortunately on my visit the unsmiling and rather disengaged staff didn’t encourage me to linger.
Underground Royal Oak, Westbourne Park Bus St Stephens Gardens (various Westbourne Park, Notting Hill, Ladbroke Grove) Cycling LCN+ Shepherds Bush, link to 45 and NCN 6 Walking Grand Union Canal Walk
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southeast London: Camberwell, Dulwich and Peckham
 Victoria, London SE15 Contemporary pub (Capital/Greene King)
72 Choumert Road SE15 4AR
T (020) 7639 5052 W capitalpubcompany.com/The-Victoria-Inn f The Victoria Inn tw victoriainnse15
Open 1200 (1100 Sat-Sun)-2400 (0100 Fri-Sat). Children very welcome until 2100 in side bar and children’s room.
Cask beers 4 (Adnams, Florence, Greene King, Sharp’s), Other beers 4 keg (including Meantime), 9 bottles, Also Wines.
Food Upmarket pub grub/gastro menu, Outdoor Front terrace, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Board games, table football, retro video games.
Peckham has become one of London’s most patchwork areas, with regenerated but still deprived social housing and a resolutely downmarket, if cosmopolitan, High Street mixing it with the striking contemporary architecture of Peckham Square and splashes of local bohemia. A tendril of gentrification and cultivated artiness extends northwards from East Dulwich along Bellenden Road, the axis of a pretty conservation area to the west of the High Street, where restored Victorian terraces are curiously complemented by designer street furniture by Antony Gormley and Tom Phillips, and artists’ studios rub shoulders with specialist shops. The Victoria, formlerly known as the Wishing Wells and refurbished and reopened in 2010 by pubco Capital, now part of Greene King, stands at the junction of Bellenden and Choumert Roads, at the heart of the area geographically and already an important community focus.
Designers have been at work here too, with several different styles in the knocked through space of a biggish corner pub, like a science fiction TV episode in which several dimensions intersect. One side is in stripped back gastropub style, with bare floorboards, a hatch to the kitchen and preserved heritage features like a lovely wooden bar back with mirrors and clock. Another side is like a 1970s Habitat design for a home library, with bright colours, exposed brick, retro computer games, curious seating and shelves of books. An attractive cubby hole links the two, and a street terrace catches the sun. Families are catered for on the library side which has an adjoining children’s room too, with a family loyalty card scheme. Upstairs is an 18-room boutique hotel. That these disparate and borderline pretentious ingredients gell into a coherent and comfortable venue is in part thanks to friendly and enthusiastic staff who help generate a pleasant and relaxing atmosphere.
Four real ales form a key part of the offer, with tasters on offer for the indecisive. They typically include at least one beer from the brewery at sister pub the Florence in Herne Hill, with a changing Adnams beer (often a special), a Sharp’s seasonal and something from parent group Greene King that’s usually more exciting than IPA. Vedett lager, Erdinger wheat beer and Meantime London Pale Ale and Lager are on keg, while there’s a reasonable collection of better known world bottled beers that stretches to Duvel, Coopers Sparkling Ale and Negra Modelo. Upmarket pub grub runs from prawns and bread through fish pies and posh burgers to the likes of aubergine curry and crab lasagne, with more veggie options than usual.
National Rail Peckham Rye Overground Peckham Rye (from late 2012) Cycling LCN+ 22 Walking Link to Surrey Canal path
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
East London: Around the Olympic Park
 Tap East, London E20. Pic: Tap East Brewpub, bar, specialist (Utobeer)
The Great Eastern Market, Westfield Stratford City E20 1ET
T (020) 8555 4467 W www.tapeast.co.uk f Tap-East tw TapEast
Open 1100 (1200 Sun)-2300 (2200 Sun). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beers 6 (Tap East, Thornbridge, unusual guests), Other beers 9 keg, 130 bottles, gift boxes to take away, Also 2 ciders.
Food Sandwiches, ploughmans, cold sharing platters, Outdoor Tables on square, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Tastings, Meet the Brewer events.
