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‘WE ARE MOVING!’

For Andy Smith, the founder of Partizan Brewing, it came down to two things that are really one thing: the departure of Aussie brewer Harrison Long, who’d had enough of the cost of London, and the expense of renting space in Bermondsey. In March, Smith moved his brewery to Market Harborough, where they’ll be sharing space with “long-term friends” Langton Brewery.

The news was announced with an unusually bold post on Instagram: ‘WE ARE MOVING!” it read, before going on to briefly lay out details of the move. As ever with Andy, there was plenty more left unsaid.

“Every year we sit down with shareholders,” he tells me down the phone, “and we decide how to improve sales and lessen costs. The rent in Bermondsey was eye-watering. Every year it’s been the same thing: ‘Perhaps we should move out of London?’ Usually the counter to that is twofold: the bar in Bermondsey, which brought a lot of money in, and staff, who live in London. The bar hasn’t returned to pre-Pandemic levels and, heading into another tough year, we had much less staff than usual.” 

How important is Partizan’s departure for London brewing? Well, there are still over 100 brewing companies in the capital, and Partizan was never one of the biggest - but it was a stalwart of the modern scene, founded in 2012, using brewing equipment gifted by The Kernel. 

As London’s beer world has changed over the past decade, Partizan has stubbornly embodied the best aspects of those early days: flavour withour foolishness, a passion for more than just hops, an almost-comic reluctance to engage in self-promotion. Partizan has always been small-scale but never small-time - and now, sadly for London, it’s based in Leicestershire.

The cost of the space on Almond Road in Bermondsey was exacerbated by a dispute with the arch’s owners - The Arch Company - that culminated in a risk that the brewing equipment would be seized. At that stage, Andy took advice and sold the brewery’s assets to Langton, thereby securing them from that prospect. This means he’s now employed by Langton, but he insists nothing else will change. “It’ll still be me making the Partizan beers on the same brew kit,” he says. (He didn’t want to discuss financial details). 

Ironically, he says, the move should mean he spends more time out and about in London. Most of Partizan’s 2000-hectolitre annual production is sold in the capital, and he plans to spend two days a week in town doing a more, as he puts it, “public-facing” role. 

He seems very phlegmatic about what has happened, and to a degree that’s understandable. He hit 40 a few years ago, and moved to Suffolk with his partner and son last year, having decided he was “quite keen to not have a mortgage when I was 70-whatever years old”. In that respect this is a classic London story; middle-aged people have always left for a different way of life. In another, though, it’s yet more evidence of how life in London gets financially tighter by the day, something we’ve known for years but that, in the aftermath of Covid lockdowns, has become ever more fraught.

If this isn’t quite the end of the line for Bermondsey, it’s certainly a blow. Like Anspach & Hobday and Brew By Numbers, Partizan’s beer will now be made away from Bermondsey, a place that has become much more about consumption than production. The Kernel (among others) remains, though, a factor that Andy thinks is key.

“I think Bermondsey is always going to have The Kernel, and that’s such a strong, iconic brewery. It’s very easy for me to be pessimistic at the moment, but they’ve always kept the quality and consistency and their identity [whatever has happened]. Bermondsey [as a modern brewing centre] was built on the back of The Kernel, and they’re not going anywhere. 

“But Bermondsey has become a really confusing place, even for someone who worked there. I don’t really know what’s going on - there are lots of bars. There’s probably going to be a big shake-up at some point.”

The same might be said of London. Rumours about the future of this or that brewery circulate on a weekly basis; while Beavertown and Camden thrive, buoyed by the safety that big money brings, others are struggling. 

“I don’t see it getting easier any time soon,” says Andy. “It’s getting thinner and thinner out there. After people, I’m sure everyone’s biggest expense is rent. Landlords took huge hits during Covid and they’re trying to claw it back, trying to get their little slice where they can.”   

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Desi Pub of the Month: Sun and Sand Lounge, Finchley

In his latest column, David Jesudason, author of the soon-to-be-published Desi Pubs, finds a pub where vegetarians can eat as well as meat-lovers 

Like all boozers with a bit of history, Desi Pubs often face a bit of opposition when they’re modernised. How do you keep the uncles happy as well as reaching out to a wider demographic? The Sun and Sands (near Finchley Central Tube station) was very similar to last month’s Desi Pub, the Boulevard, in that it started like a club with blacked out windows - ignorant residents thought it was a strip bar - but now is very light, airy and restaurant-y.

