Best Craft Beer Bars in London

Saturday lunchtime under the railway viaduct between London Bridge and South Bermondsey is the closest thing British beer has to a pilgrimage. Around twenty breweries and taprooms open their arch doors along the Bermondsey Beer Mile, and drinkers work the route in loose procession while trains rattle overhead. No other city grew a beer district out of Victorian railway infrastructure.

The habit started with The Kernel, which Evin O'Riordain founded in a Bermondsey arch in 2009. Within a decade his example had helped inspire roughly a hundred microbreweries across the capital. The arches were cheap, the trains were loud, and the pale ales changed British brewing.

London's scene now runs on two tracks. There are brewery taprooms in Bermondsey, Walthamstow and Tottenham, and there are proper bars, from a tiny Borough Market pioneer to a Kentish Town cask specialist that CAMRA keeps garlanding.

This guide ranks the venues worth crossing zones for. Below are the districts, the styles and the timing that separate a great session from a locked taproom door.

Bermondsey

The Beer Mile runs from the Druid Street arches near London Bridge down to South Bermondsey station, a walkable stretch of around twenty breweries and taprooms. Saturday is the one day everything opens at once, which is why the route fills with tasting glasses by early afternoon. The Kernel, which moved its brewing to the Spa Terminus arches on Dockley Road in 2012, shares the viaduct with Anspach & Hobday, Moor Beer and Fourpure.

Start from London Bridge station, about fifteen minutes on foot from the first arch, or from Bermondsey on the Jubilee line. Maltby Street Market sits alongside the northern end and settles the food question. Walking south means you finish near South Bermondsey rail station rather than doubling back.

Borough and London Bridge

Borough Market's beer credentials predate the arch breweries. The Rake, a tiny bar on Winchester Walk run by the people behind the Utobeer market stall, calls itself London's original beer bar and has the tap list to argue the case. It makes a natural first or last stop before the walk south into Bermondsey.

London Bridge station carries the Jubilee and Northern lines plus National Rail, so this is the easiest corner of this page to reach. It is also the most crowded on market days.

Walthamstow and Hackney

The Blackhorse Beer Mile is east London's answer to Bermondsey, a cluster of breweries around Blackhorse Lane in Walthamstow. Wild Card Brewery, founded in 2012, outgrew its original site near Walthamstow Village and crowdfunded a larger brewery on Lockwood Way, where the Wild Card Brewery Taproom now pours. Signature Brew, a brewery built around music that collaborates with bands and stages live sets at its Signature Brew Taproom, anchors the Blackhorse Road end.

Exale, Beerblefish and Hackney Brewery's High Hill taproom fill out the strip. Blackhorse Road station, on the Victoria line and the Overground, lands you at one end; St James Street Overground covers the other.

Tottenham

Beavertown expanded its brewing to Tottenham Hale in 2014, and the Beavertown Tottenham Taproom still pours Neck Oil and Gamma Ray at the source. Logan Plant founded the brewery in 2011 and Heineken took full ownership in 2022, so this is craft at industrial scale rather than an arch operation. The company also runs a microbrewery inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and reopened the nearby Corner Pin pub in 2021.

Tottenham Hale sits on the Victoria line and National Rail. Match days transform the whole district, for better and worse.

Shoreditch and Bethnal Green

East of the City, the drinking happens in bars rather than breweries. Mikkeller Bar Shoreditch brings the Danish brewery's rotating taps to Hackney Road, while BrewDog Shoreditch holds down Bethnal Green Road with the Scottish brewer's own kegs and a long guest wall.

Ten minutes further east, Mother Kelly's Bethnal Green fills a railway arch on Paradise Row with more than twenty taps and fridges of bottles to drink in or take away. Bethnal Green is on the Central line; Shoreditch High Street and Cambridge Heath Overground stations handle the rest.

What makes a great craft beer bar in London

The first test is range with judgement. A great London bar keeps cask in good condition alongside keg craft, because the Campaign for Real Ale has defended real ale since 1971 and the tradition still matters here. Tapping the Admiral in Kentish Town, a repeat CAMRA North London Pub of the Year on Castle Road, shows how much loyalty a serious cask lineup can build.

The second is rotation. The city brews too much good beer for a static list, so look for boards that change weekly and staff who can tell you what arrived that morning. A bar pouring Kernel Table Beer, a 3 per cent pale brewed weekly, understands that low strength and full flavour are not opposites.

The third is honesty about what London actually does well. The city's hazy pales were once dismissed as London murky, a put-down aimed squarely at The Kernel and its peers, and the joke aged badly once haze became the default across modern British IPA. Bars that backed those beers early tend to have the sharpest lists now.

