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OF BRENTFORD |
The large British Brewery was in the possession of Mr Brooks
in 1823, on the south side of the High Street where Watermans
Park is today. Its name was changed to the Red Lion Brewery
in 1825 when it was run by John Hazard who was probably in
partnership with Felix Booth since Booth & Co are said to
have been its owners Felix Booth came from a family of
distillers with a large distillery in Clerkenwell (Booth's gin
became a household name.) He built his second extensive
distillery on the north side of Brentford High Street
(commemorated in Distillery Rd) He was also the first
chairman of the Brentford Gas Works Company in 1821 and
built the Royal Hotel at 77 Brentford High Street (where
the Watermans Art Centre is today) Felix Booth (1775-1850)
was a prosperous City merchant who was elected one of the
sheriffs of 'Booth' is most commonly associated with gin,
it is also immortalised in the Arctic Circle where the
words 'Boothia', Brentford','Felix' and 'Sheriff', were
allocated to new lands and waterways discovered by Captain
John Ross in his Polar expedition of 1829, Booth had financed
Ross's quest and Ross showed his gratitude by naming the
places' after my worthy friend Felix Booth Esq., the truly
patriotic citizen of London, who in the most disinterested
manner, enabled me to equip this expedition in a superior
style', 'Booth's generosity to Ross prompted the Duke of
Clarence (who became William 1V in 1830) to visit the
brewery and distillery at Brentford, and was pleased to
express his approbation of the whole arrangement: he was
particularly struck with the novel appearance of the
feeding department for so many oxen'. The distillery
contained a large building housing up to 300 oxen that
as a by-product of distilling, were fattened up on the
mashed grain remaining after the distilling process.
In recognition of Booth's donation to Captain Ross the
Duke suggested Booth renamed his brewery the Royal Brewery
and permitted him to use the Royal coat-of-arms. The Duke
apparently christened the brewery himself by breaking a
bottle of wine on the wall of the counting house. Booth
was also created a baronet in 1835. Like many prominent
people he appears to have made enemies, for The Times of
26 May 1842 tells us that there was a diabolical attempt
to set fire to the bullock house of Sir Felix's distillery'
caused the paper concluded by some vile incendiary. Messrs
Haig took over the distillery that was closed by 1859. The
Royal brewery was taken over Mr Carrington, the father of
Richard Christopher Carrington (1826-1875) who was a
well-known astronomer. It passed to Messrs Gibbon and
Croxford, then to Montague Ballard. It closed in 1923
when it was purchased by another brewery which turn was
later acquired by Courage. The Royal arms from the
Brentford brewery were then displayed outside the
Anchor Brewery in Park Street, Southwark. The Royal
Hotel was demolished in 1927 to make way for an
extension to the gasworks.
Messrs Gomm who in 1877 built a new brewery in Catherine
Wheel Yard founded a brewery called the Bee Hive in 1840.
The Gomms owned 34 pubs all of which were taken over by
Fullers in 1908 when the brewery was put up for sale.
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