It’s still a pub though as you can sit at the bar with a pint. Like 65-year-old Jaggi Singh Litt, who between mouthfuls of peanuts tells me about his favourite North London desi pubs and can’t wait to get his hands on my upcoming book. He misses the previous landlord (he had a heart attack in his 50s) and the old decor - you can see why as this was a rare safe space for him in the past.

These days it’s transformed into somewhere you could take a date, which shows itself in the excellent food which caters expertly for both meat eaters and vegetarians - the new owner is the latter. Order the chilli paneer (soft texture, but with a nice firm bite) and say ‘hi’ to Jaggi from me.

David’s book, Desi Pubs, comes out next month. Pre-order it here

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Restart the Car

Bethnal Green’s Boxcar went into administration last month, but the brewery battles on. Brewer and head man Sam Dickison has retained control of the brand, and, he says, is “talking with a few breweries, distributors, and logistics people at the moment” about contract brewing, with the aim to have new product available in May - first kegs, and then later cans. 

Boxcar, which was founded in 2017, has won plaudits for the quality of its Dark Mild, and the prospect of reviving that beer is motivating Dickison: “One of the main reasons I didn't want to let it die is because I think Dark Mild deserves to be available all over the UK,” he says.

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It’s Sour Hour

Next week sees Sour Times, a festival of sour, barrel-aged and wild ales, take place at The King’s Arms in Bethnal Green. The event lasts from Wednesday (19th) until Saturday (22nd); expect beers from Burning Sky, De Ranke, Tilquin and more.

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Pub Reviewers of Instagram

One of the joys of Instagram is the stuff it feeds you from accounts you don’t follow. Indecipherable in-jokes about American Universities, old football videos (mostly Mourinho), hilarious incidents occurring completely spontaneously on the streets of London/New York/wherever - I get a lot of these, presumably because I can’t help watching them. 

In terms of beer, I’m offered two things; reviews of Guinness, and of London pubs. The former has taught me to tell the difference between a great pint and a bad one (the key, as far as I can discern, is that it’s served in a branded glass) while the latter is a genuine joy. People have strong opinions about London pubs, and their passion provides a great way to discover places you hadn’t heard of.

I thought it would be interesting to get in touch with my favourite London pub accounts and find out more about what they do. Those accounts are: Booze House Tales (B), run by Franco Allen, 36, who lives on the Isle of Dogs and comes from Essex (pictured above); London Pub Explorer (L), run by Alistair Von Lion, which has almost 33,000 followers; Maria Recommends (M), run by Maria Rangin, 35, who lives in Woolwich and comes from Sweden (pictured below); and Simon’s Pub Tour (S), run by Simon Cereda, 28, a Londoner who lives in Tufnell Park (final image).

(I’ve edited responses for brevity, but hopefully I’ve ensured the meaning is unchanged.) 

How long have you been writing about London pubs on Instagram? Why do you do it?

B: I started on Google Plus, about 2016. Me and my mates were doing a pub crawl around where we’re from, Rainham, and we recorded it on there; I had an Instagram account for personal stuff - but when I moved back to London, I thought why not start visiting pubs? It’s been an interesting journey, trying to delve into different things. It’s evolved.

L: The genesis of it was exploring, which started about 2000. I didn’t even really know I was doing it; in 2006/7, I got more into urban exploring, trying to get into derelict buildings, closed pubs. Then I wanted to put them on a platform, to show what I’d uncovered, to talk about the urban decay, the social corrosion, the lack of community that happens with closed pubs. I started on Instagram in 2016. 

M: I started back in 2018. I’ve always loved a good pub, and my friends usually asked me for recommendations. The account started as a way to remember the best pubs and beer gardens I’ve been to.

S: I started posting pictures and brief descriptions in summer 2017. I didn’t really know what else to do with the platform, the whole thing was a bit tongue-in-cheek. However, I was quickly hooked … I love documenting London’s ever-developing pub scene. It’s been great fun to discover a whole community of like-minded people through Instagram.

What’s your idea of the perfect London pub? 

