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A once-familiar bar mount for Watney’s notorious keg bitter Red Barrel.
This page covers the now-closed Stag Brewery at Mortlake as well as the also-defunct original Stag Brewery at Pimlico. For the more recent attempted revival of the Watney brand see Watneys Beer.
Closed breweries Stag Brewery Pimlico Brewer Street SW1E 5JD (Westminster) First sold beer: by 1641 Ceased brewing: 1959
Stag Brewery Mortlake Lower Richmond Road SW14 7ET (Richmond upon Thames) First sold beer: by 1765 Ceased brewing: December 2015
Combe & Co Woodyard Brewery, Old Brewers Yard, Shelton Street, WC2H 9PU (Westminster) First sold beer: by 1722 Ceased brewing: 1905
Reid’s Griffin Brewery 85 Clerkenwell Road EC1R 5AR (Islington) First sold beer: likely by 1690 Ceased brewing: 1899
The closure of the Stag Brewery, beside the river Thames in Mortlake, in 2015, truly marked the end of an era. The Stag was the last working remnant of the giant breweries that turned London into the world capital of brewing in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the last redoubt of the post-war Big Seven brewing groups in the city.
The story likely begins in the 17th century with the original Stag brewery much closer to central London, at the west end of Victoria Street in what was then the rural surrounds of Pimlico, just across from the future site of Victoria station. It was likely founded by the Greene family, who may have been brewers at the domestic brewhouse at Westminster Abbey not far away. William Greene is recorded as brewing at the Stag in 1641, and the brewery’s name is derived from the three stags on the family crest.
The family sold the business to a partnership known as Moore & Elliott in 1793. The Watney family first became involved in 1837 when James Watney bought a share, sponsored by his father-in-law, a hop merchant and brewer. In 1858, the Watney family took 100% ownership, expanding the site and renaming it Watney & Co. By the time the company was registered in 1885, it was the sixth biggest brewery in London, with an annual output of over 570,000 hl.
The Mortlake site may have an even earlier history, with some accounts claiming it originated as a domestic brewery set up to supply Richmond Palace in 1487, or as a monastic brewery attached to Mortlake Manor House when it belonged to the Archbishops of Canterbury prior to 1535. But the first evidence of brewing on the site is in 1765, when Mortlake was still a small riverside village.
In that year, James Weatherstone and William Richmond both operated commercial breweries opposite each other on Thames Street. The street no longer exists: it ran as a continuation of Lower Richmond Road from what’s now the bend around a corner of Mortlake Green, northeast through the current brewery site to the riverside at the Town Dock, now Bulls Alley Draw Dock (SW14 8HL).
In 1807 Weatherstone bought out his neighbour with the help of a business partner and subsequently the two sites were run as a single brewery. The business passed through the hands of several subsequent partners until 1852 when it was bought by Charles Phillips and James Wigan. They expanded the site substantially in the 1860s, acquiring large swathes of neighbouring property. Defying local opposition, they successfully lobbied to stop up public rights of way, including Thames Street, and enclosed the resulting campus, now known as the Mortlake Brewery, within a forbidding wall.
Frontage of the Stag Brewery, Mortlake, dating from the 1860s consolidation.
Wigan left in 1877 to take over a brewery in Bishops Stortford, and Phillips continued to run the business with his sons. When he retired in 1889, they sold the brewery to Watney, taking seats on the new owner’s board. The Watney managers were attracted by the Mortlake Brewery’s reputation for good pale ales, and initially primarily used the site for that purpose, with porter and stout production remaining at Pimlico. In 1890, Watney bought and closed Carter Wood & Co’s Artillery Brewery on Victoria Street, Westminster (founded c1823) and in 1895 did the same with Day’s of Saffron Walden.
The company expanded substantially in 1898 to become the biggest brewer in London, Watney Combe Reid & Co, merging with two other major historic porter brewers. Combe & Co began as the Woodyard Brewery, founded by John Shackley sometime prior to 1722 in a former woodyard off Shelton Street in Seven Dials. In 1787, when it was the fifth biggest brewery in London, it was bought by entrepreneur Harvey Combe, with former Whitbread brewer Joseph Delafield as one of the partners. By 1888, when it was registered, its annual output was around 800,000 hl.
