One of the original brewers at Greenwich’s iconic Meantime brewery has died.

Rory Croghan was with the original team at the makeshift lab in Penhall Road in Charlton where Meantime began in 2000.

Mr Croghan had learned his craft as a brewer in his home country Zimbabwe in a brewery called the Beer Engine.

Alastair Hook, founder of Meantime, described Mr Croghan as a “Meantime brewing legend” in his 14 years at the craft brewers.

Mr Hook said: “When he wasn’t at work he was a fixture at the Greenwich Union, with a glass of ‘Paley Aley’ in his hands.

“People would always have time to listen to his deeply intellectual understanding of African politics, always footnoted with his heartfelt wish to return to ‘Zim’ once Mugabe had departed.”

He was able to return to Zimbabwe after he left Meantime in 2014, but last Friday, July 28, he died in a hospital in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe at the age of 52.

Mr Hook said: “He could talk to anyone, about anything, and in many ways echoed the spirit of The Greenwich Union and Meantime in their entirety.

“Without Rory who is to say Meantime would have been the success story it is. He was our shaman, our four-leafed clover and our heart, everything that was great about people, and nothing that was bad, all rolled in to one.

“I won’t be the only one who feels blessed to have known him, I won’t be the only one crying in to my beer tonight.”

A memorial round of drinks will be held at Meantime’s bar the Greenwich Union on August 11 so people who knew Mr Croghan can share stories.