Malt, Bermondsey, SE1

Located on the popular Maltby Street Market, this is a bit of a wildcard for Bermondsey Beer Mile crawlers, offering something a bit less beer focussed in a smartly presented railway arch with a cosy, wine bar vibe. The arch here is quite truncated, only stretching back a short distance in comparison to some of the other venues nearby, and benefitting from unadorned brick walls and vaulted ceiling. The bar runs down the right-hand side of the room and has a bit of a rough and ready counter front with a mangled metal top and a fantastic bar back that incorporates a large recessed brick arch which has been used to house the glassware. A similar arch can be seen over on the opposite wall, but sadly this has been used as a bit of a storage dump. Tables and chairs fill the left-hand side of the room and can also be found in a strange little raised snug to the front left and in a lower space to the front right, next to the bar. Two steps at the rear take you up to a simple raised seating area with a few more tables and chairs and a couple of ugly wing-back armchairs. An ugly scaffold structure back here has been used to create an upper area, seemingly out of bounds to the public and presumably used for storage, but sadly at odds with the overall look they’re going for here. A decent soul soundtrack provided some laid-back Sunday afternoon vibes and the place was doing a very good trade, as I bagged the last remaining free table and others scoffed down food from the market stalls outside. There are four keg lines on the bar, dispensing three craft beers and a cider. I ended up with a half of the Anspach & Hobday London Black - a beer I’d enjoyed a lot of during the first lockdown and which tasted just as good on draught. The bar staff were pleasant enough, and there was a decent enough atmosphere thanks to the full house. I liked the fact that this place was doing something a bit different and catering to a crowd beyond the beer tickers, but ultimately this meant that it felt a bit like somewhere for couples to go and enjoy a glass of wine rather than somewhere to add to an extensive pub crawl. Could work well under different circumstances, but on my visit, towards the end of the beer mile, it was a jarring change of scene and something I’d happily skip next time around.