Mother Kelly's (Vauxhall)

Thirty taps down one wall of a railway arch on Albert Embankment, which Matt Brown counted at thirty-three and called "more beer taps than just about anywhere else in town" (Londonist).

Why go

Size is the argument and the buying is what makes it hold. Londonist found an elderflower sour and a peanut butter jelly imperial brown ale at 10% on the same board in June 2018, which is the spread you want from a list that long (ref). The venue's own count is thirty taps in July 2026, down from the thirty-three the press counted (venue site). Nothing carries a clip badge, so you ask, and the bar samples you toward something.

The heavy beers arrive as halves on purpose. Alex Plim, reviewing for Time Out, put it as "most of the brews here are served in smaller quantities, clearly they're to be savoured rather than swigged, with the focus firmly on appreciation rather than inebriation" (ref).

This is the second arch the group opened, three years after Bethnal Green, and it is the bigger one. Long tables fill a single wide arch backing onto the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, with two outdoor areas and trains going over all evening. Stackin Dough runs NY pizza slices and pies out of the room Tuesday to Saturday, which is a change from the cheese boards and visiting trucks the 2017 review describes.

One warning worth carrying. The fridges are the takeaway side, and Plim gave the room five stars while writing "be warned: the prices are outrageously high".

Order this / avoid

• Order: a half of whatever is strongest on the board, since the bar pours it that way anyway. Ask for a pale ale and let them sample you to it. Pizza from Stackin Dough between Tuesday and Saturday, at a long table. A 440ml crowler filled off the tap you liked.
• Avoid: loading up from the fridges without looking at the shelf price. Monday to Wednesday before 4pm, when it is closed. Booking it as somewhere quiet, because the trains never stop.

What locals & experts say

• Matt Brown, Londonist, 21 June 2018: "The place has more beer taps than just about anywhere else in town. A staggering 33 options present themselves, even more than the parent bar in Bethnal Green." On the room: "With the constant rumbling of trains, it feels a bit like drinking in a barn during a thunderstorm." ref
• Alex Plim, Time Out, 9 October 2017 (5 out of 5, Recommended): the owners "have taken the stripped-back, railway-arch aesthetics applied at their Bethnal Green flagship and recreated them in Vauxhall. Except this time there's more of everything: space, seats, choice and people." And on service: "a kindly barman spotted me panicking and patiently provided samples until I landed on a pale ale that turned out to be one of the most delicious things ever to pass my lips. Top marks for service." ref
• The critical line, from the same five-star review: "there's a bunch of fridges jam-packed with bottles and cans that you can take home. Though be warned: the prices are outrageously high." ref

Good to know

• Where: 76 Albert Embankment, SE1 7TP, a railway arch by Vauxhall station backing onto the Pleasure Gardens. The hygiene register lists the same door as Arch 76, SE11 5AW.
• Timing: Monday to Wednesday 4pm to 11pm. Thursday to Sunday noon to 11pm. It shuts at 11 every night.
• Booking: walk in. The arch takes whole-venue hire for parties and events.
• Food: Stackin Dough serves NY pizza slices and pies Tuesday to Saturday. Sunday and Monday you eat elsewhere.
• Takeaway: the bottle and can fridges, plus 440ml crowlers and growlers filled at the tap.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5, Lambeth, inspected 11 April 2026, FHRSID 981533. Components read hygiene 5, structural 5, confidence in management 5, where lower is better, so this is a clean pass in the middle of the range. ref
• Sites: four. This arch at Vauxhall SE1, the original at Bethnal Green E2, Stratford E20, and a Blendary and Taproom at Tottenham N17. This row is Vauxhall. Older writing mentions Homerton and Stoke Newington shops; neither is on the group's locations list or the hygiene register, and neither is claimed here.
• Names and the fix: this list carried two rows both called "Mother Kelly's", both filed under Bethnal Green. This one was Vauxhall the whole time. Both rows now carry their branch, and this row's suburb has been corrected.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His saved-places export carries an empty note for this row. The master list's line "Railway-arch taproom and bottle shop" came from an earlier enrichment pass, not from him.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — Worth the detour if you drink beer, and the better of the two arches. Thirty taps run along one wall of a railway arch on Albert Embankment, backing onto the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, and Matt Brown counted thirty-three of them for Londonist and wrote that it is 'more beer taps than just about anywhere else in town'. The buying is what makes the number mean something: an elderflower sour on one line and a ten percent peanut butter jelly imperial brown ale on another. The strong ones come as halves by design, because the bar wants them tasted. Time Out gave it five stars against the Bethnal Green original's four, on the plain reading that this room has 'more of everything: space, seats, choice and people', and the numbers still agree: thirty taps to twenty-two, two gardens, long tables that hold a crowd, and NY pizza from Stackin Dough Tuesday to Saturday. It stops short of must-visit honestly. Both bylined verdicts are eight and nine years old, there is no award on the wall, and the one critical line anyone has written is that the takeaway fridge prices are 'outrageously high'.