Kill the Cat

Both sites are closed. The Brick Lane shop shut on 28 July 2024 after eight years, and the Spitalfields bar that outlived it now trades as a cocktail bar.

Why go

You cannot. This entry exists so nobody makes the trip. What it was: a craft-beer bottle shop and bar at 43 Brick Lane, opened by Phil Curl and Wes Anson, running about ten taps and a couple of hundred cans and bottles bought for curiosity rather than for turnover, with small plates matched to the beer and regular tastings (CAMRA East London & City). A second, bigger site opened in Old Spitalfields Market in July 2023 with ten keg lines and around 200 packaged beers (London Beer Guide).

Order this / avoid

• Order: nothing. There is no counter left to order at.
• Avoid: the trip. 43 Brick Lane is a Chinese bakery and 14 Market Street is a cocktail bar.

What locals & experts say

• Phil Curl and Wes Anson, the founders, to their mailing list, reported by Drinks Retailing: "We've battled changing conditions and ridden out the Covid storm, but now is the right time to call it a day... This was the original, so it's with a heavy heart we have to say goodbye. It's been a hell of a ride." ref
• CAMRA's East London & City branch, on the record for 43 Brick Lane: "Please note this Pub is closed 28/07/2024 and became Permanently Closed 29/07/2024... Inuse as Chinese Bakery/cafe." ref
• London Beer Guide, on the Spitalfields site at its best: "the beer list of 10 drafts included lots of really interesting beers when we visited. You can also choose from the wide range of bottles & cans to drink in or take away." The page is now headed "Closed!" ref

Good to know

• Status: closed. Brick Lane, 28 July 2024. Spitalfields, some time before April 2026, when CAMRA's branch recorded the unit as a cocktail bar with Kill the Cat Spitalfield listed under previous names.
• What is there now: 43 Brick Lane E1 6PU holds Danta Cha, registered with the food-hygiene authority as a manufacturer or packer and inspected in August 2025. 14 Market Street E1 6DT trades as Double O Martini Bar.
• A warning for the next agent: the FSA register still returns a Kill the Cat record at 14 Market Street, rating 5, inspected 21 May 2025. A live register record is not a live business, and neither is a listing. The address is what settles it.

Jeff's take (his words)

Nothing. His saved-places export carries an empty Note for this row, checked against london/data/_src-part3.csv. The master CSV's "Craft beer bottle shop and taproom on Brick Lane" line came from an enrichment pass and was accurate when it was written. It is not accurate now, and the row's Status of Open has been corrected.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

listed — Closed, and worth knowing why. Phil Curl and Wes Anson ran a bottle shop on Brick Lane from 2016 with ten taps and a couple of hundred cans, and it was one of the rooms that taught London beer drinkers to buy adventurously. They shut it on 28 July 2024 and wrote to their mailing list that they had 'battled changing conditions and ridden out the Covid storm, but now is the right time to call it a day'. The Spitalfields bar and kitchen they opened in July 2023 kept going for a while and has since become a cocktail bar. It stays on the board as a record rather than a recommendation, because the history is real and because a row that says Open is worse than no row at all.