Late Knights Brewery, the London-based brewer and pub operator, is looking to open its fifth pub site adjacent to its brewery before the end of the year, M&C Report has learnt.
The group led by Steve Keegan is preparing to open its third and fourth pubs in Peckham this week and Ramsgate, Kent.
Late Knights has an agreement in principle with a building developer for the fifth site in Penge, where the brewery is based. It will be on the ground floor of an accommodation development, which is currently in the planning stage that Keegan said he hopes will be open before Christmas.
“It is very close to the brewery – it will be our brewery tap. Our other pubs are a mixture of our beers and other local brewers but this will be all ours along with a really good food offering,” Keegan said.
Meanwhile the company is moving its Gypsy Hill pub to a permanent home after spending 18 months at what was intended to be a temporary contract site. Keegan said the pub will be similar to the existing site next door but will be more focused on food. Following a four-week refurbishment the pub is expected to open in mid-September.
“People say we are rapidly expanding but really it’s two years of ideas that have come together at once,” said Keegan.
Both the Gypsy Hill and Peckham sites are on former bookmakers but will have a different feel to each; Gypsy Hill will be a traditional pub with cask beers and ciders, while the Beer Rebellion at Peckham will have 10 keg lines.
Keegan told M&C Report the site in Ramsgate has not been signed yet and he is “in no rush to get that open”, instead focusing on the two London projects: “By the time we have Gypsy Hill open we will have completed and started work in Ramsgate.”
He said he wants Ramsgate site to be a hybrid micropub and off-licence and is considering adding a small bistro upstairs.
For 2015 Keegan said he hopes to diversify Late Knights offering including taking part in more street food events and even considering a bistro, separate to the Ramsgate pub.
Keegan said he “keeps an eye on” several towns including Lewes and Hasting in East Sussex and Oxford but has no fixed plans for where his next venture would be.
