Hackney & Bethnal Green Craft Beer Pub Tour

East London has a wide range of pubs and brewery tap rooms. This is a tour starting in Hackney Wick and working back towards the city centre. The route is about 4 miles end to end - but it is designed to follow the bus route 388 - so you can easily hop on and off the bus which tracks near all the pubs listed.

 

Hackney Wick 

 

Beer Merchants

Beer Merchants - Bar

In Hackney Wick - start at the new Beer Merchants Tap room  - ticking everything on a craft beer bar check list - exposed brickwork, dangly industrial lights, cable trays, rough planking and a tap wall - its a great new asset to the Hackney beer scene. A decent range of keg and bottle beers and helpful staff in a spacious and airy re-purposed industrial space


A short walk away is a brace of bars which are now must-do sites for a London beer geek:

First off try CRATE - true hipster location on the canal, alternative living and anti-establishment house boats abound. Sit on the terrace watching the bikes and boats drift by. The actual brewery is across the yard and supplies most

CRATE

of the beers in the bar, including a decent range of cask beers and keg from other London makers.

Within shouting distance across Queens Yard is the tank bar - Howling Hops Claiming to be the first dedicated tank bar in the UK - a selection of all in house brewed beers served direct from the tanks behind the bar. Long Teutonic style benches in rough industrial chic.

The Mason and Co is just north of here if you want fancy street-style food and craft beer.

Victoria Park Road

 

Heading back towards Bethnal Green you could try: The People's Park Tavern or the Hemingway
Or alternatively walk the canal tow path - round from CRATE towards Bethnal Green; a pleasant stroll past Victoria Park to emerge on the Cambridge Heath Road.

Mare Street

Try the London Fields Tap Room or the Forest Road Brew Co Tap Room

 

Cambridge Heath Road 

Mother Kellys

Redchurch Brewery Tap Room - Tucked away off the main road, a London classic micro brewery: in a railway arch with the ubiquitous white corrugated ceiling liner and plenty of pallet wood on show. But a real gem of a tap room and open pretty  convenient hours. Near by is the essential stop on any craft beer tour: Mother Kelly's. A long row of fridges hold all sorts of bottle beers and a menu gives access to the 20+ taps on the back wall.

Bethnal Green Road

Old St Brewery

Old St Brewery Tank Bar

A tucked away little treat is the Old Street Brewery Tap Room - follow the passage to the side of the railway and yes its a planking and white corrugated plastic trimmed tap room. But small batch brews are sold from mini serving tanks behind the bar. The enthusiastic staff talk you through their beers and clearly enjoy what they do. Outdoor seating along the passage mixes with second hand furniture and other local traders.

There is whole street of interesting pubs along Bethnal Green Road - Sun Tavern, Star of Bethnal Green, and tucked up a side road the Three Sods Taproom

The Kings Arms is a London modern-traditional-hipster pub - old school Victorian meets multi-tap keg emporium.

Back on the main road is the quirky Well and Bucket - faded elegance of fine crumbling tiles climbing up the pock marked walls to high ceilings.

If you are feeling peckish now - its a handy detour down Brick Lane for a world of food choices. 

 
Follow up with a beer at the Williams Ale and Cider house or the Craft Beer Co St Marys Axe