B: A bit of a chameleon, offering different things at different times of the day. I love seeing the evolution of a pub during the day: people catching up with a few mates in the afternoon, live music in the evening. My favourite pubs, like the Pride of Spitalfields, are cosy, super-friendly, busy places.

L: It depends on the time of the day. In East London, where I live, you’ll see different time frames during a day at the weekend. That’s the beauty of a London pub: that ebb and flow, the constant state of flux. I like barstools - without barstools, for me, it’s not a pub. I love how the Boleyn Tavern looks: it’s been restored to how it was after the partitions were ripped out in the Seventies. It’s got something for everyone in terms of the different sections.

M: I truly enjoy a good beer garden; many pubs think a few park benches thrown out on the sidewalk is just fine. It is so easy to go from boring to the cosiest option in the neighbourhood with a parasol, a few potted plants, a candle and maybe even a blanket. But ultimately it has everything to do with the staff. Friendly staff can make the most boring decor become homely.

S: I look for a pub with a unique identity in a striking, traditional building but with contemporary drinks choices and independent beer available. There are more than a few out there that tick all of those boxes!

What do you drink?

B: I’m more of a cider drinker; that’s what got me into drinking in pubs. I’m moving over to cask ale at the moment, and I recently joined CAMRA.

L: Guinness would be a go-to, but I like some of the craft beers and, after a meal, a glass of red wine. If I’m with my brother, always ill-advised, we might hit the top shelf and have a glass of whisky.

M: Usually lager, sometimes IPA or Pale Ale, cider on a sunny afternoon. I love a pub with fun and local craft beers.

S: I usually stick to beer; I’ll give anything a try, from imperial stouts through session pales to tart sours. However, my favourite type of beer is a Grisette - more on tap in pubs please!

How important do you think pubs are to London?

B: I see pubs as a community centre. It’s a place to meet your friends, to chat. Different people pop in at different times. It’s a carousel of the community outside, that’s what I find compelling. London pubs have a lot of history, too; it’s the story of the city, in a pub.

L: Modern London doesn’t put value in community, and the pub is the cornerstone of community. For some people, it might be the only chance for a chat all day. A kind word, a smile, two minutes of your time: that has massive value. 

M: They are the best part of the city. Pub culture is something pretty unique. I’m from Sweden where we lack that culture, and it’s the thing that I would miss the most if I ever move away. How they create that third space we all need, besides our home and our work - the home away from home feeling - it is just amazing.

S: Pubs have been in London in some shape or form for centuries, and have played such a crucial part in the history of our city. They’ve given their names to whole communities, been the stomping ground for generations of the same families, and served as communal living rooms for many in a city where space is such a luxury.

Why do you think people are so interested in London pubs?

B: I like to travel, and you don’t see pubs in other countries. Drinking elsewhere is quite different. I think people that travel to London love the history of the pub, the idea that you can pop in, have a drink, have a meal.

L: I think it’s tangible. You can go out and enjoy an organic pub experience as people have done for hundreds of years. So many things now are manufactured and diluted. The history of these pubs, you don’t get that everywhere - England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, that’s where pub culture exists, and despite what’s been lost, it hasn’t been eroded as much as a lot of British culture. 

M: I always recommend people visiting London check out the pubs, because of the unique culture but also the history. Looking at Big Ben is nice, but sitting in the pub where Jack the Ripper’s last victim was last seen alive, or a stone’s throw away from where the Mayflower set out is a more personal way to experience history. Also, you haven’t really been to London without experiencing a pint and a fish & chips or Sunday Roast in a proper boozer.

S: There’s a romance to them. There are so many pubs in London that you can never truly visit them all … For me it’s a mission to visit as many as possible, and use pubs as a basis to explore the city. If I don’t know at least one pub in any neighbourhood, I make a point of trying to visit.

Are you optimistic about the future of London pubs?

B: I’m more on the optimistic side. I think pubs will survive, but they’ll have to change … you don’t get many wet-led pubs in London anymore, I think they’ve had to diversify to survive. Gastropubs are not my favourites. I do think it will get worse before it gets better - I think the government needs to do more to protect them, like the way Germany does with nightclubs.

