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06-02-2014, 08:08
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I’m glad I started this series. It’s teaching me loads about some of the smaller, more obscure and long-vanished breweries. Particularly ones that disappeared in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The hard times after WW I seem to have precipitated a whole raft of brewery takeovers and closures.

Goding's Lion Brewery, built in 1836-37, was an imposing classical structure topped by a giant lion. Designed by Francis Edwards, with its prominent position on the Thames in Lambeth, it must have been quite a landmark*. The company was purchased by Hoare in 1923 and closed**. A fire caused serious damage to the building in 1931, but it wasn't until 1949 that it was demolished and replaced by the Royal Festival Hall***. The lion was removed before the building was knocked down and now stands at the Lambeth end of Westminster Bridge.



http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5qGbfWsKCGk/UuJJWBHCf0I/AAAAAAAAS7c/rvRYtSAPCDE/s1600/Lion_Brewery_Lambeth_drawing_1949.jpg (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5qGbfWsKCGk/UuJJWBHCf0I/AAAAAAAAS7c/rvRYtSAPCDE/s1600/Lion_Brewery_Lambeth_drawing_1949.jpg)


The Lion Brewery just before demolition in 1949.



I wonder if they would demolish such a remarkable building today? Probably, because of its prime riverside location. There's still plenty of architectural vandalism going on in London. That ridiculous Shard monstrosity, for example.

You can see that this is one of the stronger types of Mild which retailed for 7d per pint in 1922 and 6d thereafter. It's pretty highly attenuated and had quite a high ABV - between 4 and 4.5%.



Lion Brewery Mild Ale quality 1922 - 1923


Year
Beer
FG
OG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
Appearance
Flavour
Score


1922
X
1005
1040.4
4.56
86.63%
grey
sound
1


1922
X
1006
1041.2
4.55
84.71%
hazy
fair
1


1922
X
1008
1041
4.29
80.49%
bright
v fair
2


1922
X
1008
1041.1
4.29
80.29%
bright
thin
-1


1923
X
1008
1042.1
4.49
81.95%
bright
fair
1


1923
X
1008
1041.3
4.36
81.11%
bright
thin
-1


1923
X
1008
1038.9
3.96
78.41%
bright
poor
-1


1923
X
1008
1040.1
4.23
81.05%
hazy
v fair
2


1923
X
1008
1041.4
4.29
79.71%
not quite bright
fair
1


1923
X
1009
1041.6
4.29
79.33%
not bright
poor
-1



Average





0.40


Source:


Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001



None of the examples is very bad, though there are four with negative scores. The two pretty good ones more than make up for that an the average score is again modestly positive.

I'm sure you'll be sad to learn that there are just five breweries to go. Then you'll have an excellent idea of Mild Ale quality in 1920's London. Not sure that's of much practical use. But shouldn't learning be about knowledge for knowledge's sake?








* "British Breweries: An Architectural History" by Lynn Pearson, 1999, page 35.
** "A Century of British Breweries Plus" by Norman Barber, 2005, page 84.
*** British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=47041

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