Hive Honey Shop

 

Hive Honey Shop

 

VO
Northcote Road is a foodie’s paradise, and it’s only a stone’s throw from London’s busiest train terminal. Tucked away amongst all those funky eateries and delicious delis is a hive of mouthwatering industry.

 

IV James Hamill

The Hive Honey shop is totally dedicated to bees and honey. It’s the only shop of its type that I know of in all of the UK. In the shop we’ve got a five foot wall of bees. It’s a glass case, so people can walk into the shop and they can actually peer into the workings of a beehive. At any given time there’s usually about twenty thousand bees in this glass wall – it’s quite an eyeful.

 

JH
We’ve got about 750 products here, all hand made by myself and my wife and family. We do jams, we do honey mustards, which we make by hand, we make honey chutney, we do cosmetics. We do a whole range of shampoos, soaps, all based on things we collect from our own bee hives.

 

VOX

It’s a very unusual shop. It’s not often that you can go around, particularly in Clapham, you see a shop that’s quite different like this. It’s quite original.

 

JH
We’ve got a farm out in Surrey where we keep bee hives on site. And as a beekeeper what I need to be able to do is not only work with bees but also understand their natural flora all around throughout the south of England. I won a scholarship from the Queen Mother for beekeeping. And the Queen Mother was a real fan of honey, she was a wonderful woman. I met her at Clarence House, and I was told that wherever she went a jar of our honey went with her.

 

VOX
I am a honey fan, actually, because I sing, I’m a singer, and I drink hot tea with honey. Mexican Honey is my favorite honey.

 

JH
It’s fascinating to watch people come into the shop, actually try a honey and be so surprised at how different it can be. You don’t have to be a honey connoisseur to be able to realize the difference in the taste. There are as many flavored honeys in the world as there are flowers.