Blink and you’ll miss it, Craft Metropolis is a hard-to-find and hard-to-leave spot that channels all of the cool understated London microbreweries have finessed over recent years. 

This private little Loughborough Junction spot is well hidden, down a single-file alley off the otherwise unremarkable Hinton Road. Travel up the tiny passageway right under the train line and duck into Craft Metropolis’s arch which makes clever use of space to create a compact microbrewery and taproom. 

Dark and fresh inside, you’re met with the bar upon entry from which you collect your incredibly delicious brew, before heading up the stairs and onto the mezzanine level placed above the brewing zone. Up here a large window in the back arch allows light to seep in over the tables, and otherwise darkly painted room. 

A screen hung above the door creates an almost cinema-like sport-watching environment up on the top deck, with rugby matches beamed onto it for the big games. As the image in this guide will show, this is a hard spot to stumble across by accident but is well worth making the effort to find, especially when you keep in mind its sizeable selection of refrigerated cans you can available takeaway.

This is a spot that exists in the half spaces, the kind of venue that leaves you amazed someone has managed to fit such a big operation into such a small space, the kinds of place that make living in a great city so rewarding — when you find it.