Hop Kingdom, Bermondsey, SE1

Facebook page of Hop Kingdom - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Hop Kingdom - www.facebook.com

Standard arch unit with the added noise of the skate ramp

Another Bermondsey railway arch brewery, this time towards the London Bridge end of the beer mile, but with a highly unusual USP, inasmuch as it has a skating ramp at the far end of the room. The arch is set back a little way from the road, so there were a few skaters out the front practising tricks in the loading bay area as I made my way inside. You enter the arch to find the usual format of concrete floor and metal clad wall and ceiling, with the bar midway down the right-hand wall. High tables and stools appear immediately to your left, whilst some space to the right of the entrance has been set aside for people to dump their bikes and skateboards. The servery has a blue padded counter front and a metal clad bar back with some small shelving units and the keg taps mounted on it. A load of t-shirts and skater related merchandise was hung on display to one side of the bar and there was some sort of spare parts display at the end of the counter, so skaters are pretty well served if something should break whilst they’re here. Opposite the bar, plenty of canteen bench style seating is available, under a large Hop Kingdom banner, whilst to the rear, the skate ramp is a great, unique feature that was in constant use and generates a hell of a lot of noise in this arch devoid of any kind of soft furnishings. The unisex toilets are worth a look for the toilet roll holders made from sideways mounted skateboards, with the rols hung from the decks. Skater tunes played throughout my stay and I was a little surprised to see that there was a good mix of ages represented in the clientele. Just the two home brewed beers were available on keg - Hop Kingdom Pale Ale and Pale Ale CBD (5% CBD apparently). I tried the former and thought it was a pretty average example of the style. Maybe I should have tried the more intriguing sounding alternative. This is a very unusual place to come for a beer and sadly lets itself down a little with a rather uninspiring house beer. I really enjoyed watching the kids doing their thing in the halfpipe - a very entertaining way to while away a bit of time, but I’m not sure there was enough here to make me consider a revisit.

Mostly an indoor skateboarding facility underneath the railway arches between London Bridge station and the start of the Bermondsey Beer Mile, but it also has a basic bar area open to all. This is a spartan affair, with a number of canteen-style tables and just two keg beers on offer: the regular Hop King and the CBD Pale (£2.75, half).