Two Lost Breweries Of Whitechapel
Within living memory, Whitechapel was home to the Albion and the Blue Anchor Brewery, two of the largest breweries in the country, premises for Watney Mann and Charringtons respectively. Photographer Philip Cunningham‘s grandfather worked at The Albion brewery and it became his melancholy duty to record both breweries in the eighties at the point of their demise. (Accompanying text also by Philip Cunningham.)
The Albion Brewery in the nineteenth century
My grandfather was a train driver until the day he was discovered to be colour blind, when he was sacked on the spot. He then became a drayman and – apart from two world wars – spent the rest of his working life at the Albion Brewery in Whitechapel. He was one of the first draymen to drive a motorised vehicle, a skill which saved his life in WWI.
The brewery started trading in 1808 and although by 1819 it was under the control of Blake & Mann, by 1826 it was in the exclusive ownership of James Mann. In 1846, Crossman and Paulin became partners to form Mann, Crossman & Paulin Ltd. The brewery was re-built in 1863, becoming the most advanced brewery of that time, producing 250,000 barrels a year.
Stables were built on the east side of Cambridge Heath Rd with a nosebag room containing in excess of one hundred and fifty nosebags, each filled by a metal tube from the store above. The former Whitechapel workhouse in Whitechapel Rd was used for the bottling plant, but when this proved to be too small it was moved to a site on Raven Row, two hundred yards south.
In 1958, the company merged with Watney Combe & Reid to become Watney Mann Ltd. In 1978, a spokesperson for Grand Metropolitan the corporate owner who acquired Watney declared, ‘The bottling plant has a very strong future as a distribution and bottling centre for the GLC area and parts of Southern England.’ Yet the plant was closed in 1980 with a loss of two hundred jobs after the building was declared unsafe and too costly to repair. Keg filling transferred to Mortlake, the bottling plant became a distribution centre and the brewery was shut down in 1979. The buildings on the Whitechapel Rd were converted to flats and the rest of the site is now occupied by Sainsbury’s.
Gates of the Blue Anchor Brewery
In 1757, John Charrington moved his brewing business from Bethnal Green to the Mile End Rd. This was the Blue Anchor Brewery, and John Charrington’s brother Harry lived next to the brewery in Malplaquet House from about 1790 until his death in 1833.
The brewery was built on Charrington Park, extending for sixteen acres behind the malt stores. Some land was sold off for building and a section was given to St. Peter’s Church, while the remainder was used for cooperages and for stables housing one hundred horses and a blacksmith’s forge. There were also coppersmiths, tinsmiths, gasfitters, millwrights, hoopers, engineers, and carpenters with a timber store and saw pit. The hop store was a spacious darkened chamber one hundred feet long, filled from floor to ceiling with hops, and the odour was overpowering.
The Blue Anchor brewery became the second largest in London producing 20,252 barrels of beer a year. In the nineteenth century, steam engines were installed which ran until 1927, when they were replaced by electric power. During the Second World War, half the lorry fleet was commandeered for the army.
Yet in 1967, the company merged with Bass to become Charrington Bass and later Bass Ltd – the largest brewing company in the country. The last brew at Charringtons was in 1975 and distribution was then moved to Canning Town. A new administration block was built at a cost of three and a half million, only to be demolished for a retail park.
Photographs copyright © Philip Cunningham
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My Dad worked at Mann’s brewery in the 1950’s – sad that these breweries are no more…
Watney’s was no use at all ( From the p.o.v. of the Beer-drinker, anyway ) but Charringtons was a sad loss.
Now, the wheel has turned & it’s difficult to keep count of the number of small(ish) breweries in this part of London. All of them, with one prominent exception, brew excellent beer, too!
In those early brew days of the 18000s many citizen’s drank beer for fear of cholera and other water borne diseases, water was considered unsafe. Hence a rapid expansion of brewing the present big breweries are international now, they are still expanding with a global reach, brand GB is continually being refined with good bottle names. We also import beers no brewery names mentioned one comes from Singapore. Must mention !water treatments this was to come later. Now low cost micro breweries are ascending that’s a way forward. Its beer here in a nutshell. Poet John PS – I liked the photo of the draymen and their huge carthorses at the Albion Brewery. They had to be tough to handle those big barrels with their long leather aprons, no keg nonsense then. Of course, there was a daily beer allowance perks of the job, they did have to keep their strength up. When loaded up they could seen delivering on the streets of the East End.
