(The Arch House: Courtesy Anspach & Hobday)

Fronting the River Thames near Tower Bridge in the South London borough of Southwark, Bermondsey is an old waterside precinct with an almost notorious London history that has now become the ‘it” neighborhood for beer drinking and breweries.

In the mid-19th century it was a infamous slum area, a shanty town described in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist as having “dirt-besmeared walls and decaying foundations, every repulsive lineament of poverty, every loathsome indication of filth, rot, and garbage.”

But now it’s all about beer…

If you’ve done a beer tour in London, you’ve no doubt been to what has become known as the Bermondsey Beer Mile.  It’s a loose amalgamation of brewery taprooms and bottle shops, located along a Victorian stretch of railway arch that allow for taprooms with soaring arched ceilings and great vibe.

On Saturday all of them are open at the roughly the same time which has given birth to one of the finest bar and brewery crawls in London. We’ve done that and so should you.

As the first brewery to open on the Mile, a serious Bermondsey beer tour is not complete without a visit to The Kernel, an absolutely brilliant brewery that we hit on a recent visit to the UK.

But the Beer Mile is nearly two miles long nowadays and The Kernel is but one of more than sixteen  serious craft beer venues including Anspach & Hobdy, another great brewery and taproom that will soon ground zero for the world’s first beer opera.

When one thinks opera, one thinks of soaring voices and stern librettos, but probably not beer. Well that’s about to change in the heart of London’s legendary beer mile.

Besse: Water, Rye and Hops is coming to the brewery’s The Arch House for a one night performance in August. The opera, produced by “Infinite Opera,” tells the story of Besse, a female Brewster from the middle ages who struggles with accusations of witchcraft and murder, while the black death wreaks havoc around her.

And to celebrate the August 24 event, which will be actually staged on Anspach & Hobday’s bar at The Arch House, they have brewed a special beer named Besse, a smooth Pale Ale with a fruity palate and a crisp, refreshing finish that should pair brilliantly with a night at the beer opera.

(All image credits: Anspach & Hobday)