Meux's Brewery

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A label from the Nut Brown brand. The horseshoe logo can clearly be seen.
A label from the Nut Brown brand. The horseshoe logo can clearly be seen.

Meux's Brewery Co Ltd was a London brewery owned by Sir Henry Meux. Established in 1764 the company was a major supplier of porter in the area. The company had several breweries around London and was eventually sold off in 1961.

Contents

[edit] Owners and mergers

Breweries frequently changed hands and many were bought and sold by other companies in the trade.

One early purchase by Henry Meux was The Horse Shoe Brewery, located on the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street. The horseshoe became part of the Meux identity and was incorporated into their logo. In 1921 the Thorne Brothers brewery of Nine Elms Lane was also acquired by Meux and the company brewed there for 43 years.[1] In 1961 Meux's Brewery Co Ltd itself was sold to Friary, Holroyd and Healy's Brewery Ltd of Guildford, which then named itself Friary Meux Ltd. This new organisation only lasted for three years before being bought by Ind Coope Ltd.

[edit] 1814 vat failure

The Horse Shoe Brewery featured a giant porter vat measuring 22 feet high and containing 3,555 barrels. In October of 1814 the vat burst when the securing hoops failed. The contents rushed out of the vat into the streets and surrounding buildings. At the time the brewery was surrounded by small housing owned by the poorer classes of London; some of the buildings could not withstand the force of the flowing beer and collapsed. Eight people are known to have died either from falling debris, drowning, poisoning by the porter fumes, or from inebriation. One man even attempted to stop the flood by drinking the alcohol and died from alcohol poisoning.[2][3]

The company found it difficult to cope with the financial implications of the disaster, with a significant loss of sales made worse because they had already paid duty on the beer. They made a successful application to parliament reclaiming the duty which allowed them to continue trading.[2]

[edit] Trivia

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Brewery History Society. "Questions and Answers". Accessed 11 March 2007.
  2. ^ a b British History Online. "Industries: Brewing". Accessed 11 March 2007.
  3. ^ a b RateBeer.com. "Pub Crawls of London". Accessed 11 March 2007.