The history of Reid’s Griffin Brewery may date back to at least the 1690s, when a brewer is recorded in the aptly-named Liquorpond Street in Clerkenwell, now the stretch of Clerkenwell Road between Grays Inn Road and Hatton Garden. The site was certainly operational by the 1730s. Richard Meux and Mungo Murray bought it in 1763 after their previous site, Jackson’s Brewhouse, not far from the Woodyard in Mercer Street, Seven Dials, which they’d bought in 1757, was badly damaged in a fire. They borrowed the Griffin emblem from the heraldic shield of nearby Grays Inn. Andrew Reid became a partner in 1793 and in 1807 it became Reid & Co when, following a disagreement, Richard Meux’s grandson Henry left to buy the Horseshoe Brewery at St Giles (established by 1764: its successor company was eventually bought by Allied — see Ind Coope).
Originally Combe and Reid planned to merge, but then decided to bring Watney in too. Reid was closed within a year of the merger, in 1899, while Combe continued in operation until 1905.
Many more takeovers and closures followed. Those in Greater London were:
Woodbridge Yorkshire Stingo Brewery, Marylebone, founded c1827, bought and closed 1907.
Chelsea Brewery Co, founded c1850, bought and closed 1820.
Isleworth Brewery, founded by 1726, bought 1924, closed 1952.
Huggins Lion Brewhouse, Soho, founded by 1836, bought and closed 1928.
London & Burton Brewery, Stepney, founded 1862, bought and closed 1929.
Stockwell Brewery (Hammerton’s), founded 1730, bought and closed 1951 (but see also the modern Hammerton).
Watney was a UK pioneer of pasteurised draught beer and pressurised gas dispense, techniques that had been increasingly adopted in the US and elsewhere. According to Martyn Cornell it developed a system dispensing from large cellar tanks pressurised with carbon dioxide in 1913. In 1930, the company installed a German-built bulk pasteuriser at Mortlake and began experimenting with pasteurised beer and pressurised dispense from steel vessels, then known as ‘containers’ rather than kegs. The original intention was to create a draught beer suitable for export, but there was another obvious application in outlets where cask beer wasn’t practical because of limited cellar facilities, opening hours or turnover, like the East Sheen Lawn Tennis Club where the new Watney’s Container Bitter was first served to UK customers in 1935.
The company grew substantially again in 1958 through a merger with another big London brewer, Mann’s, eventually closed in 1979. The original Stag brewery in Pimlico, an area by now known almost universally as Victoria after the station, closed the next year to make way for a major redevelopment including a traffic gyratory system, and Mortlake became the main brewery, inheriting the Stag name.
Watney Mann was a keen participant in the ‘merger mania’ of the period, turning itself into a major national force through acquisitions of substantial regionals like Ushers in Trowbridge, Wilsons in Manchester, Phipps in Northampton, Websters in Halifax and three breweries in Norwich. At the dawn of the 1970s it was firmly established as one of the ‘Big Seven’ national brewers, with eight brewing sites and around 6,000 pubs. It had also begun to expand its interests internationally, acquiring Maes of Waarloos, Belgium, in 1969.
It was during this period that the brewery became identified with arguably the most notorious keg beer of all, Watney’s Red Barrel. Named after a longstanding element of the brewery’s branding, this first appeared as a premium bottled pale ale at around 4.3% in 1950. In 1956, it became the heir to the 1930s experiments with ‘container bitter’, initially as an upmarket brand targeted at non-pub outlets, even including luxury ocean liners. But as sales grew it became more economical to produce and was soon being marketed aggressively in pubs. Reformulated to an inferior specification and rebranded as Red in the early 1970s, it became a byword for a poorly brewed and characterless national brand foisted on an unwilling public.