L: I’m terrified. There’s going to be a two-tier drinking landscape: you are going to have very high–end gastro, and then you’ll have Wetherspoons, Enterprise, Craft Union, and nothing in between. I can see widespread Monday, Tuesday closing in the next ten years, I can see having to book becoming the norm. Soon a lot of young people won’t remember how beautiful it was to walk into a pub, sink into the banquette seating, or a corner booth. It fills me with dread: unless there’s high footfall or it’s an affluent area, the days of the back-street pub are almost over. 

M: It’s sad that the large breweries and pub chains are buying up all the independent places. There’s fewer and fewer left, which just means we lose a lot of the personality. A lot have closed or been rebuilt or refurbished to a point where they lose a lot of history and originality. But I’m optimistic, pubs are a big part of people’s lives in London. I don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t have a favourite, and it’s never difficult to get my friends out to explore new ones.

S: I know that many pubs are feeling the pinch, coming off the back of the pandemic and now with massive hikes in bills. Every day I see another piece of sad news about a pub or brewery … it seems very tough out there. That said, there are plenty of successes too: pubs adapting to modern tastes, independent breweries upsizing and lots of places embracing the benefits of social media. These green shoots give me optimism.

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O’Shea’s Away

Nick O’Shea, co-founder, general manager and director of Ignition Brewery in Sydenham, is moving on. O’Shea played the key role in setting up and driving Ignition - which employs people with learning disabilities as brewers, bar staff and more - in 2015, but feels the brewery needs someone with a different skill set to drive it forward in its next stage of development. “We’ve had some good responses and I’m confident we can have a smooth and orderly transition,” he says. He expects the process to be complete by the end of August.

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Three’s A Crowd

London’s beer festival season is fast approaching. First up is the London Brewers’ Alliance Festival, back for the first time in four years at the Griffin Brewery, home of Fuller’s, in Chiswick. Expect 50 London breweries pouring more than 100 beers in two sessions, on 17 June. Tickets are £40 a session, which includes beer.

CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival, meanwhile, will take place between 1 and 5 August at Olympia. General admission tickets are £16, which doesn’t include beer (but you can keep your glass). If you’ve never been, imagine a huge pub, serving cask ale from up and down Britain, plus plenty from the US, Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic and elsewhere. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but - for the record - I’ve always loved it (occasionally a little too much).

Finally, there’s the London Craft Beer Festival, which will take over Tobacco Dock for two days, the 11th and 12th of August. Expect Britain’s most highly-rated modern breweries (from Elusive to Floc to Lost & Grounded), some classic producers (Duvel and Timothy Taylor’s, to name two), excellent food, various other booze options, entertainment and more. If you want an idea of what’s happening at the cutting edge of British beer, this is where to start. 

Highlights include a big feature on the new London brewing quarter of Walthamstow with Signature Brew, Exale and Pretty Decent Brewing Companies, the world’s first “pasta beer” brewery called Beyond Belief, and the return of The Cask Yard, devoted to cask-conditioned beer. Tickets are £57.50, including beer.

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Two Pubs, One City

The Audley and The Barley Mow, Mayfair

Mount Street, which runs from Park Lane to Berkeley Square in Mayfair, offers plenty of historical interest. Former residents include Winston Churchill and (fictionally) Biggles, flying ace; Gimme Shelter, perhaps The Rolling Stones’ crowning moment, was written in a flat overlooking Mount Street by a sullen Keith Richards; and Scott’s, the street’s famous fish restaurant, was first bombed by and then, a few weeks’ later, sprayed with gunfire by four IRA men in 1975. The latter incident led to the Balcombe Street Siege, in which all four surrendered after a six-day standoff.

Such drama seems impossibly distant on a blissful Tuesday lunchtime at The Audley, which occupies the corner of Mount Street and South Audley Street. Sunshine blazes through its huge south-facing windows onto a turquoise carpet, bounded by long, brown, very comfortable banquettes. There is artwork of varying quality, obvious but unobtrusive, including the ceiling, painted in vivid shades of pink, red and turquoise by the recently deceased Phyllida Barlow. A beautiful clock, made by Camerer Cuss in London, overlooks the room. There is no piped music, just the chatter of the young bar staff and the not-so-young customers. All is serene.

The Audley re-opened in the autumn, having been bought and done up by Swiss owners Iwan and Manuela Wirth, founders of Hauser and Wirth. It’s an idealised version of an English pub, right down to that sound-muffling carpet - and, I have to say, it really works. The details are right, from the bar snacks (scotch eggs, etc) to the extremely comfortable seating. It’s posh, but not intimidating. This is what pubs in Mayfair should be like.

