Bloomsbury Distillery Ltd

Bloomsbury Distillery Ltd was established in 2015 and opened its distillery in Spring of 2017. The Bloomsbury area of London was historically synonymous with distilling and counted both Gordon's and Tanqueray among its former occupants. The site was selected by founders, Alan McQuillan and Ben Harriman, on account of its modern day bar and restaurant scene however.

The original idea for the distillery was to create bespoke products for private clients, such as an Amer bitter produced to replicate a 19th century example supplied by the Beaufort Bar at the Savoy. The company's first public releases were another Amer, a Pastis and an award-winning peated vodka.

Although Alan McQuillan's earliest experiments in distilling were with rum back in 2011, the company did not produce any cane spirits at its distillery. Instead, it launched its Bloomsbury Atelier brand in 2019, the inaugural release from which was a spiced Jamaican rum called Cubana.

A second Bloomsbury Atelier product was bottled (a Shochu called Yamakara) but it was never brought to market after the closure of the distillery and liquidation of the company. Its assets, including distilling equipment and remaining stock were auctioned off in January 2021.