Hop harvest on banks of the Thames

Volunteers picked the first harvest of hops grown in London for more than 100 years last week. The Urban Hop Farm is the brainchild of Alastair Hook's Meantime Brewery, based in Greenwich, and the hops will be used in a new bottled beer that will be released later this year.

The hops -- the Fuggles variety -- were planted on the banks of the Thames behind the O2 Arena. Fuggles are best known as the main variety grown in Kent and brought to London to the Hop Exchange in Southwark but they were also grown in London. Alastair Hook says the warm summer has offered the best possible conditions for the first crop of hops.