Art & Craft CR0, Croydon

Attracted by the prominent "Good Beer" A-board outside, I ventured in to find a characterful craft bar which manages to carry off the industrial feel, brightened by some pop art prints. There are two levels inside, with a tiny bar, while the outside seating area is in a pretty squalid corner off the street but is there nonetheless. A fair range of craft beers were on tap - as pricey as you might expect but at least in very good nick. Not an unpleasant place.

Heading up the steps from the Dog & Bull towards the Spreadeagle, we noticed this craft beer pub on a corner and similar to the previous reviewer, we decided to give it a try. This is a modern bar spread over a couple of levels, with the bar on the higher level. Once again, we were the only customers, but the barman/owner was friendly and happy to chat. Whilst there was no sign of any handpulls or cask ales, the craft beer selection was decent - New Bristol What Time Is Love, Saltaire Triple Choc, Top Rope American Dream, First Chop Brewing Arm USA, Park The Art of Surrey Street, Omnipollo Dank Dank Dank, Anspach & Hobday The Passion Fruit Sour & London Black & Laine Neon Angel. In addition, there was a cider. This was St Ives Godrevy Gold, a new one for me. Not a bad impromptu addition to our crawl.

I almost walked past this bar, not spotting till the last minute but glad I didn't. I can't add to PSMs description of the pub below but I was far more impressed with the place than he seemed to be at the time. There were three cask beers on and around ten craft beers on tap along with cans and bottles available from the fridge. I had a couple of beers here, Anspach & Hobday London Black and Pig & Porter Cabin By The Sea. A definite for another visit.

The newest addition to Croydon’s pub scene, this is a small, split-level bar on Surrey Street Market which specialises in craft beer. You enter past a compact, fenced-off outdoor seating area with basic garden furniture into a concrete floored bar area which forms the rear part of the bar. A small wood plank counter along the back wall acts as the servery and there is a stainless steel bar back which in true craft beer bar fashion, sports all the beer taps. Opposite the bar, a row of high stools are lined up along a drinking ledge which forms the barrier beyond which is the lower front part of the room, giving a good view out of the large front windows to the market beyond. The front area can be reached via a flight of metal stairs at the far end of the room. They lead you down to a concrete floored seating area with banquettes and low stools along the back wall and high stools and drinking ledges under the windows. The room has exposed brick walls, bare light bulbs and shuttered windows, making it much of a muchness when compared to other craft beer venues, although this place’s USP is that it promotes the work of local artists by displaying their pieces on the walls. These bright bits of contemporary art brighten up an otherwise quite functional space and my only grip would be that they seemed mainly limited to one wall, when there are plenty of other spaces that need filling. The eight taps on the bar back offer four craft keg beers, three wines and one cider. The beers were from Moor, Ink Spot, Brewdog and Magic Rock and all were priced at decidedly Croydon-unfriendly levels. I tried the Moor Destination F Pale Ale, which I am told is a rare find, but needs to be more than that to justify the £6.80 a pint price tag. It was decent enough, but certainly didn’t merit that kind of price – who knows what the local market traders make of this sort of thing? This place offers a combination of small batch beer and local art that sounds great on paper but was decidedly underwhelming in reality. I felt that the bar was aimed at the influx of new young professionals Croydon is trying to attract but is insensitively positioned in the old market area of town. This chain has a few other branches around South London and I’ll be interested to see if the same problems persist in these too or whether over time the Croydon branch might align itself more with it surroundings.

Official site of Art & Craft CR0 - www.artandcraft.london

Official site of Art & Craft CR0 - www.artandcraft.london