Welcome to our series on gluten-free eating and drinking in London, highlighting London’s best gluten-free restaurants, bars, pubs and food shops. It’s thought that 1 in 100 people in the UK have coeliac disease. Given London has well over eight million inhabitants, a bit of basic maths suggests around 80,000 people in the city fall into this category. Add on all those people who have other gluten allergies and intolerances, and that’s a lot of demand for gluten-free food and drink — yet it’s not as prevalent as it should be.
Gluten-free beer is readily available online, with numerous breweries crafting beers that make the grade — yet still it’s pretty bloody tricky to find in a pub. We’ve scoured the internet, crawled pubs, spoken to brewers and shouted about our plight in order to put together this handy guide to where to find beer sans gluten in London.
Note, we've marked with a ★ the pubs where there's a choice of two or more beers.
On tap
BrewDog
For beer-loving coeliacs, finding gluten-free beer on tap must feel a lot like stumbling across the Holy Grail. And as far as we can tell, London’s BrewDog bars in Camden, Shepherd’s Bush and Shoreditch are the only places you can find it. The brewer’s Vagabond pale ale is on tap more often than not, and if not, should be by bottle.
Central
★ The King & Queen, Fitzrovia
Serves a changing range of bottled gluten-free beers, including those from Green’s gluten-free brewery and Estrella Damm’s Damm Daura
North
The Hanbury Arms, Islington
Serves bottles of Celia GF pilsner, and also offers gluten-free pizzas
The Regent, Islington
Serves bottles of Celia GF pilsner, and also offers gluten-free pizzas
The Stag, Hampstead
Serves bottles of Mongozo pilsner
★ The Truscott Arms, Maida Vale
Serves bottles of Celia GF pilsner, plus two Belgian beers from Daas — one light and one dark. Read our review of the first floor restaurant
East
The Carpenter’s Arms, Bethnal Green
Serves bottles of Mongozo pilsner
The Dovetail, Clerkenwell
Serves bottles of Mongozo pilsner
★ The Jerusalem Tavern, Clerkenwell
This pub is owned by St Peter’s Brewery, and sells its entire range of beers — including bottles of its two gluten-free offerings: G-Free pilsner and Dark G-Free brown ale
The Lauriston, Victoria Park
Serves bottles of Celia GF pilsner, and also offers gluten-free pizzas
Old China Hand, Clerkenwell
Serves G-Free pilsner from St Peter's Brewery
South
Bambuni, Nunhead
Deli-come-bar, serves bottles of Discovery IPA from Green’s gluten-free brewery
Brew Wharf, Borough Market
Serves bottles of Mongozo pilsner
★ The Rake, Borough Market
Serves bottles of Celia GF pilsner and Mongozo pilsner
The Sultan, Colliers Wood
Run by the Hop Back brewery, this pub serves bottles of the brewery’s Crop Circle, probably the UK’s first mainstream gluten-free beer
West
The White Horse, Parson’s Green
Serves bottles of Mongozo pilsner
Do you know anywhere else that serves gluten-free beer in London? Let us know in the comments below.
For more suggestions see our microsite of the best pubs in London.
