It's a fairly mundane letter, informing tenants that Barclay Perkins will be supplying them with all their draught beer from Park Street.
The implication being that they hadn't been able to supply every draught beer. Taking in conjunction with my earlier post about the bomb damage to Park Street in September 1940, it all makes sense. Damage to the brewery had left Barclay Perkins unable to fully supply their pubs. At least for a couple of months.
"14th February, 1941.
Dear Sir or Madam,
We are glad to inform you that as from MONDAY, 3rd March, we shall, unless unforeseen circumstances arise, be able to supply you with all DRAUGHT BEERS from the Brewery here, at Southwark.
It is necessary, however, to lay the STRONGEST EMPHASIS on the fact that your orders MUST reach the Brewery (by TELEPHONE if possible) BEFORE 11 a.m. on the DAY PRIOR TO THAT ON WHICH BEER IS REQUIRED, AND THAT YOUR DAY OF DELIVERY WILL BE THE SAME AS THAT UPON WHICH DRAUGHT BEERS WERE SUPPLIED TO YOU BEFORE OUR OUTPUT WAS TEMPORARILY RESTRICTED. YOUR DAY OF DELIVERY WILL BE ONLY.
The success or failure of resuming deliveries from Southwark in these difficult times is entirely dependent upon your strict adherence to this arrangement.
Please note that the following Beers have been deleted from our List:-
XX (Dark)
X (Light)
P.A.
Yours faithfully,
BARCLAY PERKINS & CO. LTD.
SPECIAL NOTE.
ALL BEERS DELIVERED TO YOU BY OTHER BREWERS MUST BE USED UP BEFORE COMMENCING UPON THOSE SUPPLIED BY US PROM SOUTHWARK."
Barclay Perkins Circular Letters held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/521/1.
The "Special Note" confirms that other brewers had been supplying draught beer. It sounds like Barclays wanted a clear distinction between other brewers' beers and their own by insisting that the foreign beers be used up before tapping those from Park Street.
Good news that Park Street appeared to be fully up and running again.
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3 comments:
As I'm sure you know, for at least part of WW2 brewers' delivery areas were "zoned", to try to reduce mileage/petrol useage, so that a pub would be supplied by its nearest brewer rather than the one it was ostensibly tied to - so presumably, if this was during that period, some Barclays pubs had been getting "foreign" beer anyway, regardless of bomb damage.
Martyn,
yes, I know about zoning, But this is different: the foreign brewers were only supplying Barclay's pubs from November 1940 to February 1941. So a temporary arrangement, unlike zoning. And the one letter specifically refers to problems at the brewery. It would be a bit of a coincidence if this randomly kicked in just a few days after the brewery was damaged.
Martyn,
it states in the letter: "BEFORE OUR OUTPUT WAS TEMPORARILY RESTRICTED."
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