Good piece this. As Will, says, strip pubs where common in the past. And all kind of pubs had them, especially ones with black or Asian gaffers like the Angel in Brixton I explored here www.goodbeerhunting.com/blog/2023/7/...

Eclectic Avenues — How London’s First Black Pub Landlords Changed the City’s Drinking Culture — Good Beer Hunting

The HMT Empire Windrush has become a fitting symbol of the plight of Black Britain. The ship—which transported 1,027 passengers and two stowaways from Jamaica on June 22, 1948, a journey whose 75t...

goodbeerhunting.com

Will Hawkes@willhawkes.bsky.social · 2mo ago

June’s @londonbeercity.bsky.social is going out this weekend. Featuring the death of London’s strip pubs, Spoons at the Trocadero and a Diego Maradona rug in a beer bar. Sign up here to read it today www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

June’s @londonbeercity.bsky.social is going out this weekend. Featuring the death of London’s strip pubs, Spoons at the Trocadero and a Diego Maradona rug in a beer bar. Sign up here to read it today www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

New @londonbeercity.bsky.social today, featuring all the usual pub and beer stuff - in particular Macintosh Ales, the Wild Swan & Deptford’s arty side. Sign up here: www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

New @londonbeercity.bsky.social out today, in which I ask: is there a future for London-brewed beer? Featuring the brewery that sacked staff before Xmas, the brewery that went back to contract-brewing and - shock! - the brewery opening this year. Sign up here: www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

New @londonbeercity.bsky.social out this weekend. Featuring: - what does ‘Irish pub’ mean in modern London? - crunch-time for Ye Olde Swiss Cottage - who is London’s top porter producer? - trifle and darts in East Dulwich Sign up here: www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

There's a new @londonbeercity.bsky.social out today, focusing on an amazing flat-roof pub in Hammersmith that may or may not be re-opening. It's got this bull outside. If that has wetted your appetite - and how could it not? - please sign up and I'll fire it over www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

Have I really been so carelessly provocative? 😲 There's only one way to find out. Sign up here: www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

Jeff Alworth@beervana.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Re: @willhawkes.bsky.social’s newsletter linked below, a comment on Will’s note here: “In some (v important) ways Guinness is more British than Irish, more London than Dublin.” Wasn’t there some historic disagreement about the question of Ireland’s Britishness? Tickles some distant memory…

There is, incredibly, a new @londonbeercity.bsky.social tomorrow. It features Guinness' belated arrival in Covent Garden, London pubs owned by London breweries, the new venue for LCBF, The Lady magazine and lots more. Sign up here: www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

Last month's @londonbeercity.bsky.social is now online, featuring the LBA beer festival, various comings and goings, & what remains of the Firkin chain. Peace out www.willhawkes.net/blog/2025/10...

There is a new @londonbeercity.bsky.social out today, featuring the King's Road and a pub called the Queen Charlotte. You can get it for free by signing up here: www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

When someone calls a pub an institution, there are always detractors. But we can't think of a single person who wouldn't agree that The Dog & Bell is exactly that. Will Hawkes joins us again for an insight into Deptford's most beloved pub. www.pelliclemag.com/home/2025/9/...

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out — The Dog and Bell in Deptford, London — Pellicle

On a Friday night in early December, Deptford’s Dog and Bell is Christmas as imagined by a Haribo-addled toddler.  A huge resin Santa, grinning merrily in his sleigh, squats in Prince Street out...

pelliclemag.com

I’ve written for @pelliclemag.com about the Dog and Bell, a unique pub whose evolution over the past 40 years nevertheless illustrates the story of modern London pubs. It’s here: www.pelliclemag.com/home/2025/9/...

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out — The Dog and Bell in Deptford, London — Pellicle

On a Friday night in early December, Deptford’s Dog and Bell is Christmas as imagined by a Haribo-addled toddler.  A huge resin Santa, grinning merrily in his sleigh, squats in Prince Street out...

pelliclemag.com

June, which includes information about both Thamesmead and Lord's. www.willhawkes.net/blog/june2025

May, featuring a sickly Sloaney Pony. www.willhawkes.net/blog/may2025

And April. www.willhawkes.net/blog/2025/10...

You'll be delighted to hear that I've finally got around to putting some back copies of @londonbeercity.bsky.social on my website. Here's March: www.willhawkes.net/blog/2025/ma...

