The London brewery changing lives in its community

Ignition brewery has recently been making waves in beery circles, and not just for the quality of its output, which, if you want to try it for yourself, you’ll have to get yourself to Sydenham in south London because Ignition’s beer is rarely found outside its own postcode.

That’s mainly because it’s brewed in a Lewisham Council-run community centre and output is so limited that most of it is drunk within a few metres of the brewery. But perhaps of more significance, everybody who works at Ignition – save for the company directors, head brewer and bar manager – has a learning disability. That’s about 70 per cent of the staff.

Nick O’Shea, the founder of the brewery, had been volunteering with Mencap for 10 years when seven years ago a chance talk with a nun – Sister Els – in a pub led to the launch of Ignition. “I was telling her that I wanted to create jobs for people with learning disabilities but what could I do?” He says. “We were in a bar. We looked at our beer glasses and she said ‘this?’” O’Shea gave up a job in economics, bought an unused brewing kit for £1 and approached Lewisham Council to see if they had space for his project. Now, in the corner of the Sydenham community centre, sits the Ignition Brewery and Tap Room.

It’s a not-for-profit business and O’Shea is one of three directors, the others being fellow trustees Will Evans and Terry McGuinness. The brewery and taproom are self-sustaining through sales, but there is a council grant supporting separate work on unemployment for people with learning disabilities. “It was my founding ethos to provide such opportunities,” says O’Shea, “I liked beer but knew nothing about brewing. But I realised that it had an end product that people enjoyed and offered jobs that were productive. Not that there is anything wrong with making sandwiches but that was a stereotype of the kind of job people with learning disabilities have traditionally done. We pay the London living wage and want to open up opportunities to people who are very able and willing to work but are often never given the chance.

“And we have to be good. Most people come for the beer not because of our founding principles. We are just a brewery with a distinctive team.”

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So how does Ignition recruit its staff? “Lewisham Mencap has a Tuesday club with a disco,” explains O’Shea. It’s great for meeting enthusiastic people who want to work hard. We get to know them, learn what work they can cope with: bottling, carrying kegs, being great with customers, pouring pints, whatever. Half our staff find reading difficult so we colour code our tills and use pictures. But aptitude, reliability and commitment are key. We are aspirational and, I hope, empowering. And I’d say to any other employer in London or beyond that if our staff is anything to go by, people with learning disabilities can perfectly fill the gaps in today’s employment market. And,” he adds, “our employee Chris also runs Sydenham’s best karaoke.”

A similar project is operating in Bristol. Props, a local charity supporting people with learning disabilities, took over the Tapestry brewery in the city after it suffered post-pandemic financial problems. Project leader Tom Medland says that such initiatives are “indicative of communities with a sense of social responsibility.” And he praises other breweries who, rather than seeing Tapestry or Ignition as competition, are only too keen to help out with advice and brewing equipment.

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“The beer we brew has to be good enough to go on sale so we can keep the project going,” Medland says, something O’Shea echoes. Judging by the response of the local community in Sydenham that is being achieved all too well. “Nearly every pint is drunk in the community centre,” he says. “And any spare capacity goes into local off-licences.”

And with the Great British Beer Festival looming, does O’Shea have any plans to start brewing real ale and take the brewery’s beer onto the nation’s biggest stage, where the Champion Beer of Britain will be declared this week? “Our local branch of the Campaign For Real Ale would love us to brew cask beer but right now we don’t have capacity or space, but nonetheless they have been fabulously supportive of everything we do,” says O’Shea.

Given half the chance it appears most Sydenham locals would vote for their local brew. Sydenham resident Janice Greig who has visited Ignition more than once says: “I visit the Great British Beer Festival every year, pandemic permitting, and I’m telling you, this stuff is special.”