Craft beer, fixed-gear bikes, beards and flat whites. All have become a byword for hipsters in recent years. Gentrifiers drawn to working-class, inner-city areas close to jobs that didn’t even exist 10-15 years ago.
Another thing that was almost non-existent in central London 10 years ago was the microbrewery. Back in 2010, the capital was home to just 13 breweries. Today, that figure is approaching 100.
Most are within Zones 2 and 3, arguably the most gentrified part of the capital, where population growth and housebuilding have been most prominent.
Shrewd developers are now turning to start-up breweries in order to give their schemes “hipster appeal”, aid placemaking and give new communities pride in their locality.
As craft beer has become more and more popular, the number of new breweries across London has exploded.
One such developer jumping on the back of the popularity breweries bring is Berkeley.
Karl Whiteman, divisional managing director at Berkeley Homes (East and West Thames), spoke to EG about Hop Stuff Brewery, which has been running for around five years in a small light industrial unit in Woolwich, SE18.
A stone’s throw from Berkeley’s Royal Arsenal scheme, Whiteman spotted an opportunity for the microbrewery’s expansion with a dedicated tap room.
“We wanted to create something different in some of our retail, food and beverage space. The business didn’t have the cash for a fit-out, so we used a somewhat creative lease structure to make it happen.”
The tap room is now two years old and open seven days a week.
“It’s been a great addition to our scheme, offering locals another creative business and attracts a different clientele. I am amazed at how far some people travel to come to it,” he adds.
For super-sized, residential-led but mixed-used schemes which Berkeley is involved in, it is the mix of uses that is key.
“People want and need the big chains for convenience, but they also want the small independents that give the area that sense of place and community.”
It is no coincidence that many breweries are named after the locations in which they are based. Think Brixton, Greenwich Mean Time, Camden Town, Hackney, Wimbledon, Gipsy Hill. The list goes on.
They are all part of the “place”, embedded within their communities, giving locals a sense of pride. As Whiteman says: “There is almost an allegiance to your local brewery, like supporting your local football team.”
As Berkeley’s schemes are often 10, 20 or even 25 years in gestation, meanwhile uses have become critically important.
“You can’t just build homes without creating all the things that go with it, so we need to think creatively about what goes in early on. Hopefully the small start-up businesses can grow with us.”
Hop Stuff Brewery currently produces 25,000 pints a week, but has plans to expand to grow this to 75,000.
Southall gasworks, another Berkeley scheme providing 3,750 homes over a 25-year development program, is another project that Whiteman cites where meanwhile use will be vital to its future success.
Another is the Hornsey gasworks site, where Berkeley is due to submit an application for around 1,800 homes.
Here, a food market as well as another brewery are planned for meanwhile use within the first phase, with the option to extend if successful.
So how do you create a brewery from scratch? “You don’t. You go knocking on doors seeing if an already successful start-up has outgrown its current space and needs to expand,” says Whiteman.
It is easy to see why Berkeley wants to create meanwhile, creative uses at its Hornsey site.
With its back to Wood Green town centre and a main road running through the middle, it needs to create footfall, a sense of place and a reason for locals to visit the site. This in turn will help placemaking and, for Berkeley, create value further down the line.
Berkeley isn’t the only one though.
Tottenham Hotspur FC is also planning its own brewery for its new stadium, while Enfield council and the team overseeing the 10,000-home Meridian Water scheme are in discussions with “a couple of breweries” to take space as part of a meanwhile initiative.
A word of warning though from Paddy Johnson, at the London Brewers’ Alliance.
“While there are a lot of ups and downs, you can see a clear trend towards reducing growth.
“The market is becoming ever more saturated and, as a result, the net growth is tailing off and will almost definitely stabilise or even fall very soon.
“This doesn’t mean people should not open new breweries.
“We are now seeing a successful ‘churn’ so that good new breweries survive, while less robust ones fall by the wayside.
“Therefore, new businesses have to be realistic and more self-sustaining. That way they are more likely to succeed in what is now a hugely competitive market.”
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