Ten years ago, with the range of beers they offer today, the Red Lion in Leytonstone or the Bull in Highgate would have been among the best pubs in London. Now, while certainly way better than run-of-the-mill, they merely count as friendly neighbourhood craft beer bars.
That’s right: every neighbourhood in London now seems to have a craft beer bar and many (like the Bull) are also brewing. Everywhere you look, there are enamel signs advertising Orval and glowing neon Brooklyn Brewery logos. These days, you’re never more than a bus ride from a pint of Dark Star or a Camden Helles.
These kinds of places seem (thank God) to be replacing the kind of ‘style bars’ or ersatz ‘gastropubs’ which were everywhere until recently and which had snobbery without the saving grace of exciting beer. They were the kinds of places where you would be charged a fiver for a pint of stale Erdinger wheat beer or four quid for a pint of UK-brewed San Miguel; now, for that money, you get beers that are (arguably) worth the asking price.
There’s more detail on each of these pubs to follow in subsequent posts. Suffice to say we liked them all the more for their localness: drinking in them didn’t feel like a trip to Beerworld, Britain’s newest theme park.
Tags: camden, craft beer bars, dark star, red lion e11, the bull highgate
You’ve written off beer world without even trying it! Think of the the log flume. Or the house of horrors – bottles of skunked old speckled hen jump out at you.
If you build it they will come….
Am I the only person that finds “craft beer bar” even more cringe-worthy than gastropub? What’s wrong with “beer pub”? And why do I only write in quastions?
I think so Ron.
Ron — like any marketing term it grates after about the third repetition, but it nonetheless accurately and helpfully describes a thing that exists, whether people like it or not…
We’ve imported the phrase “craft beer” from The States, where it does have a meaning I think. It’s not the perfect phrase for the UK, but it’s up to us all to come up with something better.
The phrase that really winds me up is “real ale”, instaed of “cask beer”
If there were a Beerworld, which pubco or chain or global entertainment corporation would run it? I think an American company would be funniest. Americans tend not to have any expectations about our beer, but luuurve our traditional hostelries. After all the fake Paddy pubs and their ilk, I’d like to see a chain of Olde Englishe Tavernes imagined by an American.
Sid — always slightly intrigued by the English pubs you occasionally see in Spain and France — “The John Bull”, with red phone box outside…
Sid – they would end up looking like hobbit holes if an american chain were doing a ‘ye olde englishe’ style pub – or worse, wetherspoons!
I’m sorry we forgot to mention the pub at Piper’s Creek. This is unacceptable. We will look closely at our processes and procedures, and undertake staff training, to make sure this doesn’t happen again.