The City of London Brewery decides to move

London used to be stuffed full of breweries. It was the world's brewing capital for more than a century, after all. But it's still a shock to see how long large, industrial breweries remained right in the centre of the city.

The City of London Brewery was well named. Their Hour Glass Brewery really was in the City of London, right on the river immediately west of Cannon Street Station. You can make out part of the station here:

It wasn't far from another of London's great  Porter brewers, Barclay Perkins, who were just over the other side of the Thames.

In the 18th century the brewery was owned by Calvert & Co., one of the great London Porter brewers. For a while, they were the second largest brewer in London (which meant second largest in the world) .

 

Output of the largest London breweries (barrels)
	1784	1785	1786	1787	1788	1789	1790	1791
Barclay Perkins	103,700	100,700	101,600	105,600	112,600	123,900	126,700	121,200
Whitbread	126,500	137,800	138,800	146,300	156,000	171,000	175,000	176,000
Truman, Hanbury	120,800	111,200	94,800	95,300	82,300	93,900	93,700	89,300
Sir W. Calvert Felix Calvert	93,800	100,700	75,200	91,600	81,800	80,500	57,800	81,400
Calvert & Co.	117,700	134,800	117,200	131,000	127,000	141,600	144,000	131,300
Meux, Reid	57,500	57,300	45,700	49,700	48,200	53,300	48,700	68,500
Gyfford	108,800	101,400	87,600	90,900	100,100	95,300	100,200	100,700
Parsons-Goodwyn-Hoare	62,900	62,000	61,300	66,400	61,600	63,100	60,500	55,600
Source:
“The Brewing Industry in England 1700-1830”, Peter Mathias, 1959, p 551-552

They seem to have suffered the effects of the Napoleonic Wars more than their rivals and struggled to reach 100,000 barrels a year after 1794. They slumped to sixth or seventh in the league table of London brewers.

It's no surprise that, having bought Stansfield & Co.'s Swan Brewery in Fulham in 1919*, they decided to move brewing there. Especially given the potential value of the riverside site. This is how the Brewers' Journal recorded those deliberations:

"CITY OF LONDON BREWERY CO., LTD.
The 29th annual general meeting of this company was held in London on the 11th inst., Alderman Sir G. Wyatt Truscott. Bart. (chairman), presided.

The chairman, in moving the adoption of the report, said he desired to express his great pleasure in once again being the medium of the board of directors in presenting such a satisfactory report. The profit from brewing showed a considerable diminution. That was due to the fact primarily, that during the past year they had been using materials which had cost considerably more than those they had been using during the period of the last two or three accounts. There had been a considerable increase in the wage bill, while the Government had increased the duty on beer during the year by 30s. per barrel. Regarding their investments, the income from them was £109,000, that was the net income. The gross income was round about €140,000 before the deduction of tax, so that after providing for debenture interest the amount drawn from those investments was enough to pay the preference shareholders something like four times over


Sale of City Brewery.

In their report a foremost place was given to the fact that they had under serious consideration now the removal of the whole of the manufacturing of the brewery to Fulham at a very early date. The board thought that the time had arrived, in fact they Were sure it had, when they must proceed, because the removal would make such a wide difference to the cost of manufacture. Besides, it would release for sale a most important site in the City of London. It was true that the cost of building would be considerably more than before the war, but they were proceeding on a modified plan. As he had said, the removal to Fulham would release an important City site for sale. There must be some regret in leaving a brewery which had been in existence for something like 350 years. Anyone who had the love of tradition in his soul must regret it. One could not, however, ignore the fact that it was absurd to be carrying on their business on the present expensive and valuable site when they had ready at hand, with a certain amount of adaptation, a very excellent site in the West of London. They had been on the City site since the days of Good Queen Bess, and there was no doubt in the early days the proprietors had their gardens running down to the river and had a very good time as residents that locality. The site was nearly two acres in extent, and where he asked would they find two acres in the City of London all in one position? Moreover it was only five minutes from the Bank of England, the very centre of the world. Excellent buildings were on the site — good substantial buildings - and shareholders did not require to be told that the value of that site to-day was very considerable. The whole site and its advantages were unique.

It had a splendid river frontage which secured light for all time to the site, and he anticipated after his announcement that day that the site was in the market, that they would have quite a demand for it. It might not a large demand because there were perhaps not many people who wanted two acres of ground in the City of London. They only wanted one purchaser and he thought it would not be very long before they found him. and when they did so the company would have turned into cash a very valuable asset with a satisfactory result that would be reflected in their accounts for many years to come. The chairman concluded by heartily congratulating shareholders on the state of their property to-day and Upon the result as shown by the accounts.

Sir William J. Peake Mason, Bart., J.P., seconded the resolution, which, after some observations by shareholders, was carried unanimously.
Brewers' Journal 1921, page 86.

Things didn't quite work out as they had hoped. Not finding a buyer, the brewery was used as a warehouse. Not that brewing continued for long in Fulham. That ended in 1936 when fellow London brewer Hoare bought a lot of their pubs**.

It wasn't developers who tore down the Hour Glass Brewery. German bombs helpfully cleared the site for them***.




* "A Century of London Brewers" by Norman Barber, 2006, page 81.
** "A Century of London Brewers" by Norman Barber, 2006, page 81.
*** "A Century of London Brewers" by Norman Barber, 2006, page 81.