Brewery Tap, Wimbledon

CLOSED and CONVERTED: This 150 year old pub, named for a nearby brewery which burned down in 1889 … and was replaced by a fire station ... had been much modified and extended in recent years; managing to pack plenty of seating into the spaces around the compact bar. It was renowned for its commitment to real ale - guest beers often came from microbreweries and regularly included milds. Despite its profitability, its popularity with the entire local community and its delicious home cooked food, Enterprise told the lessee in December 2010 that they intended to convert this historic pub into a lock-up bar, replacing the kitchen and the tenants' accommodation upstairs with two separate flats. It was to be hoped that planning and licensing safeguards would be strong enough to prevent such offensive changes, to which a large number of customers and local residents made the strongest possible protests as agreeing to such an application would deprive the Village of this delightful, historic pub and set a very bad precedent for many others like it - sadly all this was ultimately to no avail as unfortunately the Brewery Tap CLOSED on Sunday 18th September 2011 and has now been converted to a Caffe Nero - a scandal.