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By the end of 1980, there were 12 commercial breweries operating in London, including three brewpubs. 4 were part of national groups (N), one part of a multinational (M). These breweries were:
B&W Beer Company (Union Brewery), Hayes UB3 (London)
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.
Closed brewery 218 Tower Bridge Road SE1 2UP (Southwark) First sold beer: February 1980 Ceased brewing: by December 1983
Following the example of Godson’s and the Goose and Firkin brewpub, former local government finance officer Simon Hosking set up London’s second standalone microbrewery in 1980. It was partly funded by CAMRA (Real Ale) Investments (CAMRAIL), a commercial initiative set up by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) primarily to run exemplary cask pubs, on the understanding that it would supply CAMRAIL pubs at a discount.
Initially named Simon’s Tower Bridge Brewery, it was located in a former rope factory on the southern approach to Tower Bridge, with a lower level entrance on Horselydown Lane, opposite the giant Courage brewery, which was preparing to close. Assistance was provided by former Bass brewer Colin Lloyd, who had worked at another pioneering new brewing project, the John Thompson Inn in Ingleby, Derbyshire. The aim was to brew around 1,200 hl a year, nearly all in the form of Simon’s Tower Bridge Bitter (around 4.3%).
In what now seems a remarkably prescient move, Simon successfully applied to convert the upper part of the building into a taproom, clearly recognising the potential of the iconic site. But before this could open, the business found itself struggling with quality and cash flow, and was sold in July 1981 to Arthur Collins, a now-redundant former Courage brewer, and his business partners.
The new owners renamed it Tower Brewery, and finally opened the tap in May 1982 under the name Ye Olde Bridge House. It continued to produce beer in almost exclusively cask format: Bermondsey Bitter (around 3.7%), Bridge Special Bitter (around 4.6%) and a strong ale, Old Yeoman’s (around 7.5%).
Following objections from Bass, the name was changed again to Bridge Brewery in 1983, though production had ceased by the end of that year. For a while afterwards, the beers were cuckoo-brewed at Crouch Vale in Essex.
The taproom remained in operation, and in 2004 was acquired by much-respected regional family brewers Adnams of Southwold as its only London pub, now known simply as the Bridge House. In 2019 it was taken over by Bloomsbury Leisure/Pivovar as one of a small chain of beer-friendly pubs and renamed the Raven, though they chose not to reopen it after the 2020-21 Covid-19 lockdowns. It was finally reopened by a new operator in June 2022, still known as the Raven though with reduced beer interest.
Simon Hosking went back to local government, though returned to the beer world in 1997 by taking over the Wharf House in Oxford with a business partner and turning it into a specialist beer pub. It finally closed in 2006, after Simon’s involvement had ceased. He died in 2023: you can read an interesting obituary of this overlooked pioneer of London (and Bermondsey) craft brewing by Roger Warhurst here.
By the end of 1979, there were nine commercial breweries operating in London, including one brewpub, the first in the Firkin chain. 4 were part of national groups (N), one part of a multinational (M). These breweries were:
By the end of 1978, there were nine commercial breweries operating in London, none of them brewpubs. 5 were part of national groups (N), one part of a multinational (M). These breweries were:
By the end of 1977, there were nine commercial breweries operating in London, none of them brewpubs. 5 were part of national groups (N), one part of a multinational (M). These breweries were:
Formerly Godson Freeman & Wilmot. Includes information for Chudley & Co.
Closed breweries Original site (Godson): Black Horse Brewery, Atherden Works, Atherden Road E5 0QP (Hackney) Second site (Godson): Albany Works, Gunmakers Lane E3 5SB (Tower Hamlets) Original site (Chudley): 1a Saltram Crescent W9 3JR (Westminster) Last site: Black Horse Brewery, 84 Chisenhale Road E3 5QZ (Tower Hamlets) First sold beer: November 1977 (Godson Freeman & Wilmot), July 1981 (Chudley) Ceased brewing: 1987
Godson Freeman & Wilmot holds the distinction of being London’s first modern microbrewery and the first new brewery in the city since Guinness in the 1930s, as well as perhaps only the second entirely new standalone microbrewery in the UK.
It was founded by Patrick Fitzpatrick, a young entrepreneur whose family ran Murphy’s, a small chain of pubs in London and Dublin, credited with popularising Draught Guinness in the UK capital. Spending a year in India in the mid-1970s, Patrick read an article on British family brewers in the Illustrated London News, which inspired him to return to the UK and set up a brewery.
