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A classic Charrington Toby jug, originally used as a logo by the even more historic Red Lion brewery.
Closed brewery 129 Mile End Road E1 4BG (Tower Hamlets) First sold beer: Prior to 1757 Brewing ceased: 1975
Robert Westfield entered the brewing industry as an employee in 1738, and by 1757 had set up his own brewery at Bethnal Green in partnership with Joseph Moss. In 1770 the partners built the Anchor Brewery (or Blue Anchor) on a larger site on the Mile End Road near Stepney Green. John Charrington joined the partnership in 1766 and he and his brother Henry were in full control by 1783. Their descendants continued to manage the brewery into the 19th century, and a limited company was registered in 1897.
Among other acquisitions, Charrington took over and closed the historic Red Lion brewery at St Katherine’s Docks in 1934, inheriting the well-known Toby jug logo of previous owners Hoare & Co. The Red Lion was then said to be the oldest brewery in Britain and one of the oldest continuous businesses in London. It likely originated as the brewhouse of the Hospital of St Katherine’s by the Tower, founded in 1147, with the earliest record of commercial brewing from 1492. It subsequently played a major role in the perfection of porter in the 1730s when then-owner Humphrey Parsons (c1676-c1741) became likely the first brewer to mature the beer in large oak vats. By the time of the takeover, it was particularly noted for a bottled pale ale, Toby Ale (~5%), which Charrington continued to brew.
Another notable acquisition was the Abbey Brewery (Meakin & Co, London and Burton Brewery) in Burton upon Trent, giving Charrington a presence in this increasingly important brewing town. This closed in 1925 with production reassigned to London: the building was sold as a maltings before being demolished in the late 1960s.
In 1963, Charrington’s independence fell to the brewery group generally regarded as kicking off ‘merger mania’, United Breweries, established by colourful entrepreneur E P “Eddie” Taylor (1901-89), of Canadian Breweries, originally as a vehicle to market Carling lager in the UK. In 1967 Charrington United merged with Bass Mitchells & Butlers (itself the product of a 1961 merger between the historic Bass brewery in Burton-upon-Trent and large regional Birmingham brewer Mitchells & Butlers) to form Bass Charrington, then the largest brewery group in the UK.
Reminder of Charrington Brewery on Cephas Street.
In the early 1970s Charrington was still brewing some cask brands in London: dark Mild (~3.4%), Crown Bitter (~3.6%) and IPA (~3.9%). But the site was mainly functioned to distribute the group’s keg products through its pubs, including its flagship keg ale Toby Bitter (~3%).
Where are they now?
In one of the big brewers’ earliest moves to dismantle their capacity in London, brewing ceased entirely in 1975, though the brands remained available for a while with production transferred to M&B in Birmingham. Bass Charrington retained the brewery offices for some years as their London headquarters though the site was largely redeveloped as the Anchor retail park in the 1980s.
In 2000 the brewing interests of Bass Charrington were sold to Interbrew of Leuven, Belgium, which has since become AB InBev following mergers with Brazil’s AmBev and St Louis, Missouri-based giant Anheuser-Busch. Following intervention from the European Union competition regulator, the Burton brewery and some of the brands including Charrington were sold on in 2001 to Coors of Golden, Colorado, now Molson Coors.
Following the sale, Toby Bitter, in keg and occasionally even in cask, continued to appear intermittently, sometimes contract-brewed, and in the 2020s is still available as a keg product, though at an even lower strength of 2.8% ABV. Toby Ale was brewed by Molson in Québec at least into the mid-2000s (historically Molson was a rival to Canadian Breweries but had merged with its successor company Carling O’Keefe in 1989).
Charrington IPA was recreated in cask and bottle with the consent of Molson Coors in 2015 by Steve Wellington at the Heritage Brewing Co in what was then the National Brewery Centre, the former Bass Museum, in Burton upon Trent. It’s since become part of the regular range, using a vintage recipe at a respectable 4.5% ABV and the original Charrington yeast strain. Heritage subsequently revived another Charrington brand, Oatmeal Stout (4%).
The former Bass Charrington pub arm eventually renamed itself Mitchells & Butlers after the Birmingham brewery, which was closed by Coors in 2002.
Things to see
The most obvious remains of the brewery itself are the two former office buildings on the corner of Mile End Road and Cephas Avenue which remained in use by Bass for some time after the demolition of the rest of the site. 129 Mile End Road E1 4BG is an imposing mid-19th century Grade II-listed yellow brick building. The red brick building behind it, now converted to flats, was added to the office complex in 1927: a plaque laid by one of the Charrington family can be seen in an entrance way off Cephas Avenue.
