Nick T, Josie, Nick H, Amelia, and Sam: The Craft Beer Cabin
- Year Invented: 2018
Nick and Josie opened The Craft Beer Cabin in August 2018. Nick’s day job is in the craft beer industry, giving him knowledge of the market and the business started up as a passion project for the couple. They originally lived in West Norwood and started with a stall at West Norwood Feast, which ran on the first Sunday of every month. They quickly saw a gap in the market for a mobile craft beer business and bought a black cab and converted it into a mobile bar. Due to their success with the market stall and the mobile bar customers began to ask when they would open somewhere more permanent.
When Nick and Josie were looking to buy a house, they decided to settle in South Norwood. Around the same time, they also found the opportunity to turn their Craft Beer Cab into the Craft Beer Cabin, in the heart of South Norwood. The Craft Beer Cabin has now been open for four years.
Nick and Josie love meeting new faces and over the years The Craft Beer Cabin has had its own community grow with many regular customers. Nick describes The Craft Beer Cabin ‘like a cosy living room’, creating a welcoming atmosphere. One of the most rewarding parts of the job for Nick is seeing customers interact with one another and swap phone numbers. The couple have made new friends themselves through the business and have found many other young families moving to the area in similar positions to themselves. The business has created a rewarding opportunity to build new connections through what started out as their passion project.
Supporting local businesses is very important to them. In the coming years Nick hopes to see more pride in the high street with the current empty shops building a bigger community in South Norwood.
Words by Elizabeth Walters
Interview with Nick T, Co-owner of The Craft Beer Cabin, September 2021
This project was part of the South Drawood exhibition in 2022 by artist Jonny Kemp. A community art project celebrating the people of South Norwood, SE25.
From autumn of 2021 to summer 2022, Jonny drew 40 portraits of independent business owners, volunteers, and other movers and shakers from South Norwood, his local area. His partner Lizzie interviewed them.
South Norwood is regenerating yet doesn’t want to gentrify: it wants to keep its character and support people who already live in the area to prosper. This was Jonny and Lizzie’s way of ‘giving South Norwood a hug’: by representing the diverse people of SE25 through portraits in fine liner pen, and their own stories.
The portraits were displayed in Stanley Arts, a beautiful Edwardian arts venue on South Norwood Hill. Over 150 people attended the opening night: Friday 29th July 2022.