About the Black Hen (formerly Mermaid)

Summary of Beer Scores

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Website.

The pub is found in Clapton, Greater London, E5 8EE.

The name Mermaid in Clarence Road is significant in the history of Hackney pubs, with a Mermaid Tavern present on what is now Mare Street by 1636. This became Hackney’s preeminent pub, with extensive gardens and amusements and playing host to various civic events, but was demolished by 1845 as the area developed. By 1851 a replacement Mermaid Inn had opened on the opposite side of Mare Street and this pub survived until at least 1944; the premises continuing today as ‘Mermaid Fabrics’. Meanwhile, a pub called the Cricketers Hotel was present in Clarence Road by 1851. This was a Mann Crossman Paulin Brewery house, later passing to Watney’s. Trading as Shamps for a while in its latter years, the pub became more of a nightclub than a true pub and, following a series of ‘incidents’ it was closed down following a police raid in November 2009. The pub re-opened in 2014 as Verden, and was again relaunched in December 2016 as the Mermaid. In this latest guise it is now in the same ownership as the Earl of Essex in Islington and the King’s Arms in Bethnal Green. There is seating space in ground floor and basement bars, plus pavement tables. The pub is a beer specialist house, but, oddly, keeps no cask conditioned beer – relying on kegs, KeyKegs, bottles and cans to supply its customers. Reinvented as a bar / restaurant when re-opened in October 2022 with a new name too.

We have visited this pub once, seen 2 different beers and tried both.

Map location

Postcode: E5 8EE