In their quest to offer a retail experience for everyone, big shopping malls these days tend to sprinkle in the occasional enclave of independent specialists among the globalised megastores, and in Westfield Stratford City, this function is partially fufilled by the Great Eastern Market, a cluster of smallish shops and stalls selling Eastern European artisanal breads, Japanese snacks, Turkish and Indian sweets and posh chocolates. Rather hearteningly, Westfield decided with a few weeks to go before opening that a craft beer brewpub would complete the offer, and invited the people behind Utobeer and the Rake in Borough Market to come up with one, so long as it was ready by official opening date in mid-September. So when Tap East first launched, it was with a temporary bar and no brewery, and the paint literally still wet. The effort was heroic, but the haste showed. A few months on, things are more settled, the bar is properly equipped, a gleaming copper brewhouse stands proudly behind glass, and the place is growing into one of London’s essential beer destinations.
There are still challenges. The bar is right opposite Stratford International station, but this end of the complex has much less footfall than the section nearer the domestic station, although during the Olympic and Paralympic Games it will be the arrival point for passengers on the fast Javelin service from St Pancras. The box shaped space, with one glass wall and another open onto the mall, doesn’t encourage intimacy. A combination of high stools and sofas, designer lampshades and an attractive two-tone polished wood bar back doesn’t quite make it look like a place where you might install yourself for an evening, though the polite, friendly, helpful and well informed staff might well persuade you otherwise.
If they don’t, the beer list should — although it’s slightly more populist than you might find at the Rake, there’s still plenty of great beer to be had. Six handpumps usually dispense three home brewed beers — usually decent pale ales and stouts and exclusive to the venue — and guests from breweries like Black Isle, Dark Star, Freeminer, Oakham, Otley and Thornbridge. The keg range changes — Brooklyn Lager, Sierra Nevada pale and the like make regular appearances but others might come from British brewers like Lovibonds or Thornbridge, or from Germans like Köstritzer and Schlenkerla.
Bottled beers slant towards the USA and Belgium: beers from Ommegang, Rochefort, Saranac, Senne and Sudwerk join London’s own Kernel, real lambics from Boon and Cantillon, craft cans from Caldera in Oregon, big bottles from Dutch eccentric De Molen and classic Bavarians from Augustiner and Schneider. All the beers are also available to take away and there are gift packs too. There’s no hot food, but the sandwiches, meat and cheese boards, pork pies and Scotch eggs look tempting indeed, and there are plenty of other places to eat nearby.
With the density of the transport network that now converges on Stratford this must be one of London’s best connected fine beer haunts, a brave venture that deserves to succeed and a great opportunity to convert a new audience to craft beer. It’s well worth dodging the hordes of branded bag-clutching shoppers to make a special trip, and you certainly shouldn’t miss the opportunity if you’re passing through. For more about Stratford City, see the entry for the Cow.
Insider tip. In fine weather the outdoor tables on the public space between shopping mall and station are the best seats in the house.
National Rail/DLR Stratford International, Stratford Overground/Underground Stratford Cycling Link to NCN1, LCN+ 16 155 156 Walking Link to Capital Ring
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Paddington and Marylebone
 Victoria, London W2. Pic: Fuller's. Traditional pub (Fuller’s) National Heritage Pub
10a Strathearn Place W2 2NH
T (020) 7724 1191 W www.fullers.co.uk
Open 1100 (1200 Sun)-2300 (2230 Sun). Children welcome.
Cask beers 5 (Fuller’s) Cask marque, Other beers 2 keg, 7 bottles, Also 20 wines.
Food Upmarket pub grub/gastro, Outdoor A few tables on street, Wifi.
Tue quiz, occasional live music, occasional big screen sport, annual beer festival.
Occupying an unusually rotund corner building deep in elegant Bayswater, only a short step from Hyde Park, the Victoria is a lively and welcoming place that retains the feel of a characterful local while also boasting one of the most interesting heritage pub interiors in London. Most historic survivals among the capital’s pub stock were heavily refurbished in late Victorian times — the 1890s and early 1900s. In contrast, much of what you see in the Victoria — the handsome wooden bar with its elegant mirrored bar back, a regency-style fireplace, an extraordinary side wall with tiling and decorated and gilded mirrors — dates from much earlier in the eponymous queen’s reign, quite likely from 1864, the date shown on the clock that still commands the angle of the bar. There are more recent additions — the two upstairs rooms include the charming library, well worth grabbing if you can, and the Theatre Bar decked out with fittings reclaimed from the Gaeity Theatre in the late 1950s. The pub plays up to its name with numerous portraits of the unamused monarch and her family, and there’s now a single J-shaped drinking area which formerly would have been partitioned.