In 1971, Watney attempted to take over the last surviving large London independent brewery, Truman’s, but found itself fighting a losing battle with the Grand Metropolitan hotels and catering group, which was keen to diversify into brewing and pubs. The Truman deal made Grand Met a serious player and the following year it made a successful bid for Watney Mann too, merging the two companies to create Watney Mann Truman in 1974.
In the early 1970s, the Stag at Mortlake was still producing some cask beer: Special Mild (2.3%), an ordinary bitter known as London IPA or Star Light (3.2%) and Special Bitter (4.4%). Keg Red was by then a desultory 3.5%, though notably more expensive than Special Bitter. There were various bottles, including two barley wines, a pale one known as Export Gold (9%) and a darker one, Yorkshire Stingo (8.7%), inherited from the brewery of the same name which was actually in London as mentioned above. Another iconic product was a version of Star Light in a large can, known as a Party Four, holding four pints (2.3 l), or a Party Seven, holding seven (4 l).
Following the takeover, cask was soon withdrawn at the Stag but, in response to growing consumer demand, by 1977 a revived version of cask Special Bitter known as Fined Stag Bitter (4.5%) was introduced to selected pubs in London, southeast England and the East Midlands, initially produced in Norwich. Cask brewing was revived at Mortlake the next year with the launch of London Bitter (3.8%).
The company closed several of its sites over the succeeding years. It sold its Belgian interests in 1986 and finally closed Truman in 1989. The next year saw the introduction of the Beer Orders, a set of government regulations aimed at restricting the tied house system which had far-reaching consequences for the structure of the brewing industry. Grand Met responded by withdrawing from brewing in 1991, selling its breweries and beer brands to Courage (with the exception of a small handful that were sold to a management buyout: see Manns). Both breweries’ pubs were spun off into an arm’s-length, jointly-owned company, Inntrepreneur.
Courage then leased the Stag at Mortlake to US giant Anheuser-Busch (AB) of St Louis, Missouri, and it was adapted to brew ‘American’ Budweiser in bottle (4.8%) and keg (4.3%) for the UK and wider European market (the ABV of both formats has subsequently been ‘levelled’ to 4.5%). AB bought the site outright in 2002, and it 2008 was bought out itself by Belgian-Brazilian group AmBev to become part of the newly-formed ‘world’s biggest brewer’ Anheuser Busch InBev (AB InBev or ABI: see also Whitbread). ABI was soon planning to close the Stag, though it was reprieved several times due to the high demand for Budweiser, before finally ceasing to brew at the end of 2015.
Where are they now?
Red was withdrawn from the UK market in 1979, and the brand was now regarded as so toxic that the company even removed the red barrel from its corporate branding in 1982. But the poor reputation didn’t extend to international markets, and Red Barrel remained available primarily as a bottled beer in the US until 1994 and in Belgium, France and Spain to around 1998, latterly brewed at facilities other than Mortlake.
Following the Courage deal, the other Watney brands were quietly retired (other than Manns, which had been dealt with separately), with the rights to them eventually passing via Scottish Courage to Heineken (see Courage). The only Watney-branded beer that has remained available throughout is bottled Scotch Ale (8%) for the Belgian market, derived from a 90/- ale from Edinburgh’s Drybrough Brewery, bought in 1965 then sold to Allied and closed in 1967. The beer is now brewed at Alken-Maes in Alken, Belgium, successor to former Watney subsidiary Maes and now also owned by Heineken.
In 2016, a company called Brands Reunited decided that sufficient time had passed for the brand to be revived ironically. It licensed the name from Heineken and commissioned two new beers in keg and can, distant relatives of Watney’s pale ales, from Sambrook’s. In 2021 it even claimed to have revived the Party Seven, actually in the form of a 5 l minikeg, but the beers disappeared from sale soon afterwards.
Following a period of decommissioning, ABI vacated Mortlake during 2016, though retained a presence in London through its purchase of Camden Town in 2015. It also operated the Goose Island Brewpub in Shoreditch between 2018 and 2022. The Budweiser sold in the UK is now likely brewed at Magor and Samlesbury, the lager plants ABI’s predecessor InBev inherited from Whitbread.
