East End brewers
The East End of London certainly consumes its fair share of beer – though the days when there was a pub on every street corner have gone forever.
But though you’ll find plenty of ale brewed in Burton, Germany or Holland, you’d be hard pressed to order a pint produced in Tower Hamlets itself.
It’s all a far cry from the days when the East End had a powerful reputation for making some of the best beer in the country, and was home to three big breweries turning the stuff out.
London’s name for fine ales goes back centuries, with references cropping up in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
One of the oldest East End breweries was the Black Eagle, at 91 Brick Lane.
Builder John Stott had acquired the land for development in 1660. He set to laying out the gridwork of streets which still forms Spitalfields today.
Joseph Truman sublet the land and started his brewing business, handing over to his sons, Joseph and Benjamin.
When Joseph Jr retired in 1730, the business fell to Benjamin, who made Truman the success it continued to be until the latter part of the 20th century.
The Black Eagle works became renowned for its porter, a drink not unlike modern stout.
Sampson Hanbury took over on Ben’s death in 1780, and by the time of his death in 1835, the Black Lion was producing an awesome 200,000 barrels of porter a year.
Thomas Buxton had joined the firm in 1808 and, having converted the works to steam power, took over the reins after Hanbury’s death.
The company went from strength to strength and, by 1873, Truman Hanbury and Buxton was the biggest brewer in the world.
In 1989, though, brewing ended at Brick Lane.
Less than a mile away, at 333 Whitechapel Road, stood the Albion Brewery. The first brewer, in 1808, was one John Hoffman, but things really began when Philip Blake and James Mann took over in 1819.
Robert Crossman and Thomas Paulin joined the firm in 1846, and in 1899 Mann, Crossman and Paulin introduced the first bottled brown ale in England.
The firm was folded into Watney, Combe Reid in 1959 and ceased brewing at the Albion site in 1959.
The last of the three great East End brewers did their work at the Anchor Brewery in the Mile End Road.
In 1757, Westfield and Moss shifted their brewery from Bethnal Green. The new site was much more handy for the farm carts bringing in barley and hops from Essex and Kent.
Nine years later, John Charrington bought a third of the company, taking over completely in 1783.
Charrington was an all-powerful figure in London brewing at this time, being Master of the Brewers’ Company in 1785.
The firm stayed in the family, passing down through his son Nicholas, then grandsons Charles and Frederick.
The Charringtons were nothing if not traditionalists. Though they installed a revolutionary new steam engine in 1828, they didn’t use electricity until 1927.
And until 1946, the old dray horses could still be seen hauling wagons, laden with kegs, to pubs around the East End.
In 1967, Charrington amalgamated to become Bass Charrington, and the brewery shut for business in 1975.
Now East End drinkers quaff fizzy lagers, with foreign names, made on licence in the Midlands. The traditional porters and brown ales are a thing of the past, as is the label “Brewed in Tower Hamlets”.