Thrale history
Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England
Tree: UK Thrale family
Notes:
Now, it is part of the popular riverside area, comprising:
- a river walk;
- shops, restaurants, pubs;
- Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre; and
- the Tate Modern.
Owned by the Bishops of Winchester, the area known as Bankside became the entertainment centre of London after the City of London sought to limit theatrical uses by licensing them in 1574, and this caused them to migrate south of the river beyond the City’s jurisdiction. With the theatres came bull and bear baiting, inns and brothels. There were four theatres in the area, of which the Rose was the first, but perhaps the best known is the Globe, which was built in 1599. In 1642, theatres were banned by the Puritans, but by then, the area had become a major centre for industry to service the expansion of London.
Bankside was described as …
London’s scrap heap, the refuge of its excluded occupations and its rejected residents.
Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor , 1851
Location
The first Anchor Brewery on the site was established in 1710 by James Child to serve his public house on Bankside and is still called The Anchor. Situated at Deadmans Place, Bankside, adjacent to:
- Bandyleg Walk;
- Maid Lane;
- Dirty Lane;
- Clink Street;
- Frying Pan Alley; and
- St. Mary Overy’s Dock.
Maid Lane, which joined Deadmans Place at the river end, in 1751 was …
A long straggling place with ditches on either side; the passages to the houses being over little bridges.
Robert Dodsley, London and Its Environs Described, 1751.
The extent of the brewery is shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey plan of 1873.
Neighbours included:
- a noisy and dusty stonecutter’s yard;
- an old burial ground;
- an open sewer;
- several tanneries;
- Messrs Potts’s vinegar factory;
- The Naked Boy;
- patches of open space locals used as tenter ground for stretching cloth; and
- Clink Prison.
Clink Prison, was described as…
a very dismal hole.
John Snow, Survey of London, 1598.
The 9-acre compound - vulnerable to flooding from the River Thames - encompassed:
- clerks’ quarters;
- storehouses;
- vaults;
- vats; and
- stabling and dung pits for nearly 100 horses.
Critical to the success of north Southwark's industries was the improvement of its road connections. Blackfriars Bridge opened in 1769, and Southwark Bridge was completed in 1819. The latter was constructed of cast-iron arches on granite piers and, at 240 ft, the central span was the largest ever achieved in cast iron. It was replaced in 1921.
John Rocque's map of 1746 indicates significant development in the Southwark area. Thrale Street was then known as Castle Street and ran northwest to southeast, intersecting with Redcross Street. The road is lined with buildings on either side, to the north are gardens or allotments and beyond these a Tenter Ground.
Throughout the ownership of Ralph Thrale, Henry Thrale and Barclay Perkins, neighbouring land was acquired to expand production. By 1810, the brewery site had grown to almost 14 acres.
In 1862, Stanford’s Map depicts that the gardens and Tenter Ground to the north of Thrale Street (still known as Castle Street) had been replaced by the Anchor Brewery.
Buildings at the southern end of Thrale Street had suffered significant damage during the Second World War. The area to the north of Thrale Street had lost many buildings.
The post-Second World War maps indicate a number of the streets had been renamed: Castle Street had become Thrale Street, Winchester Street had become O'Meara Street and Redcross Street, Redcross Way.
Anchor Terrace, on Southwark Bridge Road, is a set-piece design built as eight houses in 1834 of yellow stock brick with stucco embellishments. It has three storeys, rising to four for the central five bays, which also break forward. Windows are arched to the ground floor and 12-pane sashes above. There is a balcony on the first floor and a full set of spearhead railings to the basement areas and entrances. In the mid-20th century, the whole terrace was converted into offices for Courage’s Brewery and later then to flats.
In the 1980s the buildings of the Anchor Brewery site were replaced by housing.
