Union Brewery

Also known as B&W Beer Company. Formerly Roger Booth Brewpubs.

Closed brewery and brewpubs

Iron Bridge Tavern
477 East India Dock Road E14 0GJ (Tower Hamlets)
First sold beer: December 1980
Ceased brewing: August 1982

King of Beasts
65 Graham Street N1 8LA (Islington)
First sold beer: June 1981
Ceased brewing: August 1982

Union Brewery
Pump Lane Industrial Estate, Silverdale Road, Hayes UB3 3NB (Hillingdon)
First sold beer: October 1982
Ceased brewing: February 1983

The return of pub brewing to London accelerated following the opening of the pioneering Goose and Firkin in 1979. Another aspiring chain was Brewpubs Ltd, founded by professional brewer Roger Booth.

Its first London outlet, launched at the end of 1980, was the Iron Bridge Tavern. This was a substantial Docklands pub in Poplar, first opened around 1854 but rebuilt by Taylor Walker in 1935. In the early 1960s it was one of the pubs run by jazz and blues singer and actor Queenie Watts (1923-80) and her husband Slim. Bought from Taylor Walker’s successors Ind Coope, the pub was equipped with an 8 hl malt extract kit, mainly used to brew a cask bitter at around 4.4%, sold at 52p per pint.

The company acquired its second pub in May 1981, the Duke of Bridgwater in Islington, also bought from Ind Coope. This was renamed the King of Beasts after the character created by cartoonist Ronald Searle. It was similarly equipped with an 8 hl extract kit.

Despite the recruitment of an ex-Bass brewer, the initiative wasn’t a success. Brewing at both pubs ceased in late summer 1982 and by the end of that year they’d both been sold to a new owner, Hillingdon-based beer agency and distributor B&W Beer Co.

New owner Roger Berman decided to centralise brewing for the pubs and sell beer through his existing business from a standalone site in a Hayes industrial estate, investing £50,000 in a new kit from Mortons of Burton upon Trent with a intended annual capacity of 8,000 hl. As head brewer he recruited former Watney chemist Vincent O’Rourke, who had previously set up another pioneering microbrewery, the Raven in Brighton. Union produced two cask beers: Union Bitter (UB, around 3.5%) and Union Extra Bitter (UXB, around 5.1%).

Within a few months, however, the distribution side of the business crashed due to cash flow problems, bringing the brewery down with it. The business was wound up early in 1983 and both pubs closed.

The Iron Bridge Tavern, which under B&W ownership had been turned into a ‘dancing showbar’ known as Plums Two, didn’t reopen as a pub and was eventually converted to a hostel. It was demolished in 2011 to make way for the Aberfeldy development, and a block of flats and a small park now stand on the site.

In 1984, the King of Beasts reopened as the Fallen Angel, an ‘alternative’ gay pub known for its inclusive approach and its hosting of numerous community and campaigning groups including Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. It was also a stockist of Pitfield beers. It changed hands in the 1990s, becoming the Dove Regent, a sister pub to the Dove in Hackney, but was closed in 2002 and has since been converted to flats.

Updated 6 June 2024.

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