Location: Maltby Street
Opening hours: Saturday 1000-1700
Other days: Sunday 1100-1600
Official site: http://www.maltby.st/
Last updated: 21/01/2024
Once upon a time, people used to describe the Bermondsey Beer Mile as a route that started at the Fourpure brewery and ended at Anspach & Hobday. These days, hardly anyone does that. Without wishing to blow our own trumpet, it looks like enough people have copied our own description of the route - going in the opposite direction - for it to become the standard one. Also, Fourpure to A&H might well have worked back in 2014, when there were only five or six places on the route that sold booze. There are now well over a dozen, a figure I'm keeping deliberately vague because it keeps changing all the time. If you attempt to drink a pint at all of them over the course of a single Saturday afternoon, you could possibly die.
Here's the biggest advantage of starting at the other end of the Mile: most of the bars aren't open till at least 11am, so you may as well kick off with a decent breakfast. Maltby Street Market has multiple food options available along its length. Back in the day, The Cheese Truck was our personal favourite, selling enormous grilled cheese sandwiches that were absolutely perfect as pre-beer dining. By its nature, though, a market can be a rather fluid thing, and its stalls will move around and change from time to time. These days, The Cheese Truck has moved on, with its owners' latest project being a Cheese Barge moored on the Regent's Canal. (If you're still looking for a cheese toastie, the Moon Cheese stall is your best bet now.)
Since we first launched this site, Maltby Street Market has expanded past the north end of the Ropewalk and up to the top of the street. (Although the market expands and contracts as required. For example, in January 2022 there seemed to be fewer stalls than previously - possibly down to the pandemic, possibly down to the weather. In December 2023, they were back up to full strength again.) If you want to find out what's on offer at Maltby Street right now, their website appears to be reasonably up to date. There's a distinction drawn between the traders (the people who run the stalls which could change from week to week) and the arches (the more permanent establishments located underneath the railway).
Of the traders who are there at the time of writing, our current favourite is Bangers Catering (aka That's Banging), who'll sell you all sorts of variations on meat and veggie sausages, and even throw in some free ones for your dog: and you've also got Viv's Coffee close by for something to drink with them. Of the operators in the arches, we have a soft spot for Taylor's Of Maltby Street as a decent greengrocer's more geared towards stuff you can take home and cook yourself. Lots of other foodie places are available: Comptoir Gourmand and WatchHouse Roastery at opposite ends of the market if you just want coffee and a nibble, The Beefsteaks if you're looking for cow and chips, and everything in between.
You can even start your drinking for the day inside the market, thanks to the Malt Craft Beer concession. But maybe get something to line the stomach first, eh?
Now walk 170m to Southwark Brewing --->
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