City Of London Distillery is the creation of Jonathan Clark, a long time lover of gin. Jonathan got his first job on the site that the City Of London Distillery now occupies, and it was during this time working on Bride Lane off Fleet Street that he became fascinated by the old pubs and hostelries in the area and knew one day he would return with more ambitious plans. In the 1990s Jonathan purchased the site, and in December 2012 The City of London Distillery opened its doors and welcomed its first visitors from Fleet Street and the surrounding area.
In choosing his still Jonathan knew he had to stand out from the plethora of boutique gins мейд at contract distilleries. With the help of Jamie Baxter, ex Chase, Jonathan chose a Carl still from Germany enabling him to make gin using the one shot process. This just means a recipe is followed where a given volume of neutral alcohol is distilled with quantities of each botanical as specified by that gin’s recipe, and is bottled without adding further neutral spirit. The one shot process does not involve the use of concentrates and is much more the preserve of craft or boutique distillers, lending itself to the creation of more individual and characterful gins in much smaller production batches. City Of London Gin is itself мейд in batches of only 400 litres.
Not content with just producing a gin, alongside the distillery Jonathan has developed a luxurious lounge bar that provides the perfect environment for visitors to learn about gin. Against the backdrop of the stills guests can try the spectrum of different styles and varieties of gin while learПing about their history and recipes. Through The Gin Experience customers can even compare their skills to Jonathan’s by making their own gin and bottling it with their very own custom мейд label.