Shut up about Barclay Perkins - Barclay Perkins tied and free trade 1830 - 1949

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Still not finished with tied houses. How could I resist Barclay-Perkins-related info?

By nailing togetehr information from a few different sources I've been able to put together a table. I'm not sure what it tells us, really. Other than that they accumulated lots of pubs in the periods not covered by the figures.

I'd known that the big Porter brewers had tied estates. But didn't have many details as to the size of those estates. Barclay Perkins appear to have owned quite a modest number of pubs in the early 19th century, generally fewer than 50. But by the early 20th century that had shot up to almost 300.

There was a good reason for that. In the 1880's and 1890's, with new licences almost impossible to obtain, brewers began buying pubs like crazy. With the free trade rapidly disappearing, any brewers who didn't follow suit was likely to find themselves with nowhere to sell their beer. The prices paid for pubs in grotty parts of East London were phenomenal: £15,000 or £20,000 at a time when Mild Ale was 2d per pint.

Barclay Perkins were still actively acquiring pubs until WW I. After the war, the number fell again due to closures or sales. A few pubs were sold on to other brewers. A couple of licences simply surrendered. Others surrendered with compensation. Though they were also still picking up a few new pubs in the 1920's.

I'm not sure where the big jump in pubs between 1924 and 1949 comes from. OK, they bought Style & Winch in the which must brought in some new pubs. But nothing like 700. I'm confused.

Just for a laugh, I thought I'd look at the average sales per pub. Which were rising steadily during the middle part of the 19th century. Only to fall again in the 20th. Not sure that tells us all that much.

I know from the Beer Trades document (Document 2305/1/517 held at the London Metropolitan Archives) that the amounnt of beer sold per pub in a year varied enormously, from as little as 36 barrels to as much as 2,000 barrels. One of the pubs doing the biggest trade was the Anchor, their brewery tap, which sold 1,833 barrels in 1924. That's an impressive 5 barrels of beer each day.

Barclay Perkins tied and free trade 1830 - 1949
Year	Owned	%	Loan	%	Free	%	Total	Barrels brewed	Barrels per pub
1830	51	5.8	476	54	355	40.2	882	262,306	297.4
1835	44	5	462	53	354	41.2	860	382,063	444.26
1840	33	4.2	462	59.3	284	36.5	779	400,838	514.55
1845	40	5	457	57.6	297	37.4	794	396,784	499.73
1850	38	4.7	449	55.8	318	39.5	805	397,360	493.61
1855	36	4.4	442	54	340	41.6	818	357,836	437.45
1860	36	4.5	420	52.1	350	43.4	806	421,286	522.69
1865	34	4.7	390	53.4	306	41.9	730	415,142	568.69
1870	35	5.1	392	57.3	257	37.6	684	410,710	600.45
1875	29	4.4	396	59.9	236	35.7	661
1901	272							573,302
1905	292							549,634
1910	308							500,205
1914	310							582,263
1920	303							464,033
1925	290							329,464
1949	1,005							367,691	321.96
Sources:
"The British Brewing Industry 1830 - 1980" by T.R. Gourvish and R.G. Wilson, 1994, page 436.
"The British Brewing Industry 1830 - 1980" by T.R. Gourvish and R.G. Wilson, 1994, page 131.
Document 2305/1/517 held at the London Metropolitan Archives.
Whitbread brewing log, document LMA/4453/D/09/023
"The British Brewing Industry, 1830-1980" T. R. Gourvish & R.G. Wilson, pages 610-611
Document ACC/2305/1/711/1 in the London Metropolitan Archives

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