Cools. On visits to Hamlet in recent years I've mainly met mates in (at their recommendation) the Phoenix or the Brick Brewery at Peckham Rye. Haven't tried any of the others so I'll give one or two a go on my next visit. Probably not the Craft Union one though - I live round the corner from one of their Brighton pubs and I'm not overly keen on the "Wetherspoons for football hooligans" vibe.
I'd say the Gowlett is your best bet for trying somewhere different next time. It gets a fair amount of matchday trade, but it's far enough out of the way not to get overwhelmed.
Situated in a back street on the Peckham and Dulwich border, this corner house is an oasis for real ale drinkers and is popular with people of all ages, and their dogs. It has a C-shaped bar with some attractive original dark wood-panelled...
whatpub.com
I'm not sure Jamie Hooper was that bothered about making it a success. He pretended too, but he also argued that the inability to make it work as a pub at planning to convert it into flats. It's a shame there was not an Ivy House style resistance to the death of a great pub.
I think Jamie simply lost interest in the end. He wasn't really hands on enough due to his other commitments, which I believe included a restaurant in Brighton where he was based. He employed a manager to run the pub and came up to stay there for 2 or 3 nights over the weekend. There were times when it was hours late opening on a Friday evening, because it was the manager's day off and Jamie was supposed to open up and take charge, but he just hadn't arrived.
At one time there was a pretty good live music scene there on weekend evenings and he got lucky with finding one or two really good managers, one of whom (Nick, a Kiwi I think?) later managed the Old Nun's Head. The final manager was less enthusiastic (a woman who just seemed to sit at the end of the bar chatting with her boyfriend) and a new neighbour who moved into a house opposite began making incessant complaints to Southwark Council about noise nuisance. (Apparently she was a barrister, who knew exactly who to complain to and how to word the complaints for maximum effect.) They had to close at 11pm instead of midnight at weekends, put shutters on the windows during the live music, close the outside smoking area etc., and trade clearly dropped off.
I think Jamie tried to sell it as a pub at first, but he also had a bit of a bee in his bonnet with CAMRA, who he thought (a bit unrealistically in my view) should have been doing more to promote it. Ultimately I got the feeling it was a bit of a hobby or an indulgence for him. He fancied owning a pub that was his idea of the perfect pub, where he could hang out with like minded regulars, but he didn't really have the time or dedication to do it thoroughly. He'd have been better off buying a shop and converting it into a micropub.
It is a shame it couldn't have become a community pub, but sadly it had already closed before the Ivy House became the first one and provided the template for others to follow.
