The Wenlock Arms
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Wenlock Arms is a public house in London which reopened on Friday 14 January 1994. The pub is located half way between Old Street and Angel Islington just off the City Road and the City Road Basin and Wenlock Basin on the Regent's Canal. The pub has won awards for the quality and range of its cask ales.
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[edit] History
The Wenlock Arms first opened for business 1836. The pub was operated by the nearby Wenlock Brewery Co Ltd as a "brewery tap".
John Lane (1808-1873) owned and ran the Wenlock Brewery from 1840 until his death, first as "Lane & Bowden" (The 1842 Post Office Directory gives “LANE & BOWDEN, Ale Brewers, 9 Wenlock Road”). John's brother-in-law John Mitchell (1813-1868) was brewery foreman in 1851 (census). Various other members of the Mitchell family (including older brother Thomas - foreman in 1871 (census)- and another John Mitchell, a cousin (ca 1820-1849), as well as at least three of John Lane's brothers worked at the brewery from time to time. Yet another John Mitchell, John Hoffe Mitchell, was joint executor to John Lane's will. John Lane and his friend John Hoffe Mitchell sailed to America in 1831 "and were very nearly shipwrecked" The Diaries of Charlotte Grove. In 1873, ownership passed to John Lane's youngest son, Robert George (John Lane's will, 1873). Robert, after brewing in Alton, Hants, and marrying Parisienne Louise Marie Julienne Isabel Jean dit Saussay in 1876, died of pneumonia in 1880, aged only 31. After this the brewery fell into the hands of one Richard Alfred Glover before being taken over by Glover Bell & Co in 1887. John Lane, his wife Eliza Beaven (Mitchell), four of their children - including Robert George and another son Frederick (who committed suicide by shooting himself in 1874) are buried in Abney Park Cemetery. Buried next to them are members of the Mitchell family.
When the New London Brewery, in Lambeth, London, went into voluntary liquidation on January 13th 1925, their licensed houses were bought by the Wenlock Brewery.
Wenlock Fireside Ale was re-created starting from 1 November 1999 by the Museum Brewery, Burton and was available throughout the year 2000.
[edit] Building and interior
The pub building, built in 1835, is a survivor of the wartime bombing of the area, and retains a traditional pub interior.
[edit] Cask ale
The Wenlock Arms is widely acclaimed by cask ale enthusiasts and the consumer organisation CAMRA as a leading public house in London.
The pub has been named North London Pub of the Year by the local CAMRA branch on three occasions since it reopened in 1994 [1].
[edit] Cultural references
"Terror at Wenlock Brewery" was published in 1998 by Stephen Sadler, and tells of The Blitz.