The Stag site was sold a Singapore-based developer and is up for regeneration as a new mixed-use neighbourhood of flats, shops and offices, conserving at least some historic buildings. Like many such proposals, it’s been met with local opposition and is still crawling through the planning process: the most recent plans were rejected by Richmond council and a public inquiry is due in 2024.
Grand Metropolitan, meanwhile, returned to brewing in 1997, merging with Guinness to form Diageo. The pub estate has long since passed into other hands, primarily Stonegate and Greene King.
Things to see
The buildings on the Stag Mortlake site still stand as they did when they were vacated in 2016, pending approval of redevelopment plans. Most of them date from a major rebuild in the 1970s, but a few historic structures remain, and currently none of them is listed. The site is closed to the public but some features can be seen from surrounding streets and footpaths.
Starting from the mini-roundabout at the junction of Lower Richmond Road, Sheen Lane and Richmond High Street (26 Lower Richmond Road SW14 7EX), a short walk from Mortlake station, the office block with its elegant curve to the corner is an 1860s legacy, due to be retained. Following the curve northwards along Lower Richmond Road you soon reach what was then the main entrance and is still used as an access point today. The drive here is a stump of Thames Street which originally continued straight ahead, in line with the the westward reach of Lower Richmond Road. Two decorative iron gates, one with the legend ‘Stag Brewery’, flank a gatehouse with a concrete plaque depicting a stag, dating from the 1960s after the brewery was renamed. Behind the gates and slightly left is a late 19th century block with a decorative medallion.
Following the more recent wall west from here along Lower Richmond Road, past a disused entrance in front of a 1970s industrial block with a tall chimney, you reach the corner of Ship Lane. The Jolly Gardeners pub opposite (36 Lower Richmond Road SW14 7EX), on this site since at least 1720 and once known as the Three Tuns, predates the expansion of the brewery and was never connected to it. The current pub was built by Young’s in 1922.
Continuing past the pub on Lower Richmond Road you pass a westwards extension of the brewery, including a new brewhouse, dating from the early 1970s. A section of angled-in wall opposite 5 Lower Richmond Road (SW14 7EZ) displays a war memorial plaque saved from the original Stag at Pimlico. Next to it is a plaque commemorating two brewery employees who died in 1975 trying to rescue a colleague who had collapsed from fumes while inspecting a sewage treatment tank and were similarly overcome. A little further on is what became the main entrance, with 1970s Stag Brewery signing on the gatehouse. The adjacent private sports ground was once Watney’s sports and social club.
Retrace your steps to Ship Lane to continue on a circuit of the site as consolidated in 1863. The lane separates the older and newer sections, with two overbridges connecting them. The structures on both sides are modern, what appear to be liquor tanks right and grain silos left, except for a stretch of older wall on the right.
Reaching the river Thames, one of the remaining historic buildings, also due for conservation, rears up on the right corner: a tall brick 1890s maltings, doubtless located here to take advantage of river transport. It was originally even bigger but partially demolished in the 1970s. Its forbidding profile is due to appear as a workhouse in Disney+ period drama TV series A Thousand Blows, which was partially filmed here in 2023. The Ship pub opposite (10 Thames Bank SW14 7QR) dates from 1781 and is well known for its location on the finishing line of the Oxford-Cambridge boat race: it’s also unconnected to the brewery and was formerly a Taylor Walker pub.
Downstream on the Thames Path is some late 20th century Budweiser branding which also names the brewery, intended to be seen from the river. The wall is at first recent, then largely made up of the former external walls of 19th century buildings, most of which have been demolished. Towards the end of this stretch is the site of the old Town Dock, part of which remains as Bulls Alley Draw Dock, returning you to the High Street.
Right along the High Street you pass more old walls, culminating in the facade of the former bottling plant, topped with the legend ‘Mortlake Brewery 1869’ and two niches with medallions inscribed with the monogram ‘P&W’ (Phillips & Wigan) in florid style. This will be retained in the redevelopment. A few more paces returns you to the curved office building.
