The Tamworth Tap

Looking at the Tamworth Tap, it’s hard to believe that only five years ago this was a closed Tourist Information Office for the market town in Staffordshire.

In that time, George and his wife, Louise, have transformed the shop, building and its outside space into a multi-award-winning brewery, pub and beer garden. In that order, as George explains: “It started as a little brewery project which became a commercial brewery.”

Following pressure from passers-by tapping on the window and enquiring when there was going to be a taproom opening, George obliged. “I did a couple of pop-up bars, and it just didn’t close,” he says. The ascent of The Tap was so steep that it led them to the CAMRA National Pub of the Year award just four years later.

But it was the operational regulations of the Covid period that really energised the beer garden overhaul. “We became a bottle shop during lockdown because of the brewery. People were queuing down the road; socially distanced, of course,” George says. “And when we reopened, that’s when we realised the potential of the garden. We could get 168 people seated safely.”

It wasn’t long before a wasteland with dilapidated outbuildings was transformed into a space named Best Pub Garden at last year’s Great British Pub Awards, described as “a medieval fairytale” by the awards’ organisers.

Hops, flowers, historic brewing artefacts and trees complement traditional beer garden furniture and subtle lighting. A music stage, kitchen, cinema screen and outdoor bar that doubles as an off-licence add to the convivial ambience that attracts so many “Tappers” (the affectionate term for Tamworth Taphouse drinkers).

When you consider that all of this is fitted into a 16th-century walled space with the Elizabethan Tamworth Castle looming large as a next-door neighbour, you begin to understand how The Tap’s acclaim has blossomed in such a short space of time.