The reason why these breweries were sited in the East End was the underground water which was the secret of the beers. In these days of bottled water it is surprising that this water is down there untapped. Ind Coope had two breweries one at Romford and the other at Burton on Trent. A long goods train took large amounts of Romford water to Burton and came back full of Burton water as the different waters were the secret of their beers. I know this as a fact because as a child at Romford I found that if I placed a halfpenny on the railway line where the train left the brewery it would be flattened to the size of a penny which would fit the slot machines in the adjacent amusement arcade.
Gary
I used to work with someone who had spent his early working life in demolition. He used to talk about all of the major contracts that he had worked on such as shipyards, steelworks, breweries and other major factories and about how much stuff he had been a party to destroying. He would say that in every major firm there would be panelled Board Rooms with huge mahogany tables, so big that they would have been craned in during the initial building work… All smashed to pieces! He worked on a factory that had hundreds of metal working lathes, bench saws and all of the tools needed for each job just left where the men had laid them down on the final day… The whole lot smashed up and scrapped. If you simply ponder over the photos on this post and think about the work that went into constructing those buildings and chimneys and the effort needed to produce the materials for those constructions, then it is mind blowing… and there it is, a huge pile of broken bricks and twisted metal often making way for a soulless and artless concrete edifice…
I have a glass sign for Mann Crossman and Paulin which I found probably 30 years ago in my back garden.
It is red and green and advertising brown ales. About 3 foot tall. Is anyone interested in purchasing it from me.
It is in mint condition
Hi, I have found out that a ‘brewer’s motor driver’ lived in my house from 1911 . I assume this means he drove a car which sounds quite high tech for the era. I live in Enfield though he was born in Whitechapel. Any idea what that job title really means?
My grandmother’s sister and her husband Aurther Chalkley, the manager of Mann and Crossman brewery lived in a house in the grounds of the brewery, I have fond childhood memories of Christmas holidays spent there.
My Grandfather Harold Thomas was the production manager of Mann Crossman’s Brewery during the 2nd world war and the way up to the 1960’s. He lived on site. I remember the cobbled yard and the big clock used for the men and women to clock in and out. Plus, as 8 year old drinking my first beer mixed with lemonade.
Hi, does Mrs Verna Ward still have her sign?
I worked Watney Manns before and after the brewery was closed and up until we moved out to the bow depot in the early 80s my family worked at the whitechaple brewery for 116 year continuously i was then was made redundant. sad day.
Hi Pat and I am researching my family history and wonder if my grandmother Selina Chalkley is a relation to you She lived and owned a pub “lamb” at 212 wick road hackney it was a Mann Crossman and Paulin pub. I think her father may have been the Chalkley that ran the Phoenix pub in London Area
To Tony Harrison,I worked at the Albion brewery from 1960 to 1967,in the chilled beer dept,one of the shift chargehands on the red barrel line was Jock Harrison, any relative?,my best pal there was Jeff Johnson,he was a chiller.Fred Fry was dept foreman then,Joe Flynn was my shift chargehand,they were all characters..Bill Dowden, Jimmy Green,Pat Rickard,Snowy,Tommy Kelly,Keith Coe…all smashing blokes,it was a pleasure to go to work there in those days.
You mention Charrington merged with Bass. Correct! But the name was Bass Charrington, not the other way round!
You also mention that when Anchor Brewery closed distribution moved to Canning Town but it actually moved to Silvertown, which is different.
You may wish to correct this.
Hi in the 1960s I worked for a firm of Solicitors .Crossman Block and Keith. They were Solicitors for the brewery Mann Crossman and Paulin.
Tony Harrison, my husband, Denis, remembers you from the brewery days. He said he hopes you are keeping.
My Great Grand father started at Watney’s in Whitechapel in 1888 William Harrison followed by his sons Alfie and my Grandad William (Bill) in turn Alfies son peter was a rep, Williams sons were drayman Stan & my dad Arthur .
Then my Brother Robert started there and i joined in 1977 leaving in 2004 because of redundancy.
ending a continual service of our family at this depot for 116yrs. i have a couple of pictures of my dad working at Watney Manns.
When Charrington merged with Bass it became known as Bass Charrington – not the other way round.
When beer production ceased in 1975, production did NOT move to Canning Town. Beer was brewed in other parts of the country. However the distribution of beer moved to Silvertown NOT Canning Town.
And finally, Charrington’s brewery in Mile End (not exactly Whitechapel) was Anchor Brewery NOT Blue Anchor Brewery.
Does anyone know of the Doughty family who lived at the brewery in Mile End Road around about 1900? A Mary Doughty was my great great grandmother. Her husband had something to do with clocking workers in and out, and perhaps something to do with looking after the horses too. Joyce.
Hi anybody remember me . My brother worked with me at Whitechapel and my son Tony worked there to . Happy days . 77 years young now . 👍👍