Highgate Brewery

Highgate Brewery is a tower brewery built in 1898, with additions of 1919 and later alterations. The building is constructed of red brick with Welsh slate roofs and features some blue brick dentil eaves cornicing. The rear delivery area is constructed of steel.

The brewery comprises five storeys and a cellar on the left section, and four storeys on the right, arranged as a single-depth plan with a staircase positioned left of centre. Rooms are subdivided according to their brewing functions. To the rear is an attached single-storey range built in-line with the main range across five bays to the north. The rear range has been opened up at ground-floor level to access a late-20th-century addition of concrete block with a steel roof. Some floors are restricted in height. Two single-storey additions, probably dating from 1919, are attached to the right, and a later-20th-century boiler room addition is attached to the left.

The main elevation comprises seven bays, with five bays on the left containing the five-storey section, and two bays on the right for the four-storey section. Windows are mainly cast-iron casements under painted cambered heads, though some openings are blocked or altered. Four attic windows in the central bays are closely spaced under flat arches, with three sealed. To their left is a timber-boarded sack hoist spanning the upper three storeys, featuring decorative brackets and a finial on its gabled roof. A double plank door in the second bay from the left bears a Mitchell's and Butler's licensing plate above it. In front of the four bays to the right is a loading platform, beneath alternate 20th-century doors and windows. The single-storey extension to the right, probably from 1919, has one blocked window and a ridge ventilator. Dentil eaves cornices and moulded brick kneelers run across the main elevation.

The left flank gable elevation has three cast-iron casements on each floor, some with altered panes and openings to accommodate ventilator flues or, at first-floor level, a grain chute. To the rear, rising from an attached 20th-century single-storey range, stands a tall square brick chimney of late-19th-century date with iron banding and a moulded cap. The right flank of the main building has two gabled single-storey ranges with cast-iron casements and brick corbels below the eaves. The rear elevation features cast-iron casements with some alterations, and single-storey additions at ground-floor level, partly under a hipped roof of 1919.

The interior retains much of the original plan along with traditional brewing vessels and equipment spanning multiple dates: the well water tank from 1900, hot liquor tanks from the 1930s, a malt hopper from 1920, and the original wooden spring screen from 1899. A German belt-driven malt crusher dates to 1922. Later equipment includes coppers from 1952–7, a hopback from 1955, a jackback from 1952, a wort receiver from 1948, a paraflow from 1970, and fermenting vessels. The brewery operated on a gravity method: malt was crushed and separated at the top of the building, then on the floor below, water was heated to boiling point and mixed in mash tuns with malt from the grist case. After mixing and sieving, it was boiled in copper kettles on the second floor where hops were added. It was then run off into the hop back and cooled before fermenting in vessels on the first-floor level. Yeast was added and the brew left to ferment. Beer was kegged at ground-floor level and originally stored in the cellar; a kegging and storage facility now occupies the rear of the ground floor. Fermenting vessels include round oak examples from 1905 and later replacements, all re-lined. The original timber stairway remains in its original location. A cellar lift serves the ground floor at the front of the building, with trapdoors and pulleys serving hoists on the upper floors to the left. The rear ground floor incorporates substantial cast-iron columns within a later steel structure.

The Highgate Brewery was built for J. A. Fletcher and became operational in 1898 as a small brewing concern producing a single mild ale and employing three or four people. The tower brewery building is shown on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1903. By 1914, it had begun to expand to produce bitter and bottled beers, and the brewery was enlarged in 1919. In 1924, Highgate Brewery merged with John Lord's Brewery to form Walsall Breweries Proprietary Ltd. The Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1938 shows extensions principally to the north and west, though the broken building outline may indicate construction was underway at the time of survey. Production expanded between the wars, and in 1939 the large brewer Mitchell's and Butler's purchased the brewery and its tied houses, intending to close their competitor. However, wartime rationing altered these plans; the brewery qualified for vital extra rationed supplies and brewing continued throughout the war.

M&B's continued ownership after rationing ended in the early 1950s reflects the brewery's success. By 1948, it was producing 750 barrels per week, growing to 2,500 barrels of mild ale alone by the 1970s, when it employed 60 people. Much brewing equipment was replaced or adapted during the 20th century. In 1995, the brewery was sold to management by Bass, which had by then acquired M&B. By 1998, production had declined to 400–500 barrels per week; centenary gates were installed at the Sandymount Road entrance that year to mark 100 years of brewing. By the early 21st century, production had increased again. Following a further sale in 2007, Highgate Brewery was combined with the Davenports brand. The brewery closed in June 2010.