If there’s a quibble, it’s with the beer. Not the price (Yes, it’s £6.50, but it’s Mayfair) but my pint of Landlord is a touch over-vented, even if it tastes perfect, the flavour elements crisp and easily identifiable. I’m not sure how many of the six or seven men in here at 12 noon are drinking cask ale, but most are quietly nursing pints. “Do you like sausages?” one says suddenly and repeatedly to a pal, in a way that suggests a very unlikely casus belli. Happily, it’s not so. He just wanted to know if his friend wanted a sausage, one of the items offered on the bar menu (£3 a sausage) - and he did.

Just as I’m finishing my pint, a large American gent enters and flops on the seat a few tables away from me. He sits and sits and sits. He doesn’t realise, it’s soon clear, that it’s bar service only, but one of the young bar staff puts him straight. He orders a roast beef sandwich and a pot of tea, which is - I think - both a very English and not very English thing to order in a pub.  

If you walk north from Mount Street, you soon hit Grosvenor Square, where Mick Jagger went to a protest, got pushed around a bit and then wrote ‘Street Fighting Man’, and where the former American Embassy - gilded aluminium eagle still intact - is currently being transformed, noisily, into a hotel. 

Around the corner on Duke Street is The Barley Mow, another recently tarted-up pub. Cubitt House, which runs perhaps half a dozen high-end boozers in West and Central London, re-opened this street-corner place in the autumn. Large glass windows, emblazoned with a variety of alluring slogans (‘Oysters & Pies’, ‘Cask Ales’, for eg) offer a view of the interior’s elegant fittings: large pendant lamps, pale-brown padded stools, a rich, dark-brown wooden bar.

(Quick historical note: Like the Audley, The Barley Mow has a slightly gruesome terrorist-related recent past. In 1978 Palestinian Terrorists murdered an Israeli air hostess, Irit Gidron, during an attack on a coach outside the adjacent Europa Hotel.) 

Inside, gentle jazz is noodling away in the background. At the bar, an American bar in a baseball cap is eating a pie and chatting in a genial and interesting way to the young women behind the bar. It’s quickly clear that he is very much at home here: when a 20-something man orders two packets of crisps and nothing else (apparently waiting for a pal to arrive), he makes sure he doesn’t leave the bar without a glass of water - and when a loud and very slightly obnoxious patron departs, he turns to the server and says, quietly and with perfect timing, “Imagine being his girlfriend.” 

I’m drinking Allsopps (£6.40). It’s in a good shape, albeit a touch cloudy - but it’s been cloudy both times I’ve had it, so maybe that’s just what it’s like. At the bar, the American guy and the barmaid are chatting about stem cell research. It’s the perfect London pub moment: utter calm, with Oxford Street and its teeming crowds - crowds which I am about to melt into - just yards away.

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Sitting Room Pub Crawl

Fancy a night out in London but can’t, for whatever reason, actually go out in London? You’re in luck. A game seeking to replicate the experience of a London pub crawl has been launched - as far as I can make out, you need to visit three pubs to win. Easy peasy. More information here.

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Borough of Beer

Battersea brewers Mondo has opened a beer and pizza venue at Borough Yards, the new development in the archways across the road from the old Barclay Perkins brewery. There are 14 taps pouring Mondo beer and one cider; pizza comes from Joe Public.

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Beer Admiral

The Admiralty on Trafalgar Square has been reopened following a fire last July. The pub, which owners Fuller’s describe as their flagship, opened its doors last Wednesday after London Fire Brigade Deputy Assistant Commissioner Greg Ashman and Soho firefighters helped Fuller’s Chief Executive Simon Emeny cut the ribbon. 

25 fire engines and around 125 firefighters battled the blaze last summer, with more than 150 people evacuated from the building. The renovated pub is powered completely by a “zero carbon energy source”, according to Fuller’s.

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London Beer City is written by journalist Will Hawkes. If you’ve got a story or an observation, contact me on londonbeercity@gmail.com. If you like what you’ve read, please share it with your friends; if you’ve been forwarded this email and enjoyed it, you can sign up here. Thanks for reading.