New @londonbeercity.bsky.social today, featuring: - The London Brewers Alliance festival at Bird House - what’s it like being a small brewery in London today? - V interesting pub reopenings, eg Florist in E2 - The original Firkin pubs, 46 years on! Sign up here: www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

England’s 500 Best Pubs now exists in print form, courtesy of today’s Telegraph Magazine. It’s an edited version, chopped up into sections (best beer, most historic etc) and nicely illustrated.

The beauty of cask ale, my latest for the Telegraph. Featuring the Limeburners, one of the great rural Lancashire boozers: www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/409a9e8...

Cask ale is one of Britain’s greatest inventions – and could be making a comeback

Long prized by locals and rediscovered by a new generation, this time-honoured traditional tipple is full of character and flavour

telegraph.co.uk

There is a new @londonbeercity.bsky.social this week, featuring: - The Trafalgar Ale House & the threat to London's pubs - London's Czech beer problem - 40ft's inexorable rise - Temple Brewhouse goes underground - Other stuff 🤷‍♀️ Sign up here to get it tomorrow: www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

I've spent the past few months researching and writing (what I think is) the biggest pub guide ever published by a national newspaper (50,000 words!) - and today its been published! www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/best-...

The 500 best pubs in England

Use our tool to find the perfect pub nearest to you

telegraph.co.uk

Here’s a very European story. A London brewery, set up by Germans and Italians & making Franconian-style beer, is now selling lager back to the Germans - and everywhere else in Europe, too, if they get their way. How? Here’s how:

Pellicle@pelliclemag.com · last yr.

“I’m quite obsessive...I want every detail to be perfect. A desire to replicate German brewing culture in the UK, that’s what drives me.” Come with @willhawkes.bsky.social to Elephant & Castle to meet the German Kraft team, booming in a time of bust. www.pelliclemag.com/home/2025/6/...

Brewers are fretting about tariffs on US hops - but after a few more years of Trump, will London drinkers want anything American?

Will Hawkes@willhawkes.bsky.social · last yr.

New @londonbeercity.bsky.social out today, featuring: - Trump Juice: will Londoners lose their taste for American-style beer? - Brew By Numbers & Brick in Yorkshire - The licensing change that could revolutionise London pubs … & lots more Sign up here, it’s free: www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

New @londonbeercity.bsky.social out today, featuring: - Trump Juice: will Londoners lose their taste for American-style beer? - Brew By Numbers & Brick in Yorkshire - The licensing change that could revolutionise London pubs … & lots more Sign up here, it’s free: www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

Hackney Brewery is closing. They blame Waltham Forest council, who have made a CVA agreed 9 months ago ‘unworkable’. This follows the closure of their taproom three weeks ago

New @londonbeercity.bsky.social coming at the end of this week. Featuring - the brewery that conquered London by stealth - Beamish is back - pub news in TW1, SE18, SW11 & E17 - the first night of a new regime at SE London’s best pub 😮 Subscribe here: www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

This month's edition is coming up a week on Friday, so why not sign up now to ensure you don't miss any of the fun? Amazingly, it's free 😮 www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

New pubs, closed breweries, an absolute gobshite. All feature in last month's @londonbeercity.bsky.social, which is now online here: www.willhawkes.net/blog/2025/3/...

February: Pubs Go Back to Basics, Bermondsey Blues and Australia's Boldest Boozer — Will Hawkes

What’s Old Is New Adrian Kinsella carefully extracts a series of nails attaching a sheet to a wall in Stoke Newington’s Coach and Horses. He then lifts the sheet, exposing the wall behind it - and, ...

willhawkes.net

Hope Stonegate don't radically change it, it's a wedge-shaped gem! Award-winning, listed, nationally important historic interior.

Will Hawkes@willhawkes.bsky.social · last yr.

Con, landlord of the v popular Blythe Hill Tavern in SE London, is leaving at the end of the month after the best part of 40 years. It‘s a Stonegate pub, so there’s a risk it could change radically … which may explain why it was even more lively then normal this evening

Last month's @londonbeercity.bsky.social is now available to read, if you like. You can also sign up (www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...) and get this month's edition delivered directly to your inbox. www.willhawkes.net/blog/2025/2/...