The Bermondsey Beer Mile: An Unofficial Introduction

For those of you who don't know: the Bermondsey Beer Mile is a loose amalgamation of brewery bars and bottle shops, located along a stretch of railway arch that's closer to two miles long nowadays. The one thing they have in common is that they're all open at roughly the same time on a Saturday afternoon, giving those of you who fancy some exercise the chance to indulge in a rather fine pub crawl. As long as you can find your way between all the bars, of course.

And this is the problem: because the Mile is something that's grown organically over a period of years, and there's no definitive central resource you can consult in order to find out where all the bars are. New ones keep opening, and old ones change location. Virtually all of the documentation of the Mile on the internet consists of one-off blog posts that quickly go out of date. I should know, as I wrote one of those myself back in 2014, and it's full of mistakes now.

(I'm Spank The Monkey, by the way: I've had an arts and entertainment review blog on the internet for over two decades. Most of the words you're going to see on here are mine, with additional contributions and photography by my pal The Belated Birthday Girl. If you're curious to see what the Mile looked like in olden days, here are some pictures The BBG took of it back in 2014.)

In the absence of any official site relating to the Mile, we've decided to start an unofficial one. We'll attempt to document all of the bars currently on the route, and how to get between them all: and whenever we hear about any changes we'll update the site as soon as we can. (You can help with this - feel free to drop us notes in the comments boxes if you find that anything's altered since we wrote about it. We've included links to the official sites of all the bars, which should hopefully have the most up-to-date information.)

Here's the route as it currently stands. (You could start at the other end and work in the opposite direction, but I'll explain why we're doing it this way round in the first post.) Links with distances in them will give you a map of how to get there: links with a bar name in bold will take you to a separate page with more details about it. Bars with an asterisk next to their name also brew beer on the same premises. It may be worth checking the individual Twitter feeds of the bars before heading out there, just to check their current status.

• Start at Maltby Street Market (not actually a bar, more of a pre-Mile breakfast location, though there are bars in the market too)
• Walk 170m to Southwark Brewing*, 46 Druid Street [Twitter]
• Walk 3m to Kanpai Taproom & Kitchen*, 48 Druid Street
• Walk 160m to The Barrel Project, 80 Druid Street [Twitter]
• Fabal Taproom, 88 Druid Street - full review to follow soon
• Walk 79m to Billy Franks Craft Beer & Snack Shack, 104 Druid Street [Twitter]
• Walk 81m to Hiver, 56 Stanworth Street [Twitter]
• Walk 150m to Anspach & Hobday, 118 Druid Street [Twitter]
• Walk 180m to It Ain't Much If It Ain't Dutch, 67-68 Enid Street
  
• Walk 30m to Moor Beer, 71 Enid Street [Twitter]
• Walk 15m to Gosnells, 72 Enid Street
• Walk 10m to Cloudwater, 73 Enid Street [Twitter]
• Walk 76m to Bianca Road*, 83-84 Enid Street [Twitter]
• Walk 19m to Craft Beer Junction, 86 Enid Street [Instagram]
• Walk 13m to Enid Street Tavern, 87 Enid Street
• Walk 25m to Mash Paddle Brewery*, 92 Enid Street [Twitter]
• Walk 270m to Old Jamaica Business Estate, 24 Old Jamaica Road (not actually a bar, but a useful halfway point for stopping to eat something)
• Walk 260m to The Kernel*, 132 Spa Road (ignore the map for now) [Twitter]
• Walk 1km to The Outpost – Three Hills Brewing*, 7 Almond Road [Twitter]
• Walk 26m to Battersea Brewery Substation*, 8 Almond Road
• Walk 130m to EeBria, 15 Almond Road [Twitter]
• Walk 550m to Fourpure*, 25 Bermondsey Trading Estate [Twitter] - closing down around September 19th 2024
  
• Walk 500m to Small Beer*, 70-72 Verney Road [Twitter]

In memoriam section:

• The Bottle Shop, 128 Druid Street - closed down March 2019
  
• uBrew, 29-30 Old Jamaica Business Estate, 24 Old Jamaica Road - closed down September 2019
• Affinity, 7 Almond Road - moved out July 2020
• London Calling Sweden, 72 Enid Street - closed down Spring 2021
• Hawkes Cider, 92/96 Druid Street - closed down January 2023, didn’t admit it till August 2023 
• Partizan, 34 Raymouth Road - moved out March 2023
• Brew By Numbers, 75/79 Enid Street - moved out May 2023
  
• Spartan, 8 Almond Road - closed down June 2023

News (15/09/2024)

Some major comings and goings to report - the relevant pages on the site will be updated when we can, but here are the headlines.

• As previously noted, Fourpure is just about to move its brewing operation out to Huddersfield: the news we've heard is that the taproom will shut up shop around September 20th, so you'll need to hurry if you want to pay them a final visit.
• Fabal Beerhall is now fully open at 88 Druid Street, serving up an interesting range of lagers. Full review to follow.
• The Kernel has moved! They'd been in their new location for at least a month before we found out about it, but they're now comfortably settled in at 132 Spa Road, just around the corner from the old Arch 7 taproom. I guess we need to redraw the map of the Mile again now.

[News Archive]

Comments

[Rebecca]

What a great guide! I vad heard though that some places vad starter being open Friday nights as well. Is this not the case?

