The Wenlock Arms is a public house in Hoxton, in London's East End, which began trading in 1787. The pub is located halfway between Old Street and Angel, 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.
The Wenlock Arms first opened for business in 1787 and was operated by the nearby Wenlock Brewery as a "brewery tap".
John Lane (1808–1873) owned and ran the Wenlock Brewery from 1840 until his death, initially as "Lane & Bowden" (the 1842 Post Office Directory mentions “LANE & BOWDEN, Ale Brewers, 9 Wenlock Road”). John's brother-in-law, John Mitchell (1813–1868), was brewery foreman in 1851 (mentioned in the census). Various other members of the Mitchell family worked at the brewery from time to time. These included John Mitchell's older brother Thomas (mentioned in the census as being foreman at the brewery in 1871), another John Mitchell (a cousin; c. 1820–1849), as well as at least three of John Lane's brothers. Yet another John Mitchell, John Hoffe Mitchell, was joint executor of John Lane's will.
In 1873, ownership passed to John Lane's youngest son, Robert George. Robert, after brewing in Alton, Hampshire, and marrying Parisienne Louise Marie Julienne Isabel Jean dit Saussay in 1876, died of pneumonia in 1880, aged only 31. After this the brewery became the property 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, of Lambeth, London, went into voluntary liquidation on 13 January 1925, their licensed houses were bought by the Wenlock Brewery.
Wenlock Fireside Ale was recreated starting from 1 November 1999 by the Museum Brewery, Burton, and was available throughout the year 2000.
The pub building, built in 1835, is a survivor of the wartime bombing of the area, and retains a traditional pub interior.
The Wenlock Arms is a renowned cask ale public house in London, [1] and has been named North London Pub of the Year by the local CAMRA branch on four occasions since it reopened in 1994. [2] The pub competes in the north category, despite its East End location, as CAMRA use postal districts to define their competition sectors. [3]
"Terror at Wenlock Brewery" was published in 1998 by Stephen Sadler, and tells of The Blitz.
David Beckham used to join his grandfather for drinks at the Wenlock Arms, even after he became a superstar. [4]
The Wenlock Arms features in the opening titles of the television show Al Murray's Compete for the Meat .
The Wenlock Arms was used as a location for Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's film The World's End , released in 2013 starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, and Rosamund Pike.
In September 2010, news emerged that the Wenlock Arms was planned to be demolished, and in response a campaign to save the pub was started. [5] [6] [7] On 7 September 2011, an application to demolish the existing building and replace it with a new development was registered with Hackney Council. The consultation period ran until 10 October 2011. [8] There was also a new application (October 2012). [9]
The Wenlock arms is now in a conservation area, and receives protection as a result. The decision to extend the Regents Canal Conservation Area was taken by Hackney Council (Cabinet) on 19 December 2011. [10] After a period of closure, the pub was finally rescued after a vigorous campaign led by the local community and CAMRA. It reopened on 3 June 2013. The pub itself underwent renovation, floors upstairs being extended for residential accommodation.
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, England, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs. With just over 150,000 members, it is the largest single-issue consumer group in the UK, and is a founding member of the European Beer Consumers Union (EBCU).
Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for beer that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide".
The Wenlock Basin, is a 320 metre long canal basin on the Regent's Canal, in the Hoxton area of the London Borough of Hackney, United Kingdom. The City Road Basin lies just to the west of Wharf Road and is in the neighbouring London Borough of Islington.
Greene King is a large pub retailer and brewer. It is based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The company owns pubs, restaurants and hotels. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) until it was acquired by CK Assets in October 2019.
Fuller's Brewery in Chiswick, west London, England, is the former brewing division of Fuller, Smith & Turner PLC. It was a family-run business from its foundation in 1845 until 2019, when it was sold to the Japanese international beverage giant Asahi.
Beer has been brewed in England for thousands of years. As a beer brewing country, it is known for top fermented cask beer which finishes maturing in the cellar of the pub rather than at the brewery and is served with only natural carbonation.
Timothy Taylor's is a family-owned regional brewery founded in 1858 by Timothy Taylor. Originally based in Cook Lane, Keighley, West Yorkshire, England. Timothy Taylor's moved to larger premises in 1863 at Knowle Spring in Keighley, where they remain.
Harvey's Brewery is a brewery in Lewes, East Sussex, England.
St. Peter's is an independent brewery founded in 1996 by John Murphy in former agricultural buildings adjacent to St. Peter’s Hall in St Peter, South Elmham, near Bungay in the English county of Suffolk.
McMullen's, known locally as Mac's, is a regional brewery founded in 1827 in Hertford, England. The brewery expanded during the second half of the 19th century by purchasing other breweries and their associated pubs. In 1902 it was the second largest brewery in Hertfordshire. The brewery has occupied several different sites in Hertford and moved to its current location in 1891. There have been several breweries on this site and the current one opened in 2006. As of 2021, members of the 6th generation of the McMullen family are still involved with the business.
Beer in the United Kingdom has a long history, and has quite distinct traditions. Historically the main styles were top-fermented Bitters, Porters, Stouts and Milds, but after World War II lagers took over half the market by volume. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) was founded in 1971 and has encouraged the preservation and revival of traditional styles of ale. In particular CAMRA has promoted cask conditioned beer, which completes its maturation in casks in the cellar of the pub rather than at the brewery. As of 2014 the UK drank 634 million imperial pints of cask ale, representing 60% of ale in pubs and restaurants and 17% of all beer in pubs. In total 42.42 million hectolitres of beer were produced in 2013 of which 48% was sold in the off-trade.
York Brewery is a brewery, formerly located in York within the city walls, owned by Black Sheep Brewery in Masham where York Brewery beers are currently brewed.
The Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood (SPBW), founded in 1963, is the oldest consumer-based group interested in stimulating the brewing of, increasing the awareness of, and encouraging the drinking of traditional cask ale. The Society also supports and encourages the use of wooden casks for beer dispense.
T&R Theakston is a brewery in the market town of Masham, North Yorkshire, England. The company is the sixteenth largest brewer in the UK by market share, and the second largest brewer under family ownership after Shepherd Neame. Its best known beer is Old Peculier.
The Pride of Spitalfields is a public house at 3 Heneage Street in Spitalfields in the East End of London, just off Brick Lane. It was associated with a Jack the Ripper suspect.
John Allen Young CBE was an English brewer. He was for many years chairman of the Young's Brewery in Wandsworth, working there for over 50 years.
The Commercial is a public house at 210-212 Railton Road, Herne Hill, London. It is cited in 'The CAMRA Regional Inventory for London' as being one of only 133 pubs in Greater London with a pub interior of special historic interest, most notably for its, "Original counters, bar-back, fireplaces and much fielded wall panelling" dating from the 1930s. In July 2016, Lambeth Council designated The Commercial as a locally-listed heritage asset of architectural or historic interest, being described as a, "Two-storey Neo Georgian style inter-war pub with a three-part convex façade which follows the curve of the building line".