The wall of the uninviting retail park car park fronting onto Mile End Road is recent but follows the line of the brewery’s main gates and at least makes an attempt at being a gateway feature. There are some genuine rear gates still standing, though, at 16 Nicholas Road E1 4AF: note the shields depicting a C for Charrington and an anchor.
A little further east along Mile End Road at no 137 is Grade II-listed Malpaquet House E1 4AR, a large four-storey house built in 1742. Henry Charrington lived here from 1794 to 1833, and it has an interesting subsequent history. To the west of the brewery site, accessed through a gate between Cleveland Way and Coopers Close, is a secluded row of late 18th century cottages originally built for brewery workers, known as Bellevue Place (E1 4UG). Sadly, another row of brewery cottages behind Stepney Green station, built in 1842 and known as XX Place after one of the brewery’s popular mild ales, is now lost beneath the student flats of Stocks Court (E1 4AH).
The Dickens Inn at St Katherine’s Docks (Marble Quay, St Katharine’s Way E1W 1UH), a converted timber-framed warehouse dating from around 1780, may be the last surviving fragment of Hoare’s Red Lion Brewery. Predating the construction of the docks, which opened in 1828-29, it was once closer to the brewery site but was moved 70 m west in 1975 to facilitate redevelopment. It has no direct connection with Charles Dickens, though was officially opened as a pub in 1976 by his great grandson Cedric Dickens. In the mid-1980s it briefly sold beer from its own off-site brewery, across the river Thames by London Bridge station: see Tooley Street Brewery.
Also known at various times as Beach’s Ales, Bishop’s Brewery and Market Brewery (Market Porter).
Brewpub no longer brewing Market Porter, 9 Stoney Street SE1 9AA (Southwark) First sold beer: December 1981 (as Market Brewery) Brewing suspended: 1984 Brewing resumed: May 1985 Ceased brewing: 1988
Closed brewery 2 Park Street SE1 9AD (Southwark) First sold beer: November 1993 (as Bishop’s Brewery) Brewing suspended: February 1998 Brewing resumed: 2000 (as Old London Bridge Brewery) Ceased brewing: 2000
The central area of Southwark and the Borough immediately south of London Bridge boasts a tradition of beer appreciation dating from long before the development of the nearby Bermondsey Beer Mile in the 2010s. Historically, it was one of London’s main brewing centres, particularly noted for the Anchor Brewery, otherwise known as Barclay Perkins, as well as the headquarters of the capital’s hop trade. Becky’s Dive Bar, in that part of the cellars of the Hop Exchange on Southwark Street now occupied by the Sheaf, was from the late 1950s one of Britain’s (and the world’s) first ‘craft beer bars’, at its peak offering a choice of around 250 beers and with several of the founders of the modern beer consumer movement among its customers.
The Dive Bar closed for hygiene reasons in 1975, but the beer loving tradition continued in places like the Market Porter, a traditional 1890s pub on a corner site where refreshments for workers at the adjacent Borough Market had been offered since at least the 17th century. Back then, the market was still a fruit and vegetable wholesale market at its busiest early in the morning, and the pub retained (and retains) a license enabling it to open from 06.00-09.00.
In 1981, licensee John Beach decided to further the pub’s developing interest in ‘real ale’ by turning it into a brewpub, installing a small malt extract kit. It was known as the Market Brewery but also used the brand Beach’s Ales after its owner. The next year, Andy Bishop took over the brewing duties, but it apperas that despite his brewing experience at various Firkin pubs, production proved difficult to sustain on the small kit and was suspended in 1984.
Brewing activities resumed the following year with the acquisition of a better, though likely still extract-based, kit, installed in a separate unit at the rear of the premises at 1 Park Street. The pub’s drinking area has since been extended to occupy this space but it’s still readily identifiable as a separate building from the exterior. Once again the names Market Brewery and Beach’s Ales were both used.
Bishop’s Brewery, London SE1.
By 1988 the facility was producing around 12 hl of cask beer a week and supplying two other pubs: its core beers were a bitter at around 3.7% and a special at around 4.7%. Nonetheless it fell out of use later that year, though there was a failed attempt to revive it in 1989.
The kit remained in situ until 1993, when Andy Bishop bought it to set up his own Bishop’s Brewery, moving it to a unit in an old grain warehouse immediately opposite on the other corner of Park Street and Stoney Street. In Spring 1996 he upgraded to a 10 hl full mash plant, making use of the existing split-level floor to stagger the brewing vessels.
By 1997, the brewery was reaching capacity, with five or six brews a week. Like most small breweries of its day it primarily produced cask, with core beers including Cathedral Bitter (3.7%), referring to nearby Southwark Cathedral as well as Andy’s last name, and stronger pale ale Willie’s Revenge (4.7%). Despite this, production ceased at the end of 1998.
