Anspach & Hobday: The Arch House
The brewing left for Croydon in March 2020 and the arch stayed, so this is now the one room in London built solely around drinking what Anspach & Hobday make (Anspach & Hobday).
Why go
Paul Anspach and Jack Hobday were homebrewers who made their name with a 6.7% London porter called The Porter, crowdfunded GBP 5,000 and bought a small brewery on the young Bermondsey Beer Mile in 2014 (Pellicle). Once production moved out, the bar slid down to the far end of the arch and the seating filled the space the tanks had used (London Beer Guide).
What is left is a bar with one handpump, twelve keg lines and about thirty cans, all of it their own. CAMRA surveyed it in January 2026 and recorded two changing beers and no regular ones, which is the whole craft argument: the range moves, and it moves inside one brewery's book (CAMRA).
The beer has the results to back the room. The IPA at 6% won its category at CAMRA's Champion Beer of Britain in 2024 and then took overall Silver, two points behind Crouch Vale Amarillo, the first London beer to reach the Supreme Champion judging in 33 years (London Brewers' Alliance). The same beer took overall Gold at Champion Beer of London that year, and The Ordinary Bitter won the session bitters category (CAMRA London).
London Black is the one everyone knows. It is a 4.4% nitro porter, launched in May 2021, now over half of what the brewery sells, 350,000 litres a year and more than 250 UK outlets.
Order this / avoid
- Order: start on the handpump, because the cask range is the part of this brewery you cannot easily find elsewhere. Then the IPA if it is on, and a London Black to see what the argument is about.
- Avoid: arriving on a Monday or Tuesday, when the arch is shut, and arriving hungry, because there is no kitchen and the plan is a walk to Maltby Street or Druid Street market.
What locals & experts say
- Laura Hadland, Pellicle, May 2024:
Take a sip of London Black and you'll experience a dry, roasted bitterness so crisp that it is almost textural, like crunching on freshly roasted coffee beans. This is balanced by a smooth body as rich as double cream.
2 - The dissent, from the same piece. Publican Jack Duignan of The Sutton Arms ran London Black alongside Guinness and pulled it in mid-2023:
It's absolutely nothing against the beer or brewery as they are good friends of ours, but it just didn't work out here.
A drinker in Birmingham put it more bluntly:This is lovely but given the choice, I'd order a Guinness. It's crisper. Familiar.
2 - Christine Cryne, London Drinker, May 2026, reporting the awards rather than reviewing the bar:
In 2024, their The IPA (6% ABV) was judged best in its category at CAMRA's Champion Beer of Britain competition before going on to win overall Silver.
She also sends readers here:pop along to their brewery tap, the Arch House, in Druid Street to try a beer or two on handpump
.3 - CAMRA South East London branch, surveyed January 2026:
up to two cask and 12 keg beers on tap (some of which are dispensed from KeyKegs) plus a canned and bottled selection to drink on the premises or take away.
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Good to know
- Where: 118 Druid Street SE1 2HH, at the top of the Bermondsey Beer Mile. Bermondsey tube is about 700m, London Bridge about 1.2km.
- Timing: Wednesday to Sunday. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Late on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
- Booking: walk in. The arch takes up to 100 for a private event, and there is an upstairs balcony with space for 15 to 20.
- Payment: card only, no cash.
- Food: none served. Carry it in from Maltby Street Market or Druid Street Market, which is what the venue tells you to do.
- Takeaway: the arch is licensed as an off-licence, so cans go home with you.
- CAMRA members: 10 percent off cask ales only.
- Hygiene: FSA rating 5, Southwark, inspected 13 March 2026, FHRSID 692043.
- Sites: two. This one, and the Croydon Brewery & Pigeon at Beddington Farm Road CR0 4WP, where the beer is now made. The Croydon Pigeon taproom is temporarily closed; that has no bearing on the arch.
Verdict
should-visit — Go for the handpump. Anspach & Hobday started in these arches, moved the brewing to Croydon in March 2020, and kept the original railway arch at the top of the Bermondsey Beer Mile as somewhere to drink what they make: twelve keg lines, up to two cask beers, around thirty cans, and nothing that is not theirs. The beer holds up nationally. The IPA at 6% won its category at CAMRA's Champion Beer of Britain in 2024 and then took overall Silver, two points off the Gold and the first time in 33 years a London brewery reached the Supreme Champion judging, and the same beer took overall Gold at Champion Beer of London that year. Laura Hadland described London Black in Pellicle as 'a dry, roasted bitterness so crisp that it is almost textural, like crunching on freshly roasted coffee beans'. It stays off the top rung for a reason the brewery would agree with: London Black is in more than 250 UK outlets, so the flagship is not why you cross town. The cask, which barely travels, is.