London pub crawls

City & East End

On a chilly January evening in 2019, Artie kicked off the year with a crawl from the heart of the City into the East End.

We met at the newish Crafty Fellas in Leadenhall Market, which has taken over a unit tucked away in the market’s side alleys, bringing the pared-back industrial craft beer vibe to unusual City surroundings. They have a wide range of craft beers on draught or bottle, and space to drink inside or out (but still under cover), though the crowd was rather thin on our visit.

A few minutes’ walk brought us to the Craft Beer Co., where a large range of craft beers was again on offer, as the name would suggest. We had a range of beers here, including a decent alcohol-free wheat beer from Rothaus, meaning Dry January, should you be trying it, need not keep you out not the pub.

Heading north to Devonshire Square, we headed into Pitt Cue, a fancy restaurant I’d never have thought of venturing into for a beer, but it turns out that it hosts the Alpha Beta brewery – possibly the only current brewery in the City? – and a stylish bar, with their own and guest beers. Drinkers very welcome, though you’ll leave hungry after the smell of the meat being cooked for the happy-looking diners.

Crossing out of the City and into the East End, the change from glossy skyscrapers to shabby East End is pretty stark, even though it’s not quite as shabby as it was when the Pet Shop Boys used Wentworth Street as their East End location in the video for West End Girls; a century earlier these streets were haunted by Jack the Ripper, as the numerour walking groups can attest. But our next port of call was the Culpeper, an ever-busy (or so it seems) lively pub with a gastro feel, though at least on a Friday evening it seems to be filled with contented drinkers rather than diners.

Around the corner on Brick Lane lies the Kill the Cat bottle shop, which has a small number of taps and a large bank of bottled beers to choose from, though be warned, the prices are high – admittedly, these are unusual beers which are doubtless not to cheap or easy to source, but do check prices before you buy, you could be ordering something rather more expensive than your usual!

Backtracking now slightly to Whitechapel Road, we heading a little further East, to Indo on the Whitechapel Road. This is a small pub which seems always to be busy, with a lively slightly punkish atmosphere, and a mix of traditional (e.g. very well kept Harvey’s Best) and more crafty beers.

Continuing along the Whitechapel Road we passed the building on the corner of Fulbourne Street where Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky met for the 1907 Bolshevik conference, the shop at no. 259 that was one the home of Joseph Merrick, better known as the Elephant Man, and the Blind Beggar, where Ronnie Kray shot and killed George Cornell in 1966. But we had time for just one more pub, so we continued across the road to the White Hart. This large and popular corner pub is home of the One Mile End brewery, the pub obviously sticks a wide range of their own excellent beers as well as a number of others, but their own Jazz Police was the pick of the evening, a very tasty cloudy 6% IPA.

So finally to the Pub of the Crawl. After much debate, including arguments about points of order and meaningful amendments (as inspired by the behaviour of the current crop of incompetents at Westminster) a motion was eventually passed – congratulations to the White Hart!