[Richard]

New: Cloudwater taproom, 73 Enid Street, London, SE16 3RA

[SpankTM]

Rebecca - Yes, quite a few of the bars are open on multiple nights. Because all of them open on Saturday, and that's the traditional day when people do Beer Mile tours, we initially decided to just give the opening times for that day. We've now updated the pages to indicate which bars are open on other days of the week. Be sure to check with the bars themselves, though, as they do sometimes change their times without updating their websites (or without telling us, the self-obsessed rotters).

[SpankTM]

Richard - We're on it, thanks! See new Cloudwater post as of 28/12/2018.

[Sam]

This has been great! Thanks for this. Heading this weekend and wondering if you saw any sport/screens that might be showing the 6 nations in any of the places?

[SpankTM]

Sam - I think Hawkes would be your best bet: their upstairs room with big telly did a roaring trade during the World Cup last year, and it looks like they're planning to do the same with the rugby. https://www.facebook.com/events/1997523987213949/

The version of this comment I posted earlier today concluded with this sentence: "As far as I know, the only other bar on the Mile that's ever shown an interest in televised sport is London Calling Sweden, though I suspect that would only be useful here if Sweden suddenly became one of the Six Nations." Well, my apologies to the Swedes, because it looks like they're showing it too. https://londoncallingsweden.com/the-2019-six-nations/

[Clemmie Parrett]

Hi Bermondsey Beer Mile,

I handle the comms for Bone Daddies. I'm getting in touch to ask whether you can remove Bone Daddies Bermondsey from the Bermondsey Beer Mile? We are not a part of it, and it creates disappointment for those who read this and believe we are.

Thanks in advance,
Clemmie, Bone Daddies

[SpankTM]

Clemmie - hope you're happy with the compromise of keeping Bone Daddies in here, but making it clearer it's a restaurant rather than a brewery or bar. Don't forget to eat, readers!

[Jamie]

Good guide! I've been doing the Mile since it was just Kernel and Partizan but it changes so much these days even going several months between visits, so very useful to have a guide that is kept up-to-date.

For after-mile evening beers I could recommend The Other Room on Tower Bridge Road, and for food The Grange Pub although these are about a ten minute walk from the core of the Mile.

[Luke]

Bianca Road Brew Co have just moved to the mile as well. 83 Enid Street, putting them between Brew By Numbers and uBrew.

More info here... http://www.biancaroad.com and on their Instagram... https://www.instagram.com/biancaroadbrewco/

[Warren Joss]

Hi, is there many open on Monday 5th May around lunchtime? Cheers

[Warren Joss]

Monday 6th May, sorry

[SpankTM]

Luke - Thanks for letting us know. I've put a placeholder on this page for the new bar, and we'll pop round to review it at some point in the near future. Best of luck to them/you (delete as appropriate).

[SpankTM]

Warren - My guess would be that most of them will be closed - a lot of them don't open on Mondays anyway, and it wouldn't make much difference whether it was a Bank Holiday or not. Bear in mind a lot of these places are working breweries first, bars second, and they like to take holidays too! Still, each bar is a separate case and will have their own plans. Probably best to check their individual websites and associated social media feeds and see what their plans are.

[Warren]

Cheers thanks for your reply chum

[Kat]

Would there be a map of this somewhere?

[SpankTM]

Kat - Full maps of the Mile do exist out there - like this one https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1qOln6LfuHW_qZWVVvWzA6-rYlHQ&ll=51.498415722518835%2C-0.07049506088253565&z=16 - but our thinking was that it's far too big and rapidly-changing nowadays for a single map to cover it sensibly. That's why we've chosen to plot a series of individual maps between one bar and the next - click on the distance figures above to pull those up.

[Cllr Humaira Ali]

I'm a local Councillor and whilst it's fantastic to have loads of businesses in the area, the creation of the 'beer mile' has given untold stress to local residents. There is increased noise, antisocial behaviour, danger for young children and a broad cumulative impact from some loud and leery revellers. We are working with businesses and the first order will be to rename it away from the beer mile. Whoever is visiting the area, please show the utmost consideration to residents and keep noise to a minimum. You wouldn't want to experience what my residents have to ensure. Residents with PTSD, sensory disorders are now under greater medical supervision.

To those that run this site. Nice idea and helpful but I'd respectfully ask you to rename away from the beer mile. Happy to work with you when this area is rebranded.

[Bermondsey Lido]

You forgot the small beer Brewing company in verney road.

I live near Enid St, just off Spa Road. I think the arches are nice and glad to see breweries there.

[Bethany Sinclair]

Super useful guide, I was wondering how many of the locations are wheelchair accessible?
Thanks :)

[Johnnybeerboy]

How long would you recommend allotting to do the mile? And what time would you recommend starting? I know these are subjective but let’s say at an average pace, what time start/how long to take do you think?

[Felipe]

HI. Thanks for the info. I couldn't find a map so I created one with all the sites that you have here, feel free to use it (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_r59dPFklcoM7enogO-g4bUzYaGdtRDE&usp=sharing).

[Dave M]

Hop Kingdom is another small bar with its own skate park at 16 Druid Street. Only 2 beers and very much geared towards the skaters, no onsite brewery but a nice little bar.

[Amy Nightingale]

Hi, does anyone know if the mile is starting to open up again with restrictions easing??

[Chris]

One to add to the list would be No Boring Beer on Tower Bridge Road: https://no-boring-beer.com/