Finally, the room itself counts for less than you would think. Railway arches are cold in January and loud always, yet they beat plenty of comfortable bars, because the beer travels metres rather than miles. The venues ranked here earn their places with beer first and furniture second.

Planning your night

Check opening days before you travel. Many brewery taprooms keep limited midweek hours and reserve full service for the weekend, and Saturday is the only day the whole Bermondsey Beer Mile opens together. Bars in Shoreditch, Borough and Kentish Town trade all week.

For the Beer Mile, start early and commit to a direction. Walking south from London Bridge towards South Bermondsey keeps the building crowds behind you, and Maltby Street Market solves lunch near the top of the route. Order thirds or halves if you want to finish the mile upright.

Taprooms rarely take table bookings, so groups larger than six should split up or aim for the bigger halls in Walthamstow and Tottenham. City bars are another matter; Friday evenings around Borough Market and Shoreditch tighten early, and the smallest rooms fill first. Book where booking exists and arrive before six where it does not.

Public transport does the heavy lifting. The Victoria line covers both Blackhorse Road and Tottenham Hale, the Overground threads Shoreditch High Street, St James Street and Cambridge Heath together, and the Jubilee line serves Bermondsey. Clear your empties back to the bar in the arches; the staff pouring your beer are often brewing in the same building the next morning, and the goodwill gets repaid.

Do the Bermondsey Beer Mile once, on a Saturday, and get there before the queues form; it remains the single best day out in British beer. But the venues we rate highest year-round are the rooms you can rely on midweek.

Mother Kelly's Bethnal Green is the most complete craft bar in the city, The Rake is the best small one, and Tapping the Admiral is the cask pub the keg bars should study. The arches gave London its beer revolution; the bars are where you drink it in comfort.

Where can I find the best craft beer near me in London?

The densest options sit south and east. Bermondsey's railway arches hold the longest run of brewery taprooms in the country, Bethnal Green and Shoreditch cover the bar side, Walthamstow's Blackhorse Beer Mile handles east London taprooms, and Tottenham Hale pours Beavertown at the source. For cask rather than keg, head north to Kentish Town, and use our craft beer bars near me tool to sort every ranked venue by distance from where you are standing.

Which area of London is best for a brewery taproom crawl?

Bermondsey, and specifically on a Saturday, when the twenty or so breweries and taprooms along the Beer Mile open together. The route runs from the Druid Street arches near London Bridge down to South Bermondsey station, passing The Kernel, Anspach & Hobday, Moor Beer and Fourpure along the viaduct. Walthamstow's Blackhorse Beer Mile makes a quieter second crawl with room to sit down; our London guide covers both ends of town.

Which independent London breweries should I look for?

Start with The Kernel, the Bermondsey brewery Evin O'Riordain founded in 2009 that helped inspire around a hundred London microbreweries within a decade. In Walthamstow, Wild Card has brewed independently since 2012, Signature Brew builds its beers around music, and Exale and Hackney Brewery fill out the Blackhorse strip, while Anspach & Hobday remains a Bermondsey arch stalwart. Beavertown, for all its Tottenham roots, has been fully owned by Heineken since 2022; our craft beer guides explain how we weigh independence.

What beer styles does London do best?

Two things above all. The hazy pale ale, sneered at as London murky when The Kernel and its peers first poured it, went on to become the template for modern British IPA, and drinking it days-fresh in a brewery taproom is the point of the exercise. The city also keeps cask alive; CAMRA has campaigned for real ale since 1971, and low-strength beers such as Kernel Table Beer, a 3 per cent pale influenced by British cask tradition, show the two schools feeding each other.

When do London craft beer bars get busy, and should I book?

Saturday afternoon is peak everywhere that brews, with Bermondsey's arches filling from early afternoon, and Friday after work packs Borough and Shoreditch. Taprooms mostly run walk-in only, so large groups should target the bigger halls in Walthamstow and Tottenham rather than squeezing into a Bermondsey arch. Midweek is the quiet option for the bars, though many taprooms keep limited weekday hours or stay shut entirely, so check each venue's own listings before you cross town.

Can you do the Bermondsey Beer Mile on a Sunday?

Partially. Most taprooms along the route also open on Sundays and some on weekday evenings, but Saturday remains the only day the whole mile pours at once, so a Sunday visit means planning around gaps. Pick a shorter stretch of the viaduct, confirm that week's openings on each brewery's own site, and remember that walking south from London Bridge leaves you near South Bermondsey station at the finish.