Mike Huddart: Taking on Social Isolation... One Pint at a Time

by Klara Blazejovska

Mike Huddart, marketing (left), and Simon, co-founder (right), at GH Community Taproom

From reckless teenager to social worker, Mike Huddart is fighting for British hospitality to start catering for people with disabilities. Slingshot caught up with the man on a mission to make pubs accessible.

“I went to the festival called the Big Chill in Herefordshire. I was really hungover lying in a field feeling sorry for myself. In the middle of this huge forest, really hard to get into, I saw a guy in a wheelchair with cerebral palsy going past the stage with some guy with him and I thought: How did he get here? How is he here? And then I just saw him looking out and I was like, oh shit, that’s something I have never thought about.”

This was Mike Huddart’s epiphany, and the reason that he works with people with disabilities today. One that happened only a few years after he was partnered up with a cross-project kid at Waitrose when he was 18. “We worked together and really I didn’t see any difference, maybe I should, maybe I should have been properly trained.”

“I realised that every day, you can share it. If you can just make one life a little different in a positive way than you can walk away happy. For me it was that person supporting that person that wanted to be somewhere where it was hard, it was like a thing.”

Nineteen bus stops and a ten-minute walk from Brixton station, you will find Gipsy Hill and a craft brewery of the same name.

Beer cellar and a mat portraying the three founders of the brewery - Charlie, Sam and Simon

This is where Huddart spends most of his time, working under his official title of the brewery’s “Marketing and Events Guy”.

Unofficially, he has known the owners since they were rolling kegs in the same bar many years prior, a job he did to supplement the little pay-checks from the charities he worked for at the same time. They asked him to join them full-time twice before he actually said yes. It took “a platform with no ceilings” offer for him to come around and he has transformed the brewery into a community outreach business.

Since Huddart’s joining, Gipsy Hill have opened a socially inclusive taproom and brewed beer with and for people with disabilities. But Huddart says that he has never thought about it like that. “I think the mindset was always there, they just didn’t really know what it was.”

Gipsy Hill Community Taproom is crowdfunded and works with Certitude charity

When he says that, one can’t help but believe him. We are half-way through a pint, at the entrance of his taproom, right after a warm hug, when I realise that this is Huddart at his most authentic. A guy with a hippy hair bun, stubble and nothing but uncontrolled honesty when he speaks about empathy and understanding - the two things, he says, we really need to learn about and apply to be socially inclusive.

For five years he worked for charities aiding people with disabilities, taking them out, helping them to have fun. He frequently apologises that his research is limited and all he knows is from first-hand experience. One quickly comes to understand that Huddart doesn’t realise his stories speak for themselves, saying more than any research ever could.

He says that there is not a space for spontaneity in this life for people with disabilities. “It was tough. It is very hard to be inspired when you are limited.”

“We always ended up booking the train and I just got tired and tired of doing that, so I would not book the train and I just said we need a ramp. I’d hold the train doors until the ramp came and just told the station staff to think about it a little. It was quite aggressive.”

He phoned train companies urging them to hire more staff, he would face inadequate facilities in cafes, bars and pubs. “All this structure, people didn’t understand, the communication was not there. I just ended up having to split my group up, and those were supposed to be social trips.”

Now working for Gipsy Hill brewery Huddart continues to champion social inclusivity. The new Gipsy Hill taproom was built using crowdfunding. The space is open to everyone. It has easy-to-move chairs, tables of appropriate height to suit wheelchairs, a lowered bar, accessible toilets and everything organised in straight lines. At the taproom, all staff are trained to accommodate individuals with and without disabilities.

The taproom has easy-to-move chairs organised in straight lines, tables of appropriate height, a lowered bar and accessible toilets

When you walk in, you’re more likely to notice the industrial modernity with a Scandinavian style influence than the subtle changes that make the place socially inclusive. It raises a question: why aren’t there more such places?

Industrial modernity with a Scandinavian style influence and artists' mini expositions

Huddart says that the space and staff are very expensive, but the lack of knowledge plays an important role. A lot of people think that having a disabled toilet and a ramp is enough, but when they don’t get many people with disabilities they just use the toilet as a storage space and clear it when it’s needed.

Huddart plans to build a free online training program for hospitality businesses across the UK. It will be a safe and accessible place where the industry can learn about social inclusivity and make their business friendlier to the people with disabilities.

Huddart says that the space and staff are very expensive in hospitality but the lack of knowledge plays a role

Despite having many reasons to be upset and frustrated with society, Huddart’s faith in people is unshakable. He is a father, and his mum worked as a nurse. He used to spend a lot of time around the elderly in particular. “I think that’s where a lot of this stuff started originally. I have always felt comfortable around people. That was before I became a teenage piece of shit, partying,” says Huddart speaking fondly of others rather than himself one last time.

follow the author on Twitter and Instagram

#socialinclusion #gipsyhill #slingshotmagazine