Chronology
Start | Owner | Trading name / notes | End | Length (years) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1616 | James Monger | Anchor Brewery - established | 1657 | 41 |
1657 | James Monger (the Younger) | 1670 | 13 | |
1670 | James Child | 1696 | 26 | |
1696 | Edmund Halsey M.P. | 1729 | 33 | |
1729 | Anna Smith née Thrale | 1731 | 2 | |
1731 | Ralph Thrale M.P. | Thrale and Company | 1758 | 29 |
1758 | Henry Thrale M.P. | Thrale and Company Limited | 1781 | 23 |
1781 | John Perkins, David Barclay, Robert Barclay, Sylvanus Bevan. | Thrale and Company Limited | 1798 | 17 |
1798 | John Perkins, David Barclay, Robert Barclay, Sylvanus Bevan. | Barclay Perkins | 1895 | 97 |
1895 | Courage & Co. and Barclay Perkins & Co. | Courage & Barclay Ltd | 9 May 1955 | 60 |
15 July 1955 | H. S. Finch and Company | Courage. Brewing relocated to Courage in Bermondsey. |
Brewery House
Brewery House, or Borough House, was a four-storey building located at the entrance of the cobbled brew yard of Thrale’s Anchor Brewery.Now known as 21 and 23 Park Street Southwark, London. The dilapidated building, which at one point was used as council housing was sold by Southwark Council in 2013 for £2.96 million - making it the:
most expensive council house in the UK.
'Brewery House', 21-23 Park Street, Southwark, London, 4 June 2024.
Production
Between 1700 and 1853, the Anchor Brewery likely had the greatest production of any brewery worldwide.Year | Barrels | Owner |
---|---|---|
1750 | 46,100 | Ralph Thrale |
1758 | 32,622 | |
1760 | 30,000 | Henry Thrale. |
1777 | 85,287 | |
1778 | 96,000 | |
1779 | 76,000 | |
1780 | 60,000 | |
1782 | 85,700 | Barclay & Perkins |
1802 | 137,463 | |
1809 | 260,000 | |
1810 | 200,000 | |
1815 | 330,000 | |
1826 | 380,180 | |
1867 | 423,000 |
We shall brew but Sixty Thousand Barrels of Beer this Year! pretty Times indeed; and Mr Smelt saying he wishes we had more Taxes, & the King more power: I wish the King would put an End to this destructive War I’m sure; the Year before last we brew’d 96,000 Barrels—last Year only 76,000, & this Winter we shall scarece turn 60,000. So horribly is the Consumption lessened by the War.
Hester Thrale, Thraliana, 21 January 1780
Documents | Anchor Brewery, 1781 sale. Deed of sale of Anchor Brewery on 31 May 1781. | |
Anchor brewery seventeenth century accounts Domestic accounts kept by Edmund Halsey in the 17th century. | ||
Anchor brewery, Southwark, plan 1875 Plan of Bankside (based on the 1875 Ordnance Survey). Note the Borough Waterworks Company (in pink) which supplied water to the brewery. | ||
Map of Harrow Corner, Southwark | ||
Map of Bankside, 1775. Bowles plan of London. |
Histories | Henry Thrale's will Henry Thrale died on 4 April 1781 between 5 am and 6 am. The will, dated 17 March 1781, was read by the male executors on 5 April 1781. his wife, Hester, was later informed of its provisions by Samuel Johnson. Executors
| |
Dr. Samuel Johnson's close friendship with the Thrale family. Samuel Johnson’s close friendship with Henry and Hester Thrale began in 1765, declined in 1781 after Henry’s death and mostly ended 1784 just before Hester married Gabriel Piozzi. | ||
Anchor Brewery, Bankside, London (1616-1986). The history of Anchor brewery from 1616 until 1986, including the 52 years between 1729 & 1781 in which it was owned by Ralph and Henry Thrale. |
Videos | BBC TV Arena: According to Beryl (2001). On 6 October 2001, BBC Television broadcast 'According to Beryl'. Their hour-long account of the family arrangement enjoyed by Samuel Johnson and the Thrale