Hack & Hop, Fleet Street, EC4

Another of the so-called craft beer bars opening up around the capital, this one is typically minimalist with white walls and ceiling giving a bright and airy feel. This is in contrast to the dark stained distressed carved bar back with a centrepiece clock. Naturally, the floor is bare boarded, seating is at old domestic dining tables, décor includes framed front pages from the Daily Mirror and London Herald in context with the pub's location just off the old heart of newspaper publishing. The leaded windows have been remade but the design hints that there may be a previous life as a Charrington's pub here, no coloured glass but the leadwork profile follows the pattern. Various potted foliage sits on the window cills. A board lists the beers on offer, dominated by twelve keg fonts, four also on cask, Redemption Hopspur, Red Willow Recklass (£4.20), Waen Brewery Starstruck Kiwi plus one reversed which I deduced from the board would have been Firebrand Table Pale Ale. Orchard Pig Navel Gazer was the cider representative. Food is served, I didn't get to see a main menu but a board offered a cold meats selection with pickles and bread for £9, sausage rolls for £3.25 and home made scotch eggs or welsh rarebit for a fiver. In contrast to the "Beast" menu aimed at groups hiring the upstairs room where a Gascony Black suckling pig rocks in at £600. There is however no charge for weekend private hire, I wonder if you can bring your own grub? Only keg fonts in the upstairs room. Reasonable music played at a sensible volume for the half dozen or so punters on Thursday afternoon, I spent a pleasant enough 40 mins or so watching England struggle to take the last Indian wicket in the test match. When rammed post work however I suspect the hard basic furnishings will make this a loud spot.

This simple, single room bar, just off Fleet Street, is a fairly basic affair from the same people behind The Old Red Cow and The Dean Swift. You enter through a small porch which has been papered with front page headlines in a nod to Fleet Street’s famous past, emerging into a rectangular, bare boarded room with the servery neatly tucked away to the rear right. The bar back is highly stylised, with a grand top and integral clock making it a stand out feature, although nothing suggested that it was in any way original. Some standard tables and chairs run under the front windows and along the side walls whilst some high ledges circle a couple of central pillars in the heart of the room. Some large light fixtures over the main part of the room provide ample lighting whilst smaller lamp shades illuminate the bar area. The walls have been decorated with framed front pages from old newspapers, as well as a few promotional posters and boards listing various food and drink options. A collection of pump clips lines the banister of a staircase to the rear left, which leads up to the toilets and a small ale-free second bar in a room filled with standard tables and chairs best suited to diners, and decorated with more newspaper headlines. An uber-indie soundtrack played throughout my stay, which was fairly enjoyable. There were three ales on handpull at the end of a Friday evening – Crate Pale, something from Brass Castle and Pope’s MWA (Mild with Attitude) which had such an amusing pump clip that I had to give it a try. Unfortunately the beer was a bit past its best so I didn’t enjoy it that much. The keg range is more extensive and included brews from Kernel, Ilkley, Titanic and Viccie Park. This place doesn’t differ greatly from its sister pubs, so if you’ve been to any of them, you should have an idea of what to expect here. I thought it was a fairly decent place to enjoy some unusual beers and a good contrast to some of the historic pubs on Fleet Street itself.

Official site of The Hack & Hop - thehackandhop.com