In 2000 a new owner bought the lease and equipment and briefly revived production under the name Old London Bridge Brewery but this initiative didn’t survive the year. The kit was removed shortly afterwards and renowned specialist coffee roaster Monmouth Coffee then converted the premises into a shop which still trades today. Monmouth owner Anita LeRoy recalls the market trustees still referring to the space as ‘the brewery’, and the split level layout remains visible.
There’s a pleasing circularity to the fact that Monmouth was one of a group of specialist food and drink businesses that rented arches in Bermondsey’s Druid Street nearby in the 2000s, which is how The Kernel came to be located there initially, inadvertently founding today’s Bermondsey Beer Mile.
Hollywood Bowl Finchley, Leisure Way, High Road N12 0GL (Barnet) First sold beer: 1996
Hollywood Bowl Surrey Quays, Surrey Quays Leisure Park, Surrey Quays Road SE16 7LW (Southwark) First sold beer: 1998
Both ceased brewing: 2000
Both these breweries were the result of a short-lived US-inspired experiment by then-national brewer Bass (see Charrington) to install small 8 hl breweries in its chain of Hollywood Bowl bowling alleys, beginning with its Leicester venue in 1995.
The first London venue in the chain to start brewing was in Finchley the following year. By the time Bass opened a Hollywood Bowl complete with brewing facilities at the new Surrey Quays Leisure Park in 1998, 13 of its bowling alleys were similarly equipped. All the brewhouses were decomissioned in 2000 when Bass sold off its brewing arm to InBev (now AB InBev: see Stag and Whitbread).
The chain subsequently operated as part of Mitchells & Butlers, Bass’s successor managed pub company, until 2010 when it was sold to a new owner. It was sold again in 2015. The Finchley alley remains open, though the Surrey Quays site was closed for redevelopment in 2024.
All the venues brewed keg bitters and lagers to standard recipes.
Brewery moved outside London 114 Randall Road SE11 5JR (Lambeth) hanlonsbrewery.com First sold beer: 1996 Moved outside London: 2000
John O’Hanlon, originally from Kerry, Ireland, and his wife Liz bought a small Grade II-listed ex-Whitbread pub in Clerkenwell, the Three Crowns (8 Tysoe Street EC1R 4RQ), in 1995. They renamed it O’Hanlon’s and it quickly became a popular London Irish pub.
Bored with selling so many pints of Guinness, John decided to try making his own stout, and in March 1996 began brewing in a Vauxhall railway arch on a 13 hl kit installed by Rob Jones (see Pitfield Brewery), initially primarily to supply the pub. His first beer was Port Stout, a dry stout modestly fortified with port wine, based on memories of a Dublin pub that served stout with a dose of port as a ‘corpse reviver’ for tired customers.
The beer caught drinkers’ imagination and further brands followed, with the brewery selling increasing amounts to third party stockists and adding bottled beers. The big supermarkets also began to take an interest.
Struggling with limited space, the O’Hanlons decided to relocate themselves and the brewery to a more rural setting in Devon, in 2000 completing a move to Great Barton Farm, Whimple, Exeter EX5 2NY. The pub was subsequently sold and is now known as the Old China Hand.
The relocated business received substantial investment from business mogul Gerry Robinson after featuring on Dragon’s Den-style TV series Gerry’s Big Decision in 2009. It was sold to new owners in 2014 and renamed simply to Hanlons. The same year it was relocated closer to Exeter at Half Moon Village, Newton St Cyres EX5 5AE where it remains in operation, although no longer produces Port Stout on a regular basis.
Brewery, no visitors please Sidcup DA15 (Bexley) tankleysbrewery.com Active since: November 2015 First sold beer: May 2024
Australian-born homebrewer Glenn Heinzel first brewed commercially under the name Tankleys (an obscure family pun) at UBREW late in 2015. A year later, fellow UBREW users Beerblefish began brewing in their own right on a larger scale at a site in Enfield, and Glenn was brought in full time to run the operations.
Since then Glenn has continued Tankleys as a side project, developing recipes on a Grainfather homebrew kit at his Sidcup home and cuckoo brewing at Beerblefish and elsewhere. In 2023 he revived his brewing license and began brewing commercially at home in spring 2024. This activity is set to increase once a larger 1.6 hl kit is commissioned later in 2024.
Beers are mainly in cask, with some small scale bottling, sold locally and at festivals.
Brewpub Hopewell Square, London E14 0SY (Tower Hamlets) thelockdownroom.com First sold beer: March 2024
As the name Lockdown Room suggests, this popular bar-restaurant and event venue on London City Island, a recent development in a horseshoe meander of the river Lea near Canning Town, evolved from an initiative to supply the community during the lockdowns. Local resident and beer expert Allan was asked to advise on the craft beer side and subsequently helped build it into a noted beer venue supporting numerous independent London breweries.
