Huguenot

I'm slowly assembling a decent collection of London brewery histories. Watney, Charrington, Watney again, Courage, Mann. I've a few books on Whitbread, too.

"The Albion Brewery 1808-1858" was the last to plonk on the doormat. I started reading it in my sickbed earlier this week. It's the history of Mann, Crossman and Paulin. On the cover is a painting of the brewery for the mid-1800's. Including the Blind Beggar pub. It's one of the few large London breweries to have survived pretty much intact. There's still a pub called the Blind Beggar, too, though that was rebuilt in the late 19th century.

When I lived in the East End in the 1970's, I'm pretty sure it was still brewing. Though, being part of the Watney empire, it was all crap. I definitely drank in the Blind Beggar a couple of times. Though I'm struggling to remember why I visited it more than once. I've rarely found a pub more depressing and scary simultaneously.

But I digress. I've not got through much of the book yet. I'm still on the stuff about the Mann, Crossman and Paulin families. But I've already discovered one interesting fact. The Paulins were of Huguenot origin.

Why's that interesting? It's the third major London brewery I've found with a Huguenot connection, the others being Courage and Whitbread. Fascinating, eh? No wonder French beer was crap.