This is now a Fuller’s pub, and a very good one. Five cask beers always include Chiswick, Discovery, ESB, London Pride and a seasonal or special in top form. Honeydew and Blue Moon are on keg, while among the bottles are such Fuller’s treasures as Vintage Ale, Brewers Reserve and 1845 as well as Duvel and Budvar. Food might include poached haddock, chorizo stuffed chicken breast, sausage and mash, roast butternut squash and gourmet sandwiches, at slightly high prices as you’d expect in this area. Staff on my visit were remarkably friendly, cheerful and well-informed, helping bring this vintage treasure to vibrant life.
Insider tip. It’s worth ordering a whisky and water purely for the privilege of having your tipple diluted by a still functioning Victorian brass tap.
National Rail Paddington Underground Lancaster Gate Cycling LCN+ links to 0 5 45 and Hyde Park paths Walking Link to Jubilee Greenway
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Other locations — Harefield
Contemporary pub, gastropub (Brunning & Price)
Park Lane, Harefield, Uxbridge UB9 6HJ
T (01895) 822631 W www.oldorchard-harefield.co.uk
Open 1130 (1200 Sun)-2300 (2230 Sun). Children welcome, children’s portions served.
Cask beers 6 (Fuller’s, Phoenix, 4 unusual often local guests), Other beers 2 keg, 2 bottles, Also Over 100 whiskies, some rums, 50+ wines.
Food Enhanced pub grub/gastro menu, Outdoor Front terrace, large beer garden, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Summer weekend barbecues, beer and food events, board games.
 Old Orchard, Harefield UB9 (London) “We could be in the Lake District”, sighs deputy manager Damien, admiring the view from the Old Orchard on Greater London’s far flung northwestern edge. And while this is perhaps overstating the case just a little, the surroundings here are among the most picturesque and rural of any pub in the capital. The handsome white building, hidden down a narrow lane on the outskirts of the village of Harefield, is perched atop the Colne valley, surrounded by a vast and verdant garden, with a view that sweeps down to the Grand Union Canal and placid boating lakes, in fact former gravel pits, in Colne Valley Regional Park. There are no craggy fells to be seen across the rolling fields visible from the top of the lane but you may well spot the outliers of the Chilterns.
Formerly a private house, a hotel and most recently a high end restaurant, the Old Orchard was reopened in September 2010 as a food-led pub that welcomes drinkers as well as diners. Inside it’s spacious, comfortable and rustic in a country house kind of way, with open fires and framed vintage maps. Six excellently kept cask beers in this Good Beer Guide listed venue always include a house ale supplied to the pubco by Phoenix in Manchester, London Pride and Tring Side Pocket for a Toad, a rare but welcome sight as a regular beer. Guests might come from Chiltern, Dark Star, Itchen Valley, Marston Moor, Purple Moose, Vale or White Horse. Staropramen and botttled Budvar are better than usual lager options. Food is hearty stuff at moderate prices and might include pheasant and venison terrine, posh sausages, roasts, grilled trout or sweet potato and parmesan gnocchi. Also worth perusing is a large collection of whiskies and other specialist spirits including rare rums. Well placed for walkers and cyclists exploring the Green Belt countryside and only a short climb from the canal, this is a friendly and welcome newcomer.
Underground Northwood, Uxbridge (then bus) Bus Harefield Green (331 Northwood), Dunster Close (U9 Uxbridge) Cycling NCN 61 Walking London Loop, Hillingdon Trail, Colne Valley Trail
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Other — Hanwell
 Fox, London W7 Traditional pub (Independent)
Green Lane W7 2PJ
T (020) 8567 3912 W thefoxpub.co.uk
Open 1100-2300 (2230 Sun). Children very welcome until 2100.
Cask beers 5 (Fuller’s, Sharp’s, Taylor, 2 guests), Other beers 1 keg, 1 bottle, Also 8 wines, a few malts.
Food Imaginative pub grub and mediterranean-style food, Outdoor Beer garden, Wifi.
Th quiz, monthly markets (last S), occasional weekend live music, beer festivals, darts.
The next village west of Ealing on the Uxbridge Road where it crosses the river Brent, Hanwell dates back at least to the 5th century but developed thanks to its transport links: coaching inns flourished in the 18th century, while the next century brought the Grand Union Canal and then the Great Western Railway. In 1901 the arrival of a tram connection to central London spurred its growth as an affordable suburb. The first purpose built lunatic asylum in Britain was founded just outside the village in 1831 — the site is now part of the massive general hospital, Ealing Hospital, built in the late 1970s. In the 1850s the Central London District School for poor boys moved here from Norwood in south London, later counting Charles Chaplin among its students.
