Peckham Levels Bar, SE15

Official site of Peckham Levels Bar - peckhamlevels.org

Official site of Peckham Levels Bar - peckhamlevels.org

Set in the rather unique location of the Peckham Levels complex – a former multi-storey car park converted into office space with bars, restaurants, street food stall sand a live music venue – this is a rather basic craft beer bar in the heart of the complex’s food and drink area on floor 6. The bar supports twelve keg taps, half of which were set aside for mainstream brands whilst the remainder were dispensing beers from the London Beer Factory brewery. I gave their American Pale Ale a try and was served a typically cold pint of beer by one of the fairly inattentive members of staff. It was at least presented in a proper glass and not the plastic vessel I was expecting. The bar has a simple L-shaped servery over to one side of the extremely large space it finds itself in, with just a solitary neon sign betraying its identity. You are pretty much free to take your beer anywhere you like on the floor – there is ample communal seating for people to utilise, allowing a group of friends to all buy their food and drink from different outlets and then come together around one of the large yellow benches to eat together. There are also some highly uncomfortable metal stools along one row of former parking bays, which serve some wonky looking tables and a drinking ledge. Peckham Levels is an unusual and interesting enterprise which is worth having a quick look around to see the innovative use of space that has been made here and if you’re going to grab a quick pint whilst you’re snooping around, I would say this is your best bet, being the only place I could find that wasn’t limited to mainstream brands.