Patrick sought the assistance of former Whitbread brewer John Wilmot, who had become an independent brewing consultant when his employer ceased production in London in 1976. Deciding he needed a traditional, English-sounding partnership name with three components, as with several famous London breweries of the day, Patrick used the names of the brewery’s hop merchant and transport manager, alongside John’s, to yield Godson Freeman & Wilmot.
The brewery was initially based in part of a disused factory in Clapton that was earmarked for demolition. Equipment was recycled from Fremlins, Hancocks and Whitbread. A sister distribution company, Godson’s Ales, ran alongside the brewery and helped sustain the business, shipping beer from local and regional family brewers into London for sale in the growing number of ‘real ale’-friendly pubs
Godson’s were forced to move in June 1978 when Hackney Council accelerated its redevelopment plans, and Tower Hamlets council offered accommodation in a disused factory in Bow, just outside Victoria Park. But this turned out to be unsuitable, and in April 1979 it moved again to part of a former furniture factory nearby in Chisenhale Road, with an annual capacity of around 12,500 hl.
Beer was mainly cask, primarily bitter: Wilmot Hop Cone (around 4%), Anchor (also known as Best Bitter, around 4.2%), and Black Horse (around 5%). There was also a strong stock ale (around 8%), also available in bottle, as was Anchor.
As with many early microbreweries, quality and consistency proved challenging, particularly in warmer weather, but the brewery built up a following and in the early 1980s its beers were even available in pioneering beer pub Gollem in Amsterdam.
In 1982, Patrick planned a takeover of another of John Wilmot’s clients, Wiltshire microbrewery Tisbury, which was struggling with technical and financial problems. Intending to relocate production there, he invested time and money in attempting to restore Tisbury to working order, brewing the company’s beers in London in the meantime. But the deal fell through when Tisbury’s owners sold to someone else. The distribution side also suffered when some of the key brewery partners began direct deliveries to London.
Chudley Ales, London W9.
Meanwhile, Chudley & Co was founded by former Courage trainee Tim Chudley in 1981 in a carpenter’s shop attached to a residential house in Maida Vale. It was London’s third standalone microbrewery, though several brewpubs had opened in the meantime. Tim designed the 8 hl kit himself.
Chudley’s was almost entirely a cask brewer, with its repertoire in 1983 encompassing Local Line Bitter (around 4%) and Lords Strong Ale (around 5%), plus a strong winter seasonal, Draught Excluder (around 7.5%). Chudley also struggled, and in 1984 closed and merged with Godson’s to create Godson & Chudley, with all production in Bow.
Despite all the difficulties, the company completed a decade of operations before finally closing in 1987, with Patrick Fitzpatrick leaving brewing. When interviewed for their 2014 book Brew Britannia, he told Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey that he ‘was so devastated by what happened to the brewery — all that effort, only for everything to go so badly wrong’. He deserves wider recognition as a true pioneer of microbrewing both in London and the UK.
The rights to the name were sold to Salisbury family brewer Gibbs Mew, which contined to brew Black Horse and Local Line for a while. When Gibbs Mew closed in 1997, its brands were sold to Refresh UK, the company set up to take on some former Watney brands, so it’s conceivable Carlsberg now holds the Godson’s and Chudley’s trademarks.
The original Godson’s Clapton site, at the western end of Atherden Road on the north side, is now occupied by housing and car parking. The Chisenhale Road site still stands and is used as a dance studio.
I’m grateful to Boak and Bailey for some of the information on this page: see also their post here.
By the end of 1976, there were eight commercial breweries operating in London, none of them brewpubs. 5 were part of national groups (N), one part of a multinational (M). These breweries were:
By the end of 1975, there were nine commercial breweries operating in London, none of them brewpubs. 6 were part of national groups (N), one part of a multinational (M). These breweries were:
By the end of 1974, there were 10 commercial breweries operating in London, none of them brewpubs. 7 were part of national groups (N), one part of a multinational (M). These breweries were:
Mann Crossman & Paulin, Truman Hanbury & Buxton and Watney Mann combined into a single group, Watney Mann Truman, by existing owner Grand Metropolitan.
For definitions of a London brewery, see the current London breweries page.
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