The Craft Beer Co. Clerkenwell
Sixteen handpumps, fourteen of them guest cask from independent microbreweries, on a Leather Lane corner that Greene King let go in 2011.2
Why go
Martin Hayes opened CASK in Pimlico on his own in 2009 and Peter Slezak, whom he had known since they were eleven at school in Battersea, joined about six months later. In 2010 they went looking for a second site and settled on a small unloved pub on Leather Lane, which they took from Greene King, and on a name almost nobody yet understood.1 It opened in July 2011.3
Downstairs has a clock-faced mirrored ceiling and gets crowded; upstairs has more seating and most people never look. Two of the sixteen handpumps are permanently the house beer and a real cider, the other fourteen rotate through independent microbreweries, and over a hundred international bottles sit behind them.2
Order this / avoid
- Order: the house beer first, brewed for the pub and pulled off its own pump, then work the fourteen guests.
- Avoid: a Sunday, when the pub is closed, and standing downstairs when it fills.
What locals & experts say
- Martin Hayes, co-founder, in London Drinker (21 January 2023), on the opening:
On the opening day over 500 people thronged outside this small pub and the occasion really marked a big change in the London beer scene: the first ripples of an earthquake that was about to hit the UK pub and brewing world.
On staying independent:The business has always been owned 100% by Peter and myself and we had no interest in changing that.
1 - CAMRA, London Region, on the bar:
Two hand pumps dispense the specially brewed house beer and a real cider, and 14 more offer guest beers from independent microbreweries. With over 100 international bottled beers besides, you may find it difficult to leave.
2
Good to know
- Where: 82 Leather Lane EC1N 7TR, at the Hatton Garden end.
- Hours: Monday to Saturday noon to 11pm. Closed Sunday.2
- Booking: none. Walk in.
- Upstairs: extra seating, and worth the climb when the ground floor fills.
- Other doors: the Covent Garden pub is a separate premises with its own record.
Verdict
should-visit — Sixteen handpumps on Leather Lane, two of them fixed to the house beer and a real cider and fourteen given over to guests from independent microbreweries, with more than a hundred international bottles behind them. This is where the Craft Beer Co started: Martin Hayes and Peter Slezak, who met at school in Battersea aged eleven, took a small unloved pub off Greene King and opened in July 2011 under a name Hayes says 95 per cent of the country did not recognise, and 500 people stood outside on the first day. Every major pub company and brewery came to look, and the room became the template London copied. Go upstairs when the downstairs bar fills, and do not go on a Sunday, when it is shut. It falls short of the top rung because the cask counts come from an undated regional record and no bylined critic has written about this door.