Duke of Hammersmith Fails to Survive Brewdog Cull
Local pub falls victim to closures made by group’s new American owners
Picture: Duke of Hammersmith
March 3, 2026
The Duke of Hammersmith, the Brewdog pub on Shepherd’s Bush Road, has closed following the company’s collapse into administration, ending more than a decade of trading at one of the brand’s earliest and most recognisable London sites.
The bar opened in 2013 after Brewdog took over the former Laurie Arms, a traditional pub that had served the area for generations sited next to the former premises of the Hammersmith Palais. Its prominent position near Hammersmith Broadway, close to the Eventim Apollo and a short walk from Shepherd’s Bush, helped it become a busy venue. With two floors, a large corner frontage and a steady flow of footfall, the Duke quickly became one of Brewdog’s flagship west London locations during the company’s rapid expansion in the early 2010s.
Its closure follows Brewdog’s entry into administration and the sale of its UK brewing operations, brand and 11 surviving pubs to US drinks and cannabis company Tilray in a £33m deal. Administrators confirmed that 38 bars across the UK would shut immediately, with 484 redundancies, after they were excluded from the rescue package. The Duke of Hammersmith is among those that will not reopen.
The loss comes less than three years after Brewdog closed its Shepherd’s Bush bar near Shepherd’s Bush Green, which shut in 2023 after nearly a decade of trading. That venue had been one of the company’s first London bars and was known for its extensive tap list and regular events.
Administrators said the sale had preserved 733 jobs nationally but that no equity holders—including the thousands of small investors who bought into the company’s Equity for Punks scheme—would receive any return. Brewdog had been struggling to make a profit in recent years and had already announced job cuts and bar closures before the administration.
Unite the union described the redundancies as “devastating”, criticising the short notice given to staff. All Brewdog bars were closed on Monday to allow employees to attend meetings, and online sales were temporarily suspended.
Tilray will take over Brewdog’s Ellon brewery in Aberdeenshire and its distribution centre in Motherwell, along with the remaining UK bars included in the deal. The future of Brewdog’s operations in the United States and Australia is still being negotiated, while its German arm will be liquidated.
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