The concentration of breweries in the tiny suburb of Duddingston was quite remarkable. Seven breweries within a few hundred yards of each other. Clustered around the railway which must have been one of important factors in choosing Duddingston. That and the wells providing good brewing water.
Take a look at this map from 1918:
I'm pretty sure I know all seven of the breweries.
| Duddingston breweries | |||
| Brewer | Brewery | opened | closed |
| Machlachlan (Tennent 1960) | Castle Brewery | 1901 | 1966 |
| Pattisons Ltd. (Robert Deuchar 1899) | Duddingston Brewery | 1896 | 1961 |
| William Murray | Craigmillar Brewery | 1887 | 1950 |
| W & J Raeburn (Robert Younger 1913) | New Brewery | 1901 | 1939 |
| Drybrough | Craigmillar Brewery | 1892 | 1987 |
| T.Y. Patterson & Co. Ltd. (James Aitken 1936) | Pentland Brewery | 1901 | 1936 |
| John Somerville & Co. (William Murray 1922) | North British Brewery | 1897 | 1962 |
| Sources: | |||
| "A Century of British Brewers", Barber, 2005. | |||
| The Scottish Brewing Archive website | |||
If anyone can identify which brewery is which, I'd be most grateful. To help, here's an aerial photograph that shows most of them:
There will be more to come on Duddingston as I unearth more about its breweries.
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7 comments:
Ron,
The brewery at the bottom left of your map is the North British Brewery.
Murray's took over Somerville in 1922. It moved all production to this brewery in 1950. There is a nice pic of it here (+ Drybrough and Deuchar) -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@N00/3987789082/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Murray's NB Brewery is in the foreground.
Half man half pint, great photo that with the three breweries in it. Thanks. And for identifying the North British Brewery.
You've probably already seen it, but you can see the remains of the Drybrough brewery on Google Maps. And tantalisingly the Y B and R of the name on the side from here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=duddingston&hl=en&ll=55.933397,-3.143345&spn=0.002356,0.006003&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=20.331269,49.174805&hnear=Duddingston,+Midlothian,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=18&layer=c&cbll=55.933446,-3.143201&panoid=MniBE32OMfwqVXMwgSduRQ&cbp=12,319.01,,0,0
Dan, yes I'd noticed that some of Drybrough's was left. Hadn't spotted those letters on the wall, though. They look rather sad.
On your map the top brewery is T.Y. Patersons Pentland Bry. The Bottom left is Sommerville's North British Bry, as HMHP said and the Brewery at the bottom right is Raeburn's New Brewery. The photo is good. I'd not seen that one before.
I just love Craigmillar/Duddingston. There was nothing else quite like it. A village made up of breweries. What more could you ask for?
Ike, thanks very much for that. Good to have them all identified.
Did Duddingston have the greatest concentration of breweries anywhere in the UK? Isuspect it might have.
Burton had a similar concentration, between the High Street and the station, and far more breweries but it was a much bigger town. Craigmillar/Duddingston stands out on it's own because it was just pure brewery. I am pretty sure there was nothing like it in Britain. Breweryopolis. Lovely.
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