Draft House to open sixth site
Draft House founder Charlie McVeigh (pictured) has acquired the Birdcage public house on Columbia Road Flower Market in London's Bethnal Green, saving it from closure.
The pub, which served as a backdrop for some of the happenings in the Bodysnatchers trial of the 1830s, will re-open as the sixth Draft House on 30 November this year.
The reopened pub will serve a large selection of craft beer on draft and in bottle, as well as optics cocktails created by Max Chater of Bump Caves, the new bar and distillery opened earlier this year in Bermondsey.
Optics cocktails, all dispensed from traditional three-litre pub optics bottles, will include the Manhattan, BUMP Martini, and BUMP Hi-Bye, all priced at £5.90.
The pub will also serve pie, mash and liquor, with fillings include steak and ale, steak and kidney, chicken leek and ham, and sweet potato and goat's cheese (£6.90).
The interior of the pub will be restored, in particular its Victorian ash-wood canopy bar. Tan leather banquettes will line the 100-cover pub, which will be lit by antique brass light fixtures.
McVeigh said: "As someone who has banged on for years about saving the pub, I am thrilled to actually save one myself on this historic market street. The building itself has been denuded of many of its original features - and we aim to restore it to its original glory as the key pub on the market."
