Mcmullens Brewery

McMullens Brewery

Brewery. Built in 1891 with twentieth-century alterations. The building is constructed of red brick laid to English bond with blue engineering brick plinths. The roofs are Welsh slated and tiled, hipped over the main building which features a lantern with timber louvres, slated upper roof, and wrought-iron arched cupola and flagpole. A cast-iron cupola with ogee lead roll roof sits on a lower building and incorporates a clock dated 1829 by Moore & Son of Clerkenwell, which was restored by them in 1891.

The exterior comprises single-storey, two-storey and five-storey buildings. The main building is five bays by three bays and five storeys in height, with the left-hand two bays forming a slightly later extension. Multi-pane cast-iron windows are recessed under segmental arches with stucco kneelers and keyblocks, with moulded bands below sills and at impost level and corbelled cornices. The original part of the main building has a brick triglyph frieze and cornice above the second-floor windows, which feature broad outer arched surrounds. On the left of centre of the south elevation is a timber hoist cage with cross and arched bracing and a hipped roof above the third floor.

Two-storey wings flank the main block on the left and right, terminating in pediment gabled and pilaster fronts to the street. The main block faces a long triangular area formed by the two arms of Hartham Lane. Single-storey buildings around the perimeter are divided into bays by shallow pilasters with recessed multi-pane cast-iron windows, some under broad segmental brick arches with stucco kneelers and keyblocks. Similar arches frame the loading bays. A tall parapet conceals the Welsh slated roof on the west range, whilst the east range has a tiled roof with long timber louvred vent and a hipped roof bearing fretted ridge tiles and terracotta finial.

South of the site stands a single-storey building with parapet roof, two bays on the west and one bay on the east, formerly the tally house to the brewery yard. This has two-light arched moulded wood windows below elliptical brick arches with projecting keyblocks and flanking pilasters with moulded impost caps and raised brick panels below sills. Outer pilasters, coupled at the building end, support a moulded brick frieze and cornice. The doorway at the apex contains a twentieth-century three-panel door recessed in a stucco surround with Tuscan pilasters, a semicircular panel above, and a segmental pediment with carved leaves and a small central cartouche.

To the north, along the west arm of Hartham Lane lay the brewery yard, now roofed with lightweight corrugated metal cladding. A cast-iron screen along the frontage features spearhead railings with conical heads, gate posts of four clustered shafts with roll bases on square plinths, cavetto and roll caps and ball finials on pedestals. Gates of similar design to the screens remain but are covered with metal sheeting.

Interior: The structure is exposed in the main buildings, featuring 1890s king post trussed roofs, cast-iron columns with bell caps, supplemented by late twentieth-century steelwork in places, and vaulted cellars below the cask house with brick walls and concrete floors. The first floor of the main building contains six timber vats with wrought-iron strapping and copper linings, made by Wilson, Brewers Engineers of Frome, with additional vats in the west wing. The second floor houses mash tuns and malt room with central riveted girders and cast-iron columns, with the malt room occupying the loft of the east wing and featuring large queen post trusses to the roof. The hoist serves all floors up to the third floor, with its mechanism still in situ on the third floor, accessible through pairs of half-glazed doors on each level. The fourth floor is an attic with a steel trussed roof with tie rods and louvred lantern above.

Historical context: McMullens Brewery was founded in 1827 by the son of a Scottish nurseryman in Back Street (now Railway Street). The firm relocated to Mill Bridge in 1848, a site now occupied by a McMullens public house, 'The Woolpack'. The move to Hartham Lane occurred in 1891, when new premises were constructed. The operation involved cooperage and the dealing in malt and hops in addition to brewing. In the late nineteenth century, the Maidenhead Yard site was developed for McMullens' Seed Warehouse, while Old Cross Wharf provided easy access by river. The relocation to Hartham Lane, adjoining the old Great Northern Station, reflected the increasing use of rail for delivery of raw materials and distribution of finished products. McMullens became a private limited company in 1897.