The Grosvenor Arms – a modern “brew pub” but still a backstreet boozer

The Grosvenor Arms is a bit of an enigma, a modern “brew pub” but still a backstreet boozer.

It is situated in that weird no-man’s land between Brixton and Stockwell, in the type of place you have to deliberately seek out.

It has been done up as a craft-brewing paradise, and even has a taproom feel to it.

It doesn’t exactly look like an old-school pub anymore, but it still retains that air, as if there is some power in the atmosphere clinging onto old memories.

The clientele seemed to bear this out too.

It wasn’t very busy, but the other punters were those you would not group together; a couple on a date (tucking into an incredible-looking pizza), a few youngsters playing pool, some locals who looked like they would have been here in its previous life, and people here for the craft beer.

That offering is excellent, with 25 taps serving craft beer and cider.

Particularly representative were Bermondsey breweries such as Kernel and Brew By Numbers.

This place, of course, is also now a brewing home of Affinity Craft Brew, where you can enjoy tank-fresh pints.

When I sat down, I could see the light piercing through the gaps in the floorboards and hear noises from the basement below where the brewing was happening.

The pub and the brewery are separate entities, but part of a mutually beneficial arrangement.

This was a pub that almost fell to developers but was saved by vigorous campaigning from locals and CAMRA, which succeeded in granting the building Asset of Community Value status in 2017, whereupon it reopened in 2019.

This was a great success story in an age when various pressures have combined to threaten the community pub. For this reason alone, it deserves acclaim.

What is here now is better than what would have been here had developers got its way.

But something about the place made it hard to work out.

The main bar was spacious and a little bare, with wooden floorboards and one of those modern bars that is essentially just a block.

The interior had obviously been gutted, and perhaps took something away more than just the materials.

The lighting was somehow off. But it still felt a bit old-school, and easily imaginable as the punk music venue it used to be.

It hesitated between the past and the future.

The Grosvenor Arms, 17 Sidney Road, SW9 0TP

 

Pictured: The Grosvenor Arms – Bill Lacy