We run our Hackney Wick Craft Beer Experience out of Queen's Yard, so we spend a fair amount of time in this corner of east London beyond just our own tour route. Hackney is a bigger, looser proposition than our Bermondsey home turf: it's not one tight strip of railway arches but a spread-out borough with several distinct pockets of good beer, from the canalside brewery cluster in Hackney Wick to the craft-focused pubs and bottle shops around London Fields and Broadway Market. This is our attempt at a borough-wide map of where to actually go, written from the point of view of a business that's been taking people around east and south London taprooms since 2014.
Hackney's craft beer geography, in short
Think of Hackney's beer scene as three loose zones rather than one crawl. Hackney Wick and Fish Island, right on the canal by the Olympic Park, is the closest thing the borough has to a Bermondsey-style brewery cluster - working breweries and taproom bars within a short walk of each other. London Fields and Broadway Market, a bus ride or a longer walk south-west, has fewer breweries actually brewing on site but a much denser run of craft-focused pubs and bars pouring guest beer from across the country. And Hackney Central, in between the two, has its own smaller pockets - including at least one working brewery taproom around Clarence Yard. None of the three are more than about 20 to 30 minutes apart by bus or bike, so a full day covering two zones is realistic if you pace it sensibly.
Hackney Wick and Fish Island: the brewery cluster
This is the zone we know best, because it's where we run our own tour. Queen's Yard and the surrounding canalside arches have been home to working breweries for well over a decade, with names like Crate Brewery and Howling Hops long associated with the area, both combining actual brewing with a proper riverside pub feel rather than a bare taproom counter. It's worth saying that Hackney Wick's brewery scene has shifted over the years - Beavertown, arguably the area's most famous export, long ago outgrew its original site and moved production elsewhere in London - so treat any specific venue list as a snapshot rather than gospel, and check a brewery's own site before a special trip. We've written a full, dedicated guide to this cluster - Hackney Wick Breweries: East London's Canalside Beer Quarter - covering the venue-by-venue detail, getting there, and current opening hours in far more depth than we can here.
London Fields and Broadway Market: pubs, bars and bottle shops
Head south-west into London Fields and the character changes. This is less about brewery taprooms and more about a dense concentration of independent pubs and bars with genuinely good, rotating craft beer lists, clustered loosely around London Fields park and the Saturday market on Broadway Market. It's a good zone for anyone who wants variety over volume - rather than tasting one brewery's own range, you're more likely to find a bar pouring a curated mix of London and UK independents alongside the odd import. Broadway Market itself is worth timing your visit around if you can, since the Saturday stalls add a proper food element to a beer-focused day out; as with any market, exact traders and hours do shift, so it's worth checking current listings before you go.
Hackney Central and Clarence Yard
Between the two bigger zones, Hackney Central has its own smaller but genuine brewery presence, with a working taproom around Clarence Yard among the better-known names historically associated with the area. It's a sensible stop if you're moving between Hackney Wick and London Fields on foot or by bus, rather than a destination in its own right - a good halfway pint rather than the main event. Again, we'd flag that small independent breweries change site, close or relocate more often than long-established pubs, so a quick check of current opening status before you commit to the detour saves a wasted trip.
Bottle shops worth seeking out
Hackney has a decent spread of independent bottle shops and beer-focused off-licences, mostly scattered through London Fields, Broadway Market and Hackney Central rather than clustered on one strip the way the breweries are in Hackney Wick. These are worth building into a day if you want to take beer home rather than just drink it on the spot - a well-run independent bottle shop will usually stock a rotating mix of London breweries alongside UK and international craft beer, and staff who actually know what's good that week. Stock, hours and even which shops are trading can change fast at small independents, so if you've got a specific bottle or style in mind, it's worth a quick call or a look at their social media before you make the trip.
Hackney vs Bermondsey vs Blackhorse
We get asked a lot how Hackney compares to our own Bermondsey Beer Mile, and to the other well-known east London brewery trail out in Walthamstow. Our detailed borough-by-borough comparison - London's Best Breweries, Area by Area - covers all of London's clusters properly, but the short version is this: Bermondsey's railway arches and the Blackhorse Beer Mile in Walthamstow are both tight, walkable brewery trails built for an efficient afternoon crawl - most of the venues sit within a few minutes' walk of each other. Hackney is more spread out and mixes a smaller number of working breweries with a much bigger scene of craft-focused pubs and bottle shops, so it rewards a slower, more exploratory day rather than a tick-list route between taproom doors.
Getting around Hackney's beer scene
- Hackney Wick station (London Overground) puts you within walking distance of Queen's Yard and the canalside cluster.
- Hackney Central and Hackney Downs stations serve the middle zone, and both are a manageable walk or short bus ride from London Fields.
- London Overground and buses connect all three zones reasonably well, though allow 20 to 30 minutes between them if you're planning to cover more than one in a day.
- Weekends are by far the most reliable time to visit - Saturday afternoons especially see most venues open and pouring a full range, while several smaller spots keep reduced midweek hours or close entirely outside Friday to Sunday.
Our guided alternative: the Hackney Wick Craft Beer Experience
If working out routes and checking opening hours across a spread-out borough isn't how you want to spend your day, our Hackney Wick Craft Beer Experience does the Hackney Wick half of this for you. It's a two-hour guided tasting led by a working brewer, taking in three venues and five beers plus a shareable cheese platter, for £41.25 per person on selected Saturdays, meeting outside Crate Brewery's car park at The White Building, Unit 7 Queens Yard. It's a smaller, tighter session than our flagship Bermondsey tour, built specifically around this cluster rather than the wider borough - a good way to get a confident, guided introduction to Hackney Wick before exploring London Fields or Hackney Central under your own steam afterwards.
Bringing a group, or gifting the day
For work socials, birthdays or any group of six or more, our private and group tours page has details on booking a private session of the Hackney Wick Craft Beer Experience, or one of our other two tours if a bigger route through Bermondsey suits your group better. If you're planning this as a gift rather than your own day out, our gift vouchers are bought directly on our vouchers page, delivered by email instantly and never expire, so the recipient can pick their own Saturday and build the rest of a Hackney day around it.
Practical tips for a Hackney beer day
- Pick one zone as your anchor. Trying to cover Hackney Wick, London Fields and Hackney Central properly in one afternoon is ambitious - pick one as your main focus and treat the others as a bonus if time allows.
- Check opening hours before you set off. Independent breweries and bottle shops alike can trade shorter hours midweek, or close entirely outside weekends.
- Weekends beat weekdays. Saturday afternoon is the single most reliable time to find Hackney's taprooms, bars and bottle shops all open at once.
- Eat as you go. Broadway Market's Saturday stalls and the food options around Hackney Wick both make a beer-focused day much more sustainable than drinking on an empty stomach.
- Large group? A guided option removes the guesswork entirely - see our Hackney Wick Craft Beer Experience above, or get in touch about a private booking for a bigger crowd.
Hackney rewards patience more than Bermondsey or Blackhorse do - there's no single obvious route to follow, just a spread of genuinely good pockets worth seeking out. Start with whichever zone is closest to where you're staying or working, use our Hackney Wick guide for the canalside cluster in proper depth, and treat the rest of the borough as somewhere to come back to.