Brewing is set to return to Covent Garden after more than a century with the opening of a huge beer making, restaurant, shopping, and cultural hub before the end of the year.
Diageo, the drinks giant that owns Guinness, is spending £73 million on the project at Old Brewer’s Yard near Neal Street in the heart of the West End.
It was first announced in January 2022 with a planned launch in Autumn 2023.
But the scheme was hit by delays including the collapse of the lead contractor and Diageo now hope for an opening date in the run up to Christmas.
The Open Gate Brewery will be the fourth site of its kind in the world - after Dublin, Baltimore and Chicago - and become the Guinness brand’s new home in London.
It is hoped the free-to-enter destination over five buildings and a covered courtyard will attract half a million visitors in its first year.
The new 54,000 sq ft venue between Long Acre and Shaftesbury Avenue will create up to 250 jobs and provide an space with a capacity for up to 350 people.
The microbrewery will produce a range of up to 14 limited edition craft beers at any time, including a low alcohol option, under the direction of head brewer Hollie Stephenson.
However, Guinness will not be brewed on site, although it will be possible to buy a pint of the “black stuff” at its bars.
All Guinness for the European market is brewed in Dublin.
It is estimated that at least one in every ten pints pulled in London is now a Guinness and before Christmas, pubs were hit by a shortage of the stout as the company struggled to keep up with an unprecedented spike in demand .
The brewery building will be open from 9.30am to 11.30pm during the week with paid for tours available in the early evening.
As well as the brewery there will be two restaurants, including a brasserie and grill on the ground and first floor and a seafood outlet on the roof-top. There will also be a food truck in the courtyard.
A shop will sell limited edition Guinness branded merchandise.
The venue will also become the southern UK hub of Diageo’s Learning for Life Bartending and Hospitality programme, with an ambition for over 100 London based students to graduate from the ‘Guinness at Old Brewer’s Yard’ programme annually.
Open Gate Brewery will occupy the five buildings around a covered courtyard on a site owned by the Mercers’ livery company.
Brewing is recorded taking place there from 1722 until 1905 when Watney Combe Reid closed their Covent Garden premises to focus on production at its Mortlake Brewery.
Beers originally produced at the brewery included the aged brown beers that was popular with the porters of Covent Garden, Smithfield and Billingsgate and became knowns as ‘Stout Porter’, before the name was shortened to just ‘stout’.
