Conway brewpubs

Closed brewpubs

Battersea Brewery
Prince of Wales, 339 Battersea Park Road SW11 4LS (Wandsworth)
First sold beer: August 1983
Ceased brewing: 1989

Brixton Brewery
The Warrior, 242 Coldharbour Lane SW9 8SE (Lambeth)
First sold beer: 1984
Ceased brewing: 1989

Note: both these breweries were entirely unrelated to the current Battersea Brewery and Brixton Brewery.

By the early 1980s, Irish-born Mike Conway operated or had a stake in around 13 London pubs, some leased from Ind Coope or Watney, as well as two free houses, collectively known as Conway Inns. In reponse to growing demand for cask, in 1983 he converted one of them to a brewpub.

The pub chosen was the Prince of Wales in Battersea Park Road (not to be confused with the similarly named pub in Battersea Bridge Road), a Watney pub dating from around 1865. It was equipped with an 8 hl full mash kit supplied by Hickey Engineering of Bromley, visible from the bar through a glass partition and overseen by a keen young brewer, John Gilbert.

The brewery produced cask beer under the Battersea brand, including Bitter (around 3.7%), Nine Elms Mild (around 4%), Best Bitter (around 4.1%) and a stronger beer, Power House (around 5.1%).

The iniative was clearly deemed a success, as the following year the group installed a much bigger 24 hl brewhouse, also supplied by Hickey, at the Warrior, a sizeable corner pub built in the 1870s near Loughborough Junction station.

Branded as Brixton Brewery, this also brewed a Bitter and Best Bitter at similar strengths to its Battersea sibling, alongside Warrior Strong Ale (around 5.1%) and a seasonal Winter Warmer (over 6%). The brewery also experimented with unpasteurised lager, unusual for a microbrewery of the day.

In 1986, John Gilbert left Conway Inns to take on his own pub in Salisbury where he later created Hopback, one of the most successful UK microbreweries of its era. It continues to flourish today and also owns a London pub which briefly brewed in the 2010s: see Sultan.

Mike Conway subsequently began disposing of his pub interests and brewing at both locations ceased in 1989.

Following several name changes under different operators, the Prince of Wales was taken on in 2009 by the Lost group, which also briefly commissioned its own beers in the 2010s. It currently operates as a cocktail bar and restaurant, Lost Society.

The Warrior was renamed the Junction in the early 1990s and functioned as a club venue noted for its DJs. It closed in 2003, with the upper floors converted to flats and the ground floor since converted to a Tesco convenience store.

Updated 9 June 2024.

More London breweries
Closed London breweries