The canal, having first followed the Brent from Brentford, parts company with the river here to climb 18m through a flight of five locks. Operating these is still thirsty work and many of today’s boaters, like their predecessors, must be glad of the proximity of the Fox, a handsome and well-preserved pub dating from 1848 that sits just back from the waterway. As its name suggests, it was once a meeting point for the local hunt and still preserves a rural quality, among allotments at the end of quiet Green Lane, a former drove route. Though signs on the exterior doors recall former division into different bars, the interior is now a single space wrapped around a horseshoe bar, comfortably and traditionally furnished with benches tucked into pretty bay windows. The extensive outside yard is home once a month to a popular food and craft market, and there’s a family friendly feel to the place.
A serial winner of the local CAMRA branch’s Pub of the Year, the Fox usually offers five cask beers. The three regulars are standard fare — London Pride, Doom Bar and Landlord — but the guests are likely to come from small and often local-ish breweries, with Itchen Valley, Rebellion and Red Squirrel particularly popular. Fuller’s Honey Dew in keg and bottle is another choice. Home cooked food has a healthy Mediterranean flourish with plenty of salads and veggie options as well as traditional pub grub, at reasonable prices. A pleasant, welcoming and well looked after gem that’s ideal for walkers, cyclists and boaters exploring the canal, this could only be improved by a few more guest beers.
National Rail Hanwell Underground Ealing Broadway (then bus) Bus Half Acre Road (numerous Ealing Broadway) Cycling Grand Union Canal towpath, link to LCN+ 41 Walking Capital Ring, Grand Union Canal Walk
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London: Camden Town and Primrose Hill
 BrewDog Camden, London NW1 Bar, specialist (BrewDog)
113 Bayham Street NW1 0AG
T (020) 7284 0453 W www.brewdog.com/bars/camden f BrewDog-Bar-Camden tw BrewDogCamden
Open 1200-2330 (2400 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun).
Cask beers None, Other beers 16-26 keg (BrewDog, imports), 140 bottles
Food Gourmet burgers, pizzas, cheese and meat boards, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Tastings, Meet the Brewer events, beer launches.
At the end of a year that’s seen the launch of a number of new London beer specialists, the delayed opening in mid-December 2011 of controversy courting Aberdeenshire brewery BrewDog’s fourth pub, and its first outside Scotland, was arguably one of the most eagerly anticipated among the capital’s beer connoisseurs. Heralded by brewery founders Martin Dickie and James Watt posing on a tank outside the former Laurel Tree pub in Camden Town’s Bayham Street, the first announcement of being open for business went out over Twitter and rapidly attracted a crowd. When I visited quite late on the first night of official ordinary trading after all the launches, the place was packed with a largely youthful crowd, including a good few brewers and competitor licensees who’d come to see what all the fuss was about.
The old pub has been slickly and stylishly done out. A single moderately sized bar upstairs has remnants of old pub pillars visible but is otherwise new bare brick, walls clad in gym-style wooden parquet tiles and bar top and drinking shelves made of slabs of grey stone — which might just be a suggestion of “granite” Aberdeen, the brewery’s nearest city. Downstairs there’s a more loungey space with its own bar, used for tutored tastings. Staff seem knowledgeable, enthusiastic, friendly and welcoming — these last qualities perhaps contrary to expectation given BrewDog’s cultivatedly pugnacious image and the bar’s location in one of London’s most painfully trendy haunts. Even more surprisingly, prices are remarkably keen — gourmet burgers devised by TV’s MasterChef winner Tim Anderson are no more than £7.
 BrewDog's Martin Dickie (left) and James Watt getting tanked up in Camden Town. Pic: BrewDog. But inevitably most people are here for the beer, and if they’re not they’ll still be encouraged to try it. There’s a small stock of wines and a few carefully chosen and unusual spirits, but customers who ask for these are prompted to consider trying a beer first. The choice is impressive, starting with up to 26 keg lines, although only 17 were in use when I called. BrewDog beers are understandably well represented, with 5AM Saint, Hardcore and Punk IPA always on, and numerous guests and specials, on my visit ranging from tasty 2.8% reduced duty beer Blitz! to 18.2% Tokyo*, taking in the latest in the Abstrakt series and a Christmas porter. Other draught options come from US and global craft brewers — Evil Twin, Lagunitas, Mikkeller, Port or Stone, for example: a collaboration between BrewDog and Port/Lost Abbey’s Tomme Arthur was on last week. “Tasting floats” of four third pint measures are available for experimenters. The rarities will multiply if plans to install an experimental picobrewery on site come to fruition.