Combe’s Woodyard Brewery at Seven Dials, seen from the junction of Earlham, Shelton and Neal Streets, as depicted in Alfred Barnard’s Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, 1890. The building in the centre with drays outside is currently Urban Outfitters.
Remarkably, substantial remnants of both Combe and Reid remain in central London. Standing on the small square at the junction of Earlham, Shelton and Neal Streets in Seven Dials, Covent Garden, facing the entrance to Urban Outfitters (52 Earlham Street WC2H 9LH), all the buildings in front of you were once part of Combe’s Woodyard Brewery, interconnected by overbridges at second floor level, including the Urban Outfitters building itself and the Diesel building to the right. The brewery buildings continue for some distance on both sides of Earlham Street.
To the left, facing onto Shelton Street and Neal Street, is the original core of the site, with an archway on Shelton Street opening onto Old Brewers Yard. Practically the entire block enclosed by Neal Street, Long Acre, Langley Street and Shelton Street once formed part of the brewery, and the survivors include an early 19th century warehouse at 3-7 Neal Street (WC2H 9QL). This and several of the other buildings are Grade II-listed. As explained elsewhere, a new Guinness brewpub, retail and events space is currently under construction in the heart of this site which, when complete, should reveal more brewery heritage.
By the 1880s, the Woodyard extended to the west side of Langley Street, with more connecting overbridges. The big blocks at 20-22 Shelton Street (WC2H 9JJ) and the London Graphic Centre on the corner of Shelton Street and Mercer Street (WC2H 9JL) were part of the site, with Mercers Walk running through it.
The imposing block now known as the Lever Building, on the south side of Clerkenwell Road between Hatton Garden and Leather Lane (85 Clerkenwell Road EC1R 5AR) was once the main building of Reid’s Griffin Brewery. Note the striking octagonal clock on the gable at the Hatton Garden end. The site stretched south to Hatton Wall. A little along Hatton Garden, on another gable high above the cycle docking station, is a medallion depicting a griffin. None of these buildings are listed.
Immediately opposite the southwest corner of Leather Lane and Hatton Wall is a Grade II-listed mid-19th century former Reid pub, originally known as the Clock House but now Craft Beer Co Clerkenwell (82 Leather Lane EC1N 7TR). It’s a one-star heritage pub by virtue of its interior and also stocks an excellent range of contemporary beer.
The Grafton Arms at 2 Strutton Ground (SW1P 2HP) is all that remains of the Carter Wood Artillery Brewery, which was behind the pub and the other buildings facing the street to the south, but was demolished soon after it closed in 1890. The gated alleyway to the right of the pub was once a public road, a continuation of Old Pye Street (then known as Pear Street) giving access to the brewery yard.
Two major redevelopments, between 1959-64 and 2004-18, have obliterated the site of the original Stag brewery near Victoria Station, with some work still ongoing. Sir Simon Milton Square, the east-west walkway through the Nova complex which leaves Buckingham Palace Road by the Stoke House Restaurant (81 Buckingham Palace Road SW1W 0AJ), more-or-less follows the line of the former Brewer Street which originally led to the main brewery entrance. Today it takes you to Bressenden Place, a street built as part of the traffic system in the first redevelopment. The brewery was on the other side of this, stetching east towards Palace Street. Following its demolition, a new Stag pub was opened in 1963 at 15 Bressenden Place, on the west side just to your left, closed and demolished in 2012 to make way for the Nova Building, voted the UK’s ugliest building in 2017.
Two remnants of the first redevelopment remain: Portland House (SW1E 5RS), the 101 m tower immediately opposite on the other side of Bressenden Place, which covered the brewery entrance, and Roebuck House, a residential block behind it to the northwest. These and several other now-demolished blocks were arranged around a central square, Stag Place, an area now covered by the northern part of Cardinal Place Gardens and part of the 21st century block to the north.
