Charrington's Mild and Bitter 1939 - 1969

It's time to take a closer look at one of the other great London breweries, Charrington's. A rather different beast to the Porter brewers I've concentrated on until now.

Established on the Mile End Road in the East End of London in the middle of the 18th century, Charrington's was principally an Ale brewer. They experienced a rapid growth in the second half of the 19th century when public taste shifted away from Porter. Theirs was reckoned to be the best Mild Ale brewed in London.

Charrington's merged with Bass in 1967 to form Bass Charrington. The brewery closed in 1975 and only the office (and the front right corner of the photo) and front enclosing wall are still standing. When I first lived in London, although the brewery had disappeared, Charrington's IPA (brewed elsewhere in the Bass empire) was still one of the commonest draught beers. I suppose revisionists wouldn't class it as a "real IPA" as it was in the London style. Consulting my 1983 Good Beer Guide, I see that at that time it was brewed at M & B Springfield in Wolverhampton and had an OG of 1039.

First is a graph showing the gravity of Charrington Mild, PA (Bitter) and Best PA (Best Bitter) from the outbreak of WW II until the 1960's. You'll notice that the curve for Mild is shallower than for the Bitter. Also that the two are slightly out of sync.



The second graph shows the price per pint in a public bar. During the course of WW II the cost of a pint of Mild more than doubled, rising from 5d in 1939 to 11d in 1945. Still, not as bad as WW I.

The source of this information is, as usual, the Whitbread Gravity Book.