History tour, including stories on environmental, economic, and social issues (S.Hrg.113)

My recent success with a scavenger hunt showed that I can find my way to bars of the present, but when it comes to breweries of the past, I'm no expert, so I continued my celebration of the London Beer City Festival by signing up for "Porter, Peers & Pilgrims: A London Brewery History Walk," led by Des De Moor, author of many Campaign for Real Ale books, including The CAMRA Guide to London's Best Beer Pubs and Bars, which I got him to sign as a birthday present for TJ.

From our starting point at the Old Street Tube station, De Moor gave us some general background on brewing, which was the first modern commercial industry in London. The connection between the area and ale goes as far back as The Canterbury Tales; the unnamed host in the introduction encourages the pilgrims to share their stories over the "finest Southwark ale." In particular, London and England became known for brewing porter, which gets it dark color and acrid taste from the burnt grains that are used to make it and which gets its name from the people who used to drink it. 

Our first stop -- The Brewery, next to The Montcalm London City hotel -- once was home to Whitbread Brewery, the first purpose-built brewing building in the world. After opening in 1715, Whitbread helped perfect the brewing of porter. In fact, its porter tun room, now used as an events space, is the second-largest room in London after Westminster Hall. The building was closed in 1976, and the beer business was sold in 2000. Whitbread moved on to brewing Costa Coffee, possibly the only outlets more ubiquitous than pubs in London.

Next, we walked through the Spitalfields neighborhood to the Old Truman Brewery, founded in 1666 by the namesake family along with partners Hanbury and Buxton (left). By the mid-1800s, Truman claimed to be the largest brewery in the world. It definitely had large influence in London, as Charles Dickens mentions the brewery as a potential employment location in his novel David Copperfield. The building has hosted markets and special events since the brewery closed in 1989 (right). Shortly thereafter, Heineken obtained the brand but later sold it back to two local beer enthusiasts, James Morgan and Michael-George Hemus, in 2010. Truman's Beer re-opened in 2013 with The Eyrie, a new brewery facility in Hackey Wick.

After heading south, we found ourselves along the Thames at St. Katharine Docks (top), once the base location of Lion Brewery, which was at one time the oldest brewery and oldest continuously operating business in England. The brewery, later renamed Hoare & Co., was known for enlarging its aging vats to create mass amounts of the "Parson's black champagne." The ever-growing size of vats is partially to blame for the Great Beer Flood of 1814, which killed eight people. On the docks now sits the Dickens Inn, likely a former brewery warehouse that was moved from its original location due to development (bottom left). Some fellow tourists stopped for an ale at the inn, but since I had skipped breakfast, I opted for a coffee as well as a cinnamon and custard cruffin (croissant muffin) from the White Mulberries shop across the lock (bottom right).

As we headed across the Thames to the Southwark district heralded by Chaucer, we passed two more former and converted brewery buildings: St. George's Brewery, or the Hult Plaza Building that now houses an international business school (left), and Anchor Brewhouse, next to Butler's Wharf, which both are now developments with restaurants and flats (right).

On the south bank of the Thames, De Moor stopped to tell us about Anchor Brewery, which was built on the site of the original Globe Theatre and was known for its imperial Russian stout (top left). Both "Anchor" breweries developed in Southwark because it was a freer area just across the single bridge to London, which closed at night. Many vices were illegal in London proper, but the Bishop of Winchester allowed brothels and other houses of ill repute to entertain the deliverymen waiting for the bridge to open on the other side. Anchor Brewery started small in 1729 but grew under ownership by the Thrale family. Dictionary writer Samuel Johnson's ad copy helped sell the business to Barclay & Perkins, also referenced by Dickens in David Copperfield. Later, it was bought by Courage & Co. Brewery, as seen by the slogan on the former head brewer's house (top right). During its time under B&P, there was a bit of a scandal over the beatdown of Baron von Haynau by two bartenders (bottom).

Our tour ended near Borough Market, which houses an outpost of Neal's Yard Dairy. The dairy's decision to use railway arches for storage quite possibly sparked the recent trend of microbreweries setting up operations underneath Tube lines. De Moor set us free at The George (top), a National Trust site because it is the last remaining galleried inn in London (bottom left). I drank to its history by having a Rumrunner -- a rum-infused blonde ale by Greene King, the sponsor of the pub -- in its outside garden (bottom right).

 

On a less sunny day, TJ and I returned to The George's 335-year-old structure, so we could feel like Dickens and Shakespeare, who both frequented the watering hole, as we ordered pints from the tenders compartment, with its old cash register (left), then settled into well-worn wooden chairs in a crook next to the fireplace stove (right).

 

My last London Beer City Festival stop paid homage to the modern incarnation of the London brewery. I stayed in my neighborhood by heading to By the Horns Brewing Co. in Wandsworth (left), which for its Taste of Southwest event was hosting guest ales: Hackney Brewery's Red Ale; Weird Beard Brew Co.'s Mariana Trench pale ale; and Belleville Brewing Co.'s Red Wheat N' Blue and Northcote Blonde. First, I took the beer by the horns with the home brewery's Samba King rye blonde ale, then I had Howling Hops' Black XX Superior No. 1, a black IPA (right). I brought it all together in the end by finishing with a special collaboration between Belleville and Rocky Head Brewery: Unite, a blended white sour saison, which kind of tasted like drinking steak. I guess when beers are tapping the umami tastebuds, you know you're back in the 21st century of brewing.