After slowly disappearing from the London beer scene, Meantime has made a comeback. The Meantime name has been around since 1999 when Alastair Hook set up the original brewery near the Charlton Athletic football ground. In 2010 they moved into a new state-of-the-art brewery, the largest to be built in London since Guinness’s Park Royal site in the 1930s. This was situated about 20 minutes’ walk from North Greenwich tube station and the O2 Centre.
Five years later, Meantime was sold to SABMiller for £120 million and, in 2016, they were acquired by Japanese brewers Asahi as part of the ‘merger’ of AB InBev and SABMiller. Subsequently, Asahi bought Fuller’s Brewery in 2019 (for £250 million). Sadly, Asahi decided to consolidate their brewing and closed the Meantime Brewery in 2024, despite having spent a lot of money refurbishing it.
Most people thought that it was the end but it turns out that it wasn’t! In October 2025, a new pub called the Dial opened under the Meantime brand and it includes a six hectolitre (3.7 barrel) brewery. Appropriately it is opposite North Greenwich station and the O2 Centre in Peninsula Square.
The pub is huge; there are three floors with outside terrace seating on the ground floor and balcony seating on the top floor, with 360o spectacular views. The middle floor is a sports bar with ten television screens and the kitchen. Each floor has a bar selling Meantime beer (all keg). Tucked around the back of the ground floor is the brewery, with a small bar directly opposite.
Brewing is the responsibility of Luke McCulloch and Sven Hartmann, who work on Fuller’s ten-barrel pilot brewery in Chiswick. Luke was brewing in New Zealand and came over to London in 2022 to join Meantime, moving to the pilot brewery when Meantime closed. He explained, “We are responsible for trying new and experimental brews for Fuller’s, Dark Star and Meantime. We will probably be brewing at this new Meantime Brewery about once a week and we are open to bringing back some of the old Meantime beers that were popular.”
The brewery was commissioned from Waverly Systems in Edinburgh. Care has been taken in its design; from the central beer tanks supplying all the bars, the ingredient stores (which are hidden behind doors) to the open, easily viewed brewery itself. This small brewery might be a long way from the 60-barrel brewery that Meantime once had but, to quote Luke, “It’s good for Meantime to have a presence again in Greenwich.”
For more information on the Dial, see https://thedialldn.com/
Christine Cryne