Lion Brewery Co is a British heritage

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...

that was founded in 1836 in

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...

, London. For over a hundred years, the brewery shipped its heavily-hopped ales to trading posts and ports across the seas. It was one of the main exporters of beer to various parts of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

, until the brewery was damaged by fire and closed in 1931. The building remained derelict until it was eventually demolished in 1949 to make way for the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...

. In 2018, a new Lion Brewery Co was founded in Singapore.

History

The original Lion Brewery was built on the southbank of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

on Belvedere Road, next to

Hungerford Bridge The Hungerford Bridge crosses the River Thames in London, and lies between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge. Owned by Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd (who use its official name of Charing Cross Bridge) it is a steel truss railway bridge ...

. The land was leased by James Goding, and brewery was built by the architect Francis Edwards on land that was then owned by the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

at the time. The water used for brewing was sourced from the five wells inside the building, as opposed to river water from the Thames. During the 19th century and under the Goding family, Lion Brewery supplied beer that was shipped by sea from Britain to trading outposts throughout the empire. In order to survive the gruelling six-month journey, brewers such as Lion Brewery had to increase the strength and quantity of hops in the beer to help preserve it for the long voyage Ales were thus shipped out from London in vast quantities by companies such as the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

, and later became known India Pale Ale (IPA). In 1924, the company was taken over by the brewers Hoare and Co, of Wapping, was badly damaged by fire in 1931. The brewery building remained derelict until it was eventually demolished in 1949 to allow for the building of the

Lion statues

There were originally three Coade Stone lion statues created for Lion Brewery by W.F. Woodington, a notable sculptor of the era. The most famous of these lions was the one that sat atop the brewery parapet. Just before the building was demolished, King George VI ordered that it be preserved, along with its surviving sibling lion which stood over one of the brewery gates. Both remain in London until this day. The one from the roof of the brewery is now known as the

South Bank Lion The ''South Bank Lion'' is an 1837 sculpture in Central London. Since 1966 it has stood next to County Hall, on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is a significant depiction of a lion, along with the four that surround Nelson's Column in T ...

, and can be found opposite the

Houses of Parliament The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north bank ...

at the south end of

Westminster Bridge Westminster Bridge is a road-and-foot-traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, linking Westminster on the west side and Lambeth on the east side. The bridge is painted predominantly green, the same colour as the leather seats in the H ...

. The other coade stone lion is now located at the west-gate entrance of

Twickenham Stadium Twickenham Stadium () in Twickenham, south-west London, England, is a rugby union stadium owned by the Rugby Football Union (RFU), English rugby union governing body, which has its headquarters there. The England national rugby union team play ...

, the home of rugby. It was painted with gold leaf prior to the

1991 Rugby World Cup The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Five Nations Championship. This was ...

held in England.

Lion Brewery 2.0

In 2017, "Lion Brewery" was re-licensed in the UK and Singapore by two Englishmen under the original trademark. By December 2018, the new Lion Brewery began trading, brewing beers in South-east Asia, with two beers, Straits Pale Ale and Island Lager, available in Singapore and Cambodia.

References

{{coords, 51.5062, -0.1176, display=title Breweries in London Defunct breweries of the United Kingdom Food and drink companies established in 1836 Food and drink companies established in 2017