East London Brewing Co. will open The Black Horse Tap on Friday 27 November, a pub above its brewery on the Blackhorse Beer Mile in Walthamstow. The opening comes as the independent brewery marks 15 years of trading, and it is the first pub the brewery has built for itself.
Conceived as a cosy East London local in winter and a terrace pub in summer, The Black Horse Tap has 80 covers inside and 80 outside, with dining and a drinks list that goes beyond beer.
London studio 3Stories has given the room the look of an East End pub, with one detail that gives the game away: internal windows onto the brewhouse. A long bar faced in green glazed tiles sits under stained-glass pendants, with walnut panelling and a lowered ceiling, plus a pool table and darts. Doors open onto a terrace, and a heated marquee in the yard serves food and drink through the winter. A multi-zonal sound system runs through the room, with DJs at weekends.
The bar pours East London Brewing Co.‘s heritage cask range, on which the brewery was founded, alongside modern hop-forward keg beers and lagers and a weekly-changing list of guest casks from UK independent brewers. Beyond beer there is an agave-focused cocktail menu and independent wine and spirits.
The brewery has also invested in a dedicated open-fire kitchen, which opens with a residency from Play With Fire running to the end of the year. Chef Matt Purkis, formerly of Lagom and Ibai and named Best Newcomer at Eating With Tod’s ROOST festival in 2026, cooks reworked classics and sharing plates over fire and wood smoke, alongside Sunday roasts.
The pub marks the brewery’s shift from production brewery to hospitality-first business. Founded in 2011, ELBC built its name on cask ale, supplying pubs across the capital from a production-only site in Lea Bridge. Ronnie Finch, an investor since 2019, took ownership in early 2024 after a period of difficult trading, and in April 2026 moved the brewery to a 22,000 sq ft site on Lockwood Way, more than doubling production capacity. The site, the largest working brewery site on the Mile, also houses the Brewers’ Bar taproom, a shop and a 1,500-capacity events space. James Healey is managing director and Paul Hancock is head brewer.
Finch has spent the past decade taking on closed or run-down East London pubs and reopening them as community-led locals, including The Duke in Wanstead, the Leytonstone Tavern, Tavern on the Hill and the Empire Tavern. He co-founded the pub group Taverns East, which also opened Club Empire, a late-night music venue at the Empire Tavern, this month.
“East London Brewing was a production brewery for most of its life. Since April we’ve been a hospitality business that brews its own beer, and The Black Horse Tap is the clearest sign of that. Moving to the Beer Mile mattered for the business, but it mattered just as much for being part of a community of independent brewers who support each other.
Ronnie Finch, Owner, East London Brewing Co.
“The Mile has become a genuine destination in East London and we’re investing in it for the long term. We want to build on what’s here by bringing independent brewing to a wider audience. The Black Horse Tap is the pub we’d want in any neighbourhood: a great place to spend time, with a drinks menu that goes well beyond beer and the sense of community you’d get in a working men’s club. The brewery is bigger than the beer, and we want the whole site to contribute as much to hospitality as it does to brewing.”
Further partnerships are planned for 2027, with a focus on community pubs and iconic spaces in East London and beyond. The Black Horse Tap opens with a free public launch party from 7pm on Friday 27 November, and will then open on Thursdays and Fridays from 5pm to 11pm, Saturdays from 12pm to 11pm and Sundays from 12pm to 8pm, at Unit 2, Lockwood Way, Walthamstow, London E17 5RB.
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