Location: 7 Almond Road
Saturday opening hours: 1300-2300
Other days: Sunday 1300-1700, Friday 1600-2300
Official site: https://www.threehillsbrewing.com/
Last updated: 10/08/2022
“One whole kilometre from The Kernel to here! Why, it's almost as if this bar crawl is really two separate bar crawls with a huge hike joining the two. Anyway, that was the longest bit of walking you'll need to do, as Almond Road has a few stops mere yards from each other, and all the rest after that aren't too far away.”
That’s how our write-up of Affinity used to start back when they used to occupy this railway arch, and there’s no reason to change it now. Although it’s worth pointing out that the one kilometre I mentioned back there now includes a couple of places along the way that seem to be trying to hitch onto the coattails of the Mile. The Blue Anchor pub - the one you pass as you turn onto Southwark Park Road - now loudly boasts that it’s part of the Craft Union group, even though all the beer the group serves is complete macro shite. Meanwhile, there’s also a new bottle shop opened just across the road called Pitcher And Craft, which thankfully at least means it when they say ‘craft’. It’s got a fine collection of beers to take away in both shelves and fridges, and if you want to hang around it’s also got a couple of seats and a few taps of both beer and wine.
Meanwhile over at Almond Road, Affinity have moved out and are now operating out of the Grosvenor Arms in Brixton. The new occupants of their arch are Three Hills Brewing, and despite moving in in the middle of a global pandemic they made the space their own fairly quickly. When we first visited back in June 2021 they had seventeen lines of beer (nine of their own plus eight guests), a tank full of their house saison, some beautifully designed glassware (The BBG’s a big fan of the brewery’s logo), and attentive staff (including a man that we think was Andy Threehills himself) making their way round the tables to get a handle on what sort of drinkers they were attracting. The table next to us had four women who were demanding he brewed more tonka beers, which gives you a feel for the answer to that question.
The beers they actually offer are a varied and interesting bunch, although we were initially thrown by the appearance of an 11% monster on the menu which, on closer inspection, turned out to be prosecco. At least that was the case in 2021. When we revisited the place in 2022, it was quite satisfyingly rammed, to the extent that you couldn’t get to the bar – and as they appear to still be keeping their taplist on pandemic-era paper on clipboards, we’ve still no idea what the range looks like now. But we’ll be back at some point to find out.
One more way in which both this bar and Spartan next door are subtly acknowledging how far away this bit of the Mile is from the rest of it: they both have very, very clear signage for their toilets, on the assumption that many people will have filled up on beer and walked a kilometre immediately before arriving there.
Now walk 26m to Battersea Brewery Substation ----->
<----- or go back 1km to The Kernel
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