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19-12-2016, 08:29
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Still not done with tied houses. This time we're looking at another of the big London Porter breweries: Reid.

I used to think that Reid's brewery had totally disappeared. It was situated on the junction of Clerkenwell Road and Leather Lane. The site is currently occupied by a block of housing. But there was another part of the brewery on the other side of Leather Lane and part of that survives.Though the name Reid lived on for several decades as a Stout brand of Watney's.

I really should do more with the Reid brewing records I have photos of. I've not gone through them all properly yet. Not sure why, as they were the first ones I collected around ten years ago.

Back to their tied houses. If you remember, Barclay Perkins went from 51 owned pubs in 1830 to 29 in 1875. But for a large part of the period inbetween the numbers were quite stable. At Reid, there was a fall pretty much throughout and resulted in them owning less than a third as many pubs as when they started.

It's frustrating that the table doesn't extend a little later. Because I'm sure the trend towards sales rather purchases would have been reversed. I think the trends in pub ownership can be accounted for by licensing legislation.

Why would a brewers start selling off pubs after 1830? It must surely be connected with the Beer Act of that year. The thing that established beer houses and led to a big increase in the number of pubs, especially in London. As a consequence, they were more outlets for a brewer to choose from, meaning there wasn't such a big need to own pubs.

The beer house provisions in the Beer Act were mostly reversed by the 1869 Licensing Act. This made it nigh on impossible to obtain a new pub licence and even actively tried to reduce the number of licensed premises. Making outlets scarcer and more difficult to obtain. Leading to a mad rush to buy pubs.

Here's the table:



Reid tied houses and free trade 1830 - 1875


Year
Owned
%
Loan
%
Free
%
total
barrels brewed
barrels per pub


1830
168
27.3
355
57.7
92
15
615
127,220
206.86


1835
142
23.7
338
56.2
121
21.2
601
181,187
301.48


1840
122
19.7
360
58.3
136
22
618
195,169
315.81


1845
120
18.2
406
61.6
133
20.2
659
227,306
344.93


1850
120
17.2
391
55.9
188
26.9
699
213,345
305.21


1855
107
15.7
378
55.4
197
28.9
682
179,217
262.78


1860
96
12.8
384
51.2
270
36
750
288,597
384.8


1865
76
9.2
394
47.8
355
43
825
277,757
336.68


1870
55
6
407
44.7
438
49.3
900
264,753
294.17


1875
52
6
391
44.8
430
49.2
873
235,596
269.87


Sources:


The British Brewing Industry 1830 - 1980 by T.R. Gourvish and R.G. Wilson, 1994, page 131.


Whitbread brewing log, document LMA/4453/D/09/023


"The British Brewing Industry, 1830-1980" T. R. Gourvish & R.G. Wilson, pages 610-611





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