Biddle Bros
The shopfront still says Biddle Bros. Builders Ltd, and the owners told Time Out they kept it because "It saves us the bother of repainting and renaming it."
Why go
The bar occupies a former builders merchants on Lower Clapton Road with the original ironwork intact. CAMRA surveyed it on 22 April 2026 and recorded a Small bar in a former builders merchants. The shop front remains unaltered. Sofas in the front bar, bench seating to the rear
(CAMRA). There is no cask, and that survey lists no beers at all. The back room has a wall of windows and skylights and takes the music: acoustic sessions on Wednesdays, a pianist on Thursdays, DJs at the weekend. It opens at 6pm Monday to Thursday and runs to 00:30 on Friday and Saturday.
Order this / avoid
- Order: Guinness, or whatever the current keg list is. Time Out recorded Staropramen, Guinness and Boddingtons on tap, though that was in 2012 and nothing has documented the taps since.
- Avoid: turning up expecting cask, and turning up before 6pm on a weeknight. CAMRA's survey covers both.
What locals & experts say
- CAMRA WhatPub (surveyed 22 April 2026):
Small bar in a former builders merchants. The shop front remains unaltered. Sofas in the front bar, bench seating to the rear.
1 - Time Out London (20 June 2012, 3/5):
cosy and friendly,
with free table football and a back room whereFridays and Saturdays feature a very varied selection from reggae and R&B to soul, jazz, indie and New Wave classics.
2 - Hackney Citizen (29 November 2008): the pub
belies its almost Zen-like external anonymity by its gloriously rich interior,
listed alongside the Windsor Castle, the Elderfield and the Three Sisters as one of Clapton's community pubs.3 - Local rec: Jeff's row records it as a local recommendation. REAL.
Good to know
- Timing: Monday to Thursday 6pm to midnight, Friday 4pm to 00:30, Saturday 12:30pm to 00:30, Sunday 1pm to 11pm, per CAMRA's April 2026 survey.
- Booking: walk-in.
- Rooms: small L-shaped front bar with sofas and table football, larger back room with skylights where the music happens.
- Hygiene: FSA record 1321477, rating 5 under Hackney, inspected 9 August 2022.
- Nearby: a short walk from My Neighbours the Dumplings at 165 Lower Clapton Road, which is also in this DB. Hackney Central and Hackney Downs are the closest stations.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Local rec" REAL. Filed on his row as a dive bar, though every published description is sofas, table football and a rich interior. Worth checking what the crowd is like now.
Verdict
could-visit — Biddle Bros is a small Clapton bar in the shell of Biddle Bros. Builders Ltd, with the merchant's shopfront and ironwork left exactly as they were because, in the owners' words to Time Out, it saves them repainting it. Sofas and free table football at the front, bench seating and skylights at the back, DJs on Friday and Saturday running reggae through soul and New Wave. There is no cask, the taps have not been documented since 2012, and it opens at six on weeknights. Worth a drink if you are on Lower Clapton Road, and not a destination.