Tetley's Brewery was a large brewery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The main product was Tetley's Bitter, although Skol and other beers were also made there.
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The original brewery was opened on the current site in 1822. Parts of the original buildings still stand and extensions have been built as late as 2006. The Brewery opened a museum on the 19 March 1994.[1][2] The attraction proved popular; however, redevelopment of the land surrounding the brewery led to the attraction's closure on 7 April 2000. The building is now bars and restaurants which are part of the Brewery Wharf development.[3]
All fermenting now takes place in stainless steel Yorkshire squares and conical vessels; the slate Yorkshire squares, dating from about the 1880s, were broken up and removed in autumn 2008.[4]
The brewery is situated on the south banks of the River Aire near Crown Point, Hunslet and Clarence Dock. The adjacent Yorkshire Chemical works has recently been demolished The Brewery opened a museum on the 19 March 1994.[1][2] There is also a distribution centre nearby in Tingley.
The closure of the brewery by Carlsberg was announced on 5 November 2008. The brewery finally closed its doors on 17 June 2011.[5]
Carlsberg tried to redeploy some staff throughout the group but 179 staff did lose their jobs. Production of Tetley beer will be moved to Northampton.[6]
The brewery produced around 185 million pints of Tetley's every year.[7] In addition to this brewery there was a distribution centre in nearby Tingley. There are no plans to close this depot.
Since the closure of the Yorkshire Chemical Works adjacent to the brewery, some of the land has been used for storage by Tetley's. It has been speculated whether the two sites will be redeveloped together.
The Brewery currently stands on the largest site it has ever stood on, after over 180 years of expansion. In 1906 the brewery stood on a fraction of its current site between Brook Street, Hunslet Road (this part now being known as Hunslet Lane), Crown Point Road and Waterloo Street. Many smaller streets in the vicinity have since disappeared under the ever extending brewery.[8]
Several MPs in Leeds had called for a demerger between Tetley's and Carlsberg or a management buyout to save the brewery from closure. It had been suggested that the brewery could be leased to independent brewers, should it become unused. The Yorkshire Evening Post estimated a value of £4–£5 million per acre for the site.