Why is there is no celebration of British beer in London?
Last week, as my train pulled into London Bridge station, a board on a large building announced: 'Hop Exchange - apartments for sale'.
The Hop Exchange is a historic site.
From the late medieval period, hops from Kent were brought to the building where brewers would barter with farmers over the best price for their crop. As the name suggests, it was the brewers and farmers' equivalent of the Stock Exchange.
The building has been empty for years. It would make a brilliant base for a beer museum, just a few yards from one of London's major train and Underground complexes.
The exchange is also close to Vinopolis, the hugely successful tourist attraction devoted to wine. It traces the history of the tipple, the way in which grapes are cultivated and the different varieties of wine available. It has restaurants and cafes, and stages regular wine tastings.
Good luck to Vinopolis. But Britain makes tiny amounts of wine whereas we produce vast amounts of beer. We are renowned throughout the world for styles unique to this country - mild, bitter, India Pale Ale, old ale and barley wine - and yet there is nothing similar to Vinopolis in the country's capital that extols our great contribution to world beer.
There is a fine museum in Burton-on-Trent, formerly the Bass Museum, now owned by Coors. Many breweries have small museums or visitor centres devoted to the history of brewing.
Fortunately the gap left by the lack of a brewing museum in London is filled to some extent by a new venture in the revamped Borough Market area that lies close to the Hop Exchange, Southwark Cathedral and the Globe Theatre.
Brew Wharf in Stoney Street (SE1, 0207 378 6601) is the brainchild of the restaurateur Trevor Gulliver, with financial support from Vinopolis, which owns shares in the project.
Set in vaulted rooms with bare brick walls, it is a bar, restaurant and micro-brewery.
The five-barrel plant, visible behind plate glass windows in the main dining area, is run by Iain Peebles.
It is his first venture in brewing and he is fashioning some splendid ales from the plant, which was installed by the legendary David Smith, designer of a vast number of small breweries, who also trained Iain.
He is currently producing two bitters and is tinkering with the recipes.
On the day of my visit I tasted two bronze bitters at 3.5% abv and 4.1% abv, one tangy and peppery with the use of English Goldings hops, the other spicy and fruity due to the use of the Fuggle variety.
The beers married well with the dishes available, including the famous French toasted ham and cheese sandwich, croque monsieur.
The choice of beers at Brew Wharf is not confined to its own products. As well as American, Belgian and Czech brews, there are beers on tap from the craft Meantime Brewery in nearby Greenwich, run by German-trained master brewer Alastair Hook.
They include a Czech-style Pilsner, a Kolsch inspired by the ales from Cologne in Germany, a Bavarian wheat beer, and a Belgian-style raspberry fruit beer.
Meantime's bottled Porter is the perfect companion for mussels and oysters on the menu, while the brewery's bottled IPA is a quite brilliant match for beef or blue cheese.
A restaurant devoted to beer in London is a major step forward in placing brewing on a deserved pedestal.
But more needs to be done. It requires the combined energy of everyone involved in brewing, selling and enjoying beer to invest in a London museum of brewing.
BBPA, IFBB, Cask Marque, Beer Academy, SIBA and Camra should put their heads together in an attempt to give beer the recognition it deserves. The Hop Exchange is available.