Allan has since added a 1.5 hl nanobrewery on the mezzanine and is now producing keg beer on a small scale for in-house sales under the Hopewell Brewery name.
5 openings and revivals, 20 suspensions and closures, net change -15.
By the end of December 2023, there were 107 commercial breweries operating in London, including 25 brewpubs. 10 were parts of multinationals (M). Those breweries were:
Babel Beerhouse (formerly Little Creatures Regents Canal) N1, Camden, brewpub REVIVED! was also briefly active this year again under the new ownership of Odyssey, but brewing was suspended again by December 2023 and the business has been sold on again.
Closed this year
BBNo (Brew by Numbers, Bermondsey) SE16, Southwark, closed by May 2023.
Beavertown Brewery (Tottenham Hotspur, Heineken M) N17, Haringey, brewpub, suspended spring 2023 and equipment subsequently removed, production continues at other sites
Boxcar Brewery E2, Tower Hamlets, suspended February 2023, cuckoo brewing shortly afterwards but ceased by June 2024.
Brick Brewery SE8, Lewisham, bought by BREAL Group June 2023 and closed in November with brands relocated to other breweries in the group outside London.
Macintosh Ales N16, Hackney, cuckoo brewing exclusively since July 2023
SALT London (Ossett, formerly Hop Stuff) SE28, Greenwich, closed May 2023, brewing continues outside London and may revive on a brewpub scale at one of the SALT bars in London.
Spartan Brewery SE16, Southwark, closed June 2023 though have subsequently cuckoo brewed, site and kit sold to Battersea to become Battersea Substation
Beer firm, now brewing outside London bigdropbrew.com Active since: October 2016 Brewing transferred outside London: September 2024
Former lawyer Rob Fink and designer James Kindred launched Big Drop as a specialist brewer of beers of 0.5% ABV and less after Rob noticed a gap in the market when he gave up drinking for an extended period. They began by cuckoo brewing at now-closed Bermondsey shared brewery UBREW in 2016 but by 2017 had expanded to partnerships with larger producers, appointing former Wild Beer brewer Johnny Clayton as head of production.
As of 2023, the business is based in Ipswich, Suffolk, though the beer was long brewed in London at Fourpure. The relationship was strengthened in May 2023 through a licensing deal which saw Foupure owner In Good Company invest in Big Drop.
With the closure of Fourpure, brewing has been transferred to In Good Company’s other plant at Magic Rock in Huddersfield, so I’m no longer regarding them as a London-based beer firm. As of January 2025, Magic Rock is facing voluntary administration, so production may move once again.
Beers are in can and keg, in a variety of styles from lagers to brown ales and stouts, including changing specials. They are exported internationally and also brewed in Australia and the USA for local markets.
Christos Daskalopoulos and Matt Dean met when they were both working at an Athens brewpub. Matt later went to Meantime but ended up working alongside Christos again when Greek brewery 56 Isles set up 3 Locks as a London offshoot.
In 2023 the pair got the chance to create their own venture, taking on the former Gravity Well arch under the Overground at Leyton Midland Road. This initially reopened in August as a bar but began producing beer again in November on a venerable 8 hl kit that Matt believes was originally made for a first-generation 1970s microbrewery.
The name is borrowed from a legendary 17th century utopian colony founded by pirates, which practised equality for all irrespective of colour and creed.
Beers are in keg, bottle and can, with cask due to be added early in 2024.
Beer firm, planned brewpub Patchworks, 258 Church Road, London E10 7JQ (Waltham Forest) blondiesbar.co.uk First sold beer: July 2024
Blondies is a popular Clapton bar and music venue opened by sisters Sharmaine and Verity Cox in 2016. The sisters always planned to add their own brewery but struggled to find a site: plans for a railway arch in Hackney fell through in 2019 and the lockdowns frustrated further progress.
Blondie’s in yuletide mode.
In summer 2023, the bar began stocking a house lager and session IPA cuckoo brewed at Mammoth, and on 18 August 2023 the bar at a new brewery and taproom site finally opened in a former furniture factory space a short distance from the river Lea at Leyton.
A 10 hl brewhouse sourced from BritHop was installed with the assistance of Mammoth, but a combination of paperwork and practical issues delayed commissioning. Test brews were successfully completed in December 2023 and commercial brewing followed in mid-2024.
Beers are initially in keg only, sold onsite and at the Blondies bar, though there are plans to expand production to distribute the beers more widely and possibly add a canning facility.
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London’s Best Beer
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