Welcome to the South East London Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale. Our area covers the boroughs of Southwark, Lewisham and Greenwich, and the parts of Lambeth with an SE postcode.

Welcome to our branch website.

The purpose of the site is to highlight activities within our area primarily in the areas of brewing, cider making and supporting pubs. It also provides reference material to members and the general public on how to resist pub closures and details of some of the local campaigns.

We organise social events both within the branch area and beyond. We try to make these a mix of both weekday evenings and weekends.

Check out the Diary for more details up coming events.

See a brief summary of our history here.

Pub Of The Year 2026

After judging visits by volunteers the overall winner of the branch Pub of the Year 2026 is Hand & Marigold, Bermondsey Street. We presented the award on Wednesday 3rd June.

Congratulations to the licensee and all staff at this most worthy winner for achieving their success in competition with other great venues.

The pub will now compete in the Greater London Regional stage of the national competition and we wish them well as they go forward.

The area winners were as follows:

SE1 post code area: Hand and Marigold, Bermondsey. Award for this was done on 3rd June.

Greenwich: Green Goddess: Blackheath Standard. Award for this will be done alongside a social on Tuesday 9th June, 7:30-9:30pm.

Lambeth and Southwark outside SE1: Mayflower, Rotherhithe. Date and time of the award is TBC.

Lewisham: Shirkers Rest, New Cross. Award for this was done on 5th May.

Thanks to all those who took part in the voting and the judging to determine the overall winner.

Cider Pub Of The Year 2026

After a judging visit by volunteers, the overall winner of the branch Cider Pub of the Year 2026 is The Miller, 96 Snowfields.

Congratulations to the licensee and all staff at this great cider venue.

The award will be presented alongside a social at The Miller on Tuesday 23rd June from 7:30pm onwards.

3rd Dulwich  Beer and Cider Festival

This year’s branch beer festival was once again held at Dulwich Hamlet FC between Thu 21st and Sat 23rd May 2026.

Over 1,600 visitors attended, an amazing 28% more than in 2025!

All 60 casks of beer sold out along with all the cider & perry, and the bottles/cans did a roaring trade.

The beer of the festival was Mount St Bernard – Tynt Meadow and the cider of the festival was Gregg’s Pitt.

See our Festivals page for more.

Spring Cider Festival 2026

This year’s cider festival was once again held at RocketVan, 92 Brandon Street, Walworth on Sat 25 April.

The weather was kind and over 200 visitors drank us dry with 35 different real ciders and perries being consumed.

Special thanks to the many guests who kindly donated their glass deposits to our chosen charity St Christopher’s Hospice raising almost £90 to support the excellent work they do.