On the southwestern corner of Stag Place, the developers commemorated the brewery with a 6.4 m aluminium sculpture of a rearing stag by Edward Bainbridge Copnall. When the site was prepared for redevelopment in 1997, the stag was returned to the artist’s family. They originally donated it to Sevenoaks in Kent but the local council decided they couldn’t provide a site for it, so in 2004 it was installed beside the river Medway in Maidstone at Lockmeadow Entertainment Centre, at the western end of the Millennium Bridge (Barker Road ME16 8SF).
Brewhouse at the Botanist, Richmond TW9, since moved twice and now at Ignition Brewing.
For historical interest, this is a list of commercial breweries which have operated in London in recent years but have since closed, suspended brewing activities for a significant length of time, switched to brewing on other people’s equipment or relocated outside the capital. Below it is a list of breweries which have changed name, often following a change of ownership: this may be helpful in finding information about a particular brewery.
Brixton Brewery (Warrior, Conway Brewpubs) SW9, Lambeth, brewpub 1984-89, unrelated to current Brixton Brewery.
Brixton Brewery Herne Hill (Heineken) SE24, Lambeth, 2018-24, production moved to Beavertown Ponders End, small-scale brewing continues at Brixton site.
Closed brewery, former brewpub Original site: Queens Head, 66 Acton Street WC1X 9NB (Camden) Second site: 11 Gales Gardens E2 0EJ (Tower Hamlets) Last site: 1 Queens Yard, White Post Lane E9 5EN (Tower Hamlets) First sold beer: January 2015 (as Queens Head), March 2018 (as Old Street) Ceased brewing: December 2023
The Old Street story started in 2013 when staff at the Queens Head pub near Kings Cross first attempted brewing under the name Against the Grain. Initial experiments weren’t successful but, following long delays and the installation of a new, very small 1 hl kit, consistency and quality became good enough to sell the beers in the pub, where they were simply branded with the pub name.
In October 2016, two keen staff members from related beer bar Mother Kellys, Adam Green from Arizona and Andreas Wegelius from Finland, took over brewing duties. They renamed the operation Old Street Brewery after the location of the flat where they had begun homebrewing — rather confusingly as the brewery itself has never been based there.
Activities at the pub stopped in May 2017 so the kit, now resourcefully adapted to double its capacity, was relocated to a Bethnal Green railway arch with space for a taproom, opened in April 2018. The brewhouse was replaced a year later by a much bigger 10 hl kit formerly at Pressure Drop.
Further expansion followed in November 2020 when production shifted to a more expansive location, also with a taproom, amid the cluster of breweries in Queens Yard, Hackney Wick, neighbouring Crate, Howling Hops and Truman’s.
The Bethnal Green arch initially continued in use as a bar but the brewery closed this down in November 2021 to concentrate on the Old Street site, which also featured live music.
Components of the beer menu frame a tank at Old Street’s old Bethnal Green site.
Like many others, Old Street struggled to survive following the 2020-21 Covid-19 lockdowns, a challenge exacerbated by rent increases. It last brewed in December 2023 and had closed for good by mid-April 2024.
Nearly all the beer was sold through the taproom, from keg and sometimes cask, with occasional mobile canning runs.
Brewery Original site: 5B Wilmer Business Park, Wilmer Place N16 0LW (Hackney) Second site: 19 Bohemia Place E8 1DU (Hackney) Current site: 6 Lockwood Industrial Park, Mill Mead Road N17 9QP (Haringey) pressuredropbrewing.co.uk First sold beer: 12 January 2013
Former Euston Tap cellarman Graham O’Brien and Sam Smith (no relation to the famous Yorkshire brewing family) are old school friends, and Graham met the third partner in Pressure Drop, Ben Freeman, on an internship at London Fields. They developed their first recipes on a Braumeister pilot brewery in Graham’s garden shed in Stoke Newington in the summer of 2012, but lack of space meant much of the work was done outside – which they quickly realised wasn’t a viable option with winter on its way.
