Down south in Herne Hill, the Bird House Brewery is thriving. When the Canopy Brewery closed at the end of 2022, after eight years, Bird House took over the site so that it is more of a phoenix than a sparrow. The Canopy site occupied just one railway arch but Bird House were ambitions to grow.
The brewery was set up by Frazer Timmerman, previously with London Fields and Truman’s, along with Wil Fuller. Wil’s background is in hospitality and he has a degree in the subject and then worked for several pub groups, although he says that he wasn’t very academic.
Frazer’s and Wil’s first venture wasn’t the brewery however. They had already set up two outlets, both of which are also in railway arches. The first was the Hawk’s Nest in Shepherds Bush, which opened in 2019, and this was followed by Peckham Arches. As well as beer, both of these venues offer food, cocktails and music and this is the formula that they want to repeat at Herne Hill. Wil ran through their expansion plans, “We have taken over another three arches next door. One we are turning into an area concentrating on food, one is for events and the third is for support functions.” The arches are currently being fitted out and there is an elongated space running along the back of the arches that will be turned into a kitchen.
The brewer is another Will (Hiscocks). He trained at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh and then started brewing at the Hanging Bat near the Grassmarket in central Edinburgh. Will explained how he ended up hundreds of miles away in south London, “One day I got this phone call from Frazer and Wil who said we have a brewery but we don’t know how to brew. Are you interested in brewing for us?” Will’s roots are in the south, so a move wasn’t really a wrench and he accepted.
Since Will joined Bird House, the original brewing kit has been expanded by increasing the number of fermenters and thus the amount of beer they can brew. They can now supply all three of Bird House’s bars. Will has a clear ethos to his brewing, “I want to create beer that is inspiring and that belongs in a pint.” It is clear that he is motivated in his brewing, “I am constantly changing and refining the recipes. I concentrate on using local malts and hops, creating British and European ales and lagers. And the beer has to be the right place for the bar.” Their beer range is not dominated by American hopped beers. Their regular beers are a lager, a pale, an amber lager and a white IPA although this might change.
So what of the future? “We might go for a fifth arch,” said Wil, “And we might think of doing some small pack in due course.”
The brewery and tap room is a short walk from Herne Hill station and opposite Brockwell Park. The full address is Arch 1127, Bath Factory Estate, 41 Norwood Road SE24 9AJ.
See this article from 2019 for the London Tasting Panel visit and more details on Canopy.
Christine Cryne