Is this E10 bar London’s best kept secret?

So we finally made it to Signature Brew‘s one-day-a-week watering hole tucked in the middle of Leyton’s Business Centre. I know, I know, the location doesn’t necessarily bode well. Especially on the blisteringly windy, drizzly Saturday just gone.

Perhaps to put casual passers-by off, the signage is minimal, so our advice is be brave and just walk right on in, past the brewery tanks, and the burger pop-up (currently the rated We Serve Humans), and up some rickety stairs.

And there it is: a handful of mismatched tables and chairs ready to host about fifteen drinkers, industrial lighting, and smiley barman Paul, who cheerfully explains that they don’t just serve the beer brewed on site.

Hell no! They want everyone to enjoy the place, he says – not just the geekier kind of male – so go ahead, be their guests and order a Sipsmith gin, a cold prosecco, a mulled wine, a cocktail.

Or, like us traditionalists, a refreshing ale. Their light and hoppy Signature Pale made a good start, which we preferred over the unfiltered lager, not quite up to Beavertown or Camden Brewery heights. The Wild Winter dark ale is worth a taste, too: intensely Christmassy, with overtones of spice and nectarine.

But the beers are only part of all this: it’s the clubby appeal of that oft-abused term, the “hidden gem” – in this case run by experienced east London booze collective House of Carouse – which made everyone so friendly and sociable. As the afternoon dissolved into evening, the room filled; by 6pm there was standing room only, a convivial atmosphere all the while prevailing.

In short? This is absolutely the best kept secret of the area – no, scratch that, London itself. In summer Paul said we should expect a celebratory Wildcard Brewery-style industrial estate vibe complete with outdoor seating and live music, too.

So now we challenge anyone to tell us about a more perfectly tiny bar, in a more random corner of the capital, than this. Over to you.