The first commercial brews emerged from a small industrial unit nearby, then in March 2013 they moved to a Hackney railway arch using an 8 hl kit from ABUK. This soon also proved too small, despite the addition of fermenters bought second-hand from Beavertown during one of its various moves.
Over the course of 2017, production was transferred to a new 32 hl Gravity Systems brewhouse, new fermenters and a canning line in a much bigger space with a generous taproom in Tottenham Hale, coincidentally just opposite Beavertown on the same industrial estate. The Hackney arch was restyled as The Experiment bar, operated jointly with Cornwall’s Verdant Brewing. This closed in July 2023 following the expiry of the lease and a failure to renew at an affordable rent.
Pressure Drop’s current Tottenham brewhouse.
Pressure Drop brews a variety of
contemporary beers in keg and can.
Closed brewery 23 Westgate Street E8 3RL (Hackney) First sold beer: September 2014 Ceased brewing: July 2016
This brewing supplies stall run by Canadian-born Adam Khedheri at Netil Market near London Fields also sold own-brewed beers created on a 1.2 hl homebrewing kit in a tiny unit constructed of recycled containers, mainly for sale on draught for visitors to the market. The stall had closed by July 2016 and brewing ceased.
Brewery, no longer in London Original site: 8 Almond Road SE16 3LR (Southwark) Second site: 34 Raymouth Road SE16 2DB (Southwark) partizanbrewing.co.uk First sold beer: November 2012 Ceased brewing in London: 10 March 2023
Former chef, White Horse Parsons Green cellarman and Redemption brewer Andy Smith had the opportunity to create his own brewery when the Kernel upgraded and offered him its old 6.5 hl kit. Although Andy was initially concerned about seeming too much in the Kernel’s shadow, Partizan eventually settled on a railway arch in an area known locally as the Blue close by, becoming the second of the Bermondsey breweries.
Early in 2015, it took over the next-door arch, number 7, in preparation for a new brewhouse with a 25 hl AB-UK mash tun and a copper which the brewers converted themselves from a former power station water tank spotted rusting in a Yorkshire field. The old kit was gifted once again to Cyclic Beer Farm in Barcelona, co-founded by former head brewer Josh Wheeler.
The brewery moved to a much bigger arch around the corner in November 2017, taking the brewhouse but adding a six new Malrex cylindroconical fermenters and a small bottling line. Further, larger fermenters were added in 2021. The taproom had unique bar fonts designed by Alec Doherty, an old friend of Andy’s who has long been responsible for the distinctive branding and labels.
With rents on the arch increasing, Partizan had long considered a move out of London and with footfall in the taproom failing to return to pre-lockdown levels, matters came to a head in early 2023. The taproom closed at short notice in March, with the assets sold to Langton Brewing in Market Harborough where Andy will continue to brew the brands, so at least Partizan beers will continue to be available.
Perhaps the most significant post-Covid loss to London brewing, the departure of Partizan was also a notable development in Bermondsey following Anspach & Hobday and BBNo relocating production elsewhere, significantly reducing the brewery total in what has long been regarded as the capital’s craft brewing crucible. The changes undoubtedly reflect the more aggressive approach of new landlords the Arch Co.
Partizan brewed beers for keg, can and bottle in a wide range of styles. Reflecting Andy’s background, restaurants made up a significant proportion of customers.
The Park Brewery, Kingston upon Thames (London) KT1
Brewery Original site: 95 Elm Road, Kingston upon Thames KT2 6HX (Kingston upon Thames) Current site: 7 Hampden Road, Kingston upon Thames KT1 3LG (Kingston upon Thames) theparkbrewery.com First sold beer: March 2014
Originally, the Park Brewery was a very small 1.5 hl operation in Kingston started by husband and wife team Josh and Frankie Kearns to brew bottled beers for the Jam Tree pubs in Clapham and Chelsea. It was named for its proximity to Richmond Park.
Activities soon expanded and diversified, initially growing to a 6 hl kit, but problems with the premises led to the suspension of brewing in March 2018. For a while beer was cuckoo-brewed at Reunion Ales and Hop Back in Wiltshire.
