Bohem Brewery’s third London venue transforms the long-empty Queen’s Arms into a Czech beer specialist pub. Opening within weeks at 139 St Philip Street with authentic Bohemian lagers, traditional pouring techniques, and Czech pub snacks.

A new pub’s coming to Battersea – and it’s set to be a bit special. The 180-year-old Queen’s Arms has stood empty for a couple of years, has a new occupant – as the third venue for Bohem Brewery, who specialise in traditional Bohemian-style lagers. It is located at 139 St Philip Street, Battersea, London, SW8 3SS, not far from Cedars Road, heading towards Queenstown Road station.

Bohem are a proper brewery – putting considerable effort in to making the best beers, brewed by Czechs and Slovaks, in London. Their brewery is hidden away in an industrial area close to Spurs’ stadium in Tottenham, and uses bespoke equipment imported from the brewers’ homeland; it also sells to a range of other pubs round the country.

We caught up with General Manager Jakub, who already runs the Nicholas Nickleby pub in Finsbury Park, and explored the works in progress to update the pub and prepare for opening.

His vision for The Queens Arms is similar to Bohem’s two existing pubs in north London: they’re not making a beer hall, but instead want to create a proper welcoming pub with a Czech twist – that combines the best of London & Czech beer & pub culture.

Our photos are of the works in progress, about a week ago, when the power was not yet up and running and there was a lot to do. But fear not – progress is ongoing and chances are by the end of the month or so this will be a fully operational pub!

Bohem started out in 2018 with the Bohem Tap Room in Bowers Park (north of Wood Green) – which was their first venue, and which stands out for its diminutive size – being a fairly small shopfront. They went on to take over the Nicholas Nickleby in Finsbury Park, pictured below – a somewhat larger and more classically pub-like vene.

The Nicolas Nickleby also has London’s first chladici vana, or cooler bath, a contraption that makes sure that the beer glasses are clean, wet, and above all cold: by removing the temperature change between the cold room and the tap, the beer doesn’t get a shock when it’s poured. The plan is to have one at the Queen’s Arms as well.

Bohem’s own beer unsurprisingly has pride of place in their pubs – however they go well beyond this, with a range of imported Czech wines and spirits, rotating guest beers, and a variety of foods including some Czech specialities.

All Bohem’s beers are brewed using imported double decoction brewing equipment, and traditionally lagered at low temperature for a minimum of six weeks. The beers at the Queen’s Arms will be served from Lukr side-pour taps (which are a rare thing in London – they’ve been imported from the Czech manufacturer), pouring beer directly from a cold storage room in the authentic Czech style.

The Queen’s Arms is an excellent purpose-built Victorian pub – with high ceilings, loads of space, lots of light, the choice seat being the one below in the corner – as well as the option to use a sunny pavement area that has the benefit of being off the main road. However the challenge of the site has long been just that, that it is just off the main roads, so the landlord needs to be a little better known to attract custom.

Bohem’s unique offer of a beer lover’s dream, with beers you can’t find anywhere else around, live music, classic pub games, proper Czech pouring techniques, together with the strong popularity of their existing two venues, looks like just the thing to relaunch the Queen’s Arms.

While the work is ongoing we explored the whole of the site, including the surprisingly extensive basement – which has lots of separate sections and is a bit of a labyrinth, much of it with a just-slightly-too-low ceiling that makes it not especially useful other than for beer storage.

However something we didn’t know is that one of the high-ceilinged sections of the basement includes a fully fitted modern kitchen, which will open up considerable catering possibilities.

The Nicholas Nickleby has developed a reputation for quality Czech pub snacks, and the plan is to do something similar here.

There’s still lots of work to do – but the aim is to open within the next few weeks.

It’s good to see the return of the Queen’s Arms, and especially to see it with an enthusiastic team behind it – bringing something quite different to Battersea. We’ll keep you posted in the countdown to the opening – and do make sure to pay our new local a visit when it opens.

The Queens Arms, 139 St. Philip Street, Battersea, London, SW8 3SS – opening soon. In the meantime Bohem Brewery‘s Instagram, including reports on the work in progress, is here.

This article was originally published on lavender-hill.uk.