The bottled range pursues a similar theme, with BrewDog’s own beers, including rare specials, lining up alongside US, Scandinavian and Japanese entries. Alesmith, Baird, Ballast Point, Bear Republic, Cigar City, Green Flash, Hitachino Nest, Nøgne-Ø and Southern Tier are names to set beer geeks’ mouths watering, though there’s a notable absence of the handful of British brewers in the same general class — the only nod to Thornbridge is the version of their stout produced by Epic in New Zealand — or of the German and Belgian stalwarts usually spotted on bottled beer lists. Even the “lambic” comes from Mikkeller. It’s a brave and interesting list, testament to the BrewDog team’s close connections to international craft brewing.
It has to be said — the deliberate absence of cask beer leaves a notable gap in an otherwise impressive offer. BrewDog themselves brew some excellent cask beer and I’ve no doubt the staff here would conscientiously ensure it was served at its best. Far from underlining its position on the cutting edge, the lack of cask makes BrewDog seem parochial, persisting in the not overchallenging task of noising up a tiny handful of CAMRA purists while the new, young drinkers frequenting London’s beer bars happilly drink cask alongside craft keg, and US brewers that BrewDog idolise, like Stone, are ramping up their cask production. Charming assistant manager Lucy is clearly primed for the question, and sidesteps it by saying, “There’s nothing wrong with cask, but we prefer our beers this way,” before adding rather intriguingly, “That’s not to say we won’t ever have cask beer.” If they do, I will unhesitatingly recommend BrewDog Camden as one of the very best beer bars in London.
Overground Camden Road Underground Camden Town Cycling LCN+ 6 6A, Regents Canal towpath Walking Jubilee Greenway
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Twickenham and Hampton Hill
 Basket weaving for bikers at the Roebuck, Hampton Hill TW12 (London) Traditional pub (Independent)
72 Hampton Road, Hampton Hill, Hampton TW12 1JN
T (020) 8255 8133
Open 1100 (1200 Sun)-2300 (2330 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun, closed 1600-1900 Sun).
Cask beers 5 (Sambrook’s, St Austell, Wells & Young’s, unusual guests), Other beers 2 keg, 14 bottles
Food Pub grub Mon-Fri lunch, Outdoor Beer garden.
Sun informal quiz.
Eccentric collections have become something of a pub cliché — chain pubs seem to buy in random self-consciously quirky junk by the 25kg sack in an attempt to add character that can easily backfire into exposing the lack of it. The best pub collections are those that are clearly stamped by a particular personality or interest. Exploring them can be a bit like reading a story — or a poem. I’m not quite sure what the extraordinary exhibition on display at the Roebuck says about landlord Terry Himpfen, but it’s certainly one of the most distinctive, intriguing and entertaining pub collections in London. You’ll spot transport signs and memorabilia including traffic lights, old gaming and vending machines, tobacconists’ Indian mascots, scores of fishing rods on the ceiling, banknotes sealed under glass tabletops, musical instruments, a signed Henry Cooper boxing glove and, to top it all, a full size motorbike made of wicker basketwork. I was given a glimpse of a side room in which further junk, including a Vespa scooter, awaits display.
The place would be worth a visit for the collection alone but happily there’s also some great beer to be had while perusing. Junction, Tribute and Young’s Bitter are the regular casks, joined by guests from local-ish brewers like Hammerpot, Hopback and Itchen Valley. Then there’s quality lagers from Budvar and Rothaus on keg, and a bottled offering that’s mainly from better known British brewers like Hall & Woodhouse, Shepherd Neame and Wells & Young’s. The Masons Arms in nearby Twickenham, which boasts a more beer-themed collection, is now under the same ownership.
National Rail Fullwell Bus Kings Road (285 Feltham, Kingston, R68 Hampton Court, Kingston) Cycling Links to LCN+ 37 and Bushy Park paths Walking London Loop
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Cask  This pioneering new book explains what makes cask beer so special, and explores its past, present and future. Order now from CAMRA Books. Read more here.
London’s Best Beer  The fully updated 3rd edition of my essential award-winning guide to London’s vibrant beer scene is available now from CAMRA Books. Read more here.
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