A crowdfunding campaign allowed a move to the current, larger, site on a small industrial estate. Production restarted in February 2019 on a 25 hl brewhouse custom-made by Johnson Brewing Design, with space to expand further and a taproom upstairs.
Stylish alternative to a real animal head in the Park taproom.
The move was overseen by head brewer Adam Hardy, formerly at Reunion, who has since moved on, replaced by Phil Banks, ex-Battersea.
Park opened a second, non-brewing outlet in March 2024, Park Brew and Kitchen, only a short walk from the southwest corner of Richmond Park.
Beer is packaged in keg, cask and can and most of the names have some connection to the park.
Brewery 225 Fielding Street SE17 3HD (Southwark) (Taproom at 233 Fielding Street SE17 3HJ) orbitbeers.com First sold beer: August 2014
Robert Middleton worked in occupational pensions until deciding to take a career break travelling round his native Scotland visiting breweries, resulting in a book, The Tea Leaf Paradox: Discovering Beer in the Land of Whisky, and a keen interest in brewing. With the help of Stuart Medcalf of Twickenham Fine Ales, he set up this 16 hl plant in a railway arch under the Thameslink Sutton branch, with branding that reflected his love of music and vinyl records.
Fermentation capacity was subsequently increased several times and the brewery expanded to occupy four arches. In July 2021 it took on two further arches on the other side of Fielding Street as a dedicated taproom. An enlarged brewhouse is planned for 2022.
The current head brewer is Paul Straget, formerly at now-defunct Mad Hatter in Liverpool.
Orbit’s Digger series, best stored in dusty crates.
Beers are in keg or bottled on the brewery’s own line. An initial focus on beers inspired by German and other European traditional styles has since broadened out, though the musical influence remains, with graphics based on amplifier controls used in the descriptions on the labels.
Closed brewery, former brewpub Original site: White Hart, 1 Mile End Road E1 4TP (Tower Hamlets) Second site: 2 Compass West Estate, West Road N17 0XL (Haringey) First sold beer: June 2013 (at original site as Mulligans; second site first sold beer as Redemption February 2010) Ceased brewing: January 2023
The brewery commenced operations in 2013 on a small 4 hl kit in the cellar of the White Hart in Whitechapel. At first it was known as Mulligans but was very soon rebranded to One Mile End after the address of the pub. Under the skilled guidance of head brewer Simon McCabe, a former musician recruited from Redemption, demand soon grew beyond the pub.
When Redemption expanded to a bigger site in March 2016, One Mile End took over its former Tottenham premises and 20 hl brewhouse. Simon moved on early in 2018 and is now making both wine and beer at the Nota Winery in Finland. His replacement as head brewer was former geologist Pierre Warburton.
The brewhouse at the White Hart remained unused on site for some time, but was removed in September 2022 when the pub was sold to McMullen brewery of Hertford. Soon afterwards, the Tottenham brewery rebranded to OMEBEER as it no longer maintained a link with the pub.
Business under the new brand lasted only a few months before closure early in 2023.
The old Redemption brewhouse still in use at One Mile End.
Beers were in contemporary style in cask, keg and can, using a mobile canning line, with occasional bottle-conditioned specials.
Monkey Chews Brewery, London SE15. Pic: South East London CAMRA.
Closed brewpub Montague Arms, 289 Queens Road SE15 2PA First sold beer: June 2015 Ceased brewing: by end 2015
The landmark Montague Arms, a big roadside pub between New Cross and Peckham which was once renowned as a music venue, was rescued from potential closure in 2014. Brewing equipment was delivered in May 2015 and the first beers were sold shortly afterwards, under the name Monkey Chews after a bar previously run by owner Noel Gale. The experiment proved short-lived, with no house beer appearing beyond the end of that year. The pub closed in January 2018, and the brewhouse had been removed when it reopened under new ownership a few months later. It closed again in July 2019, though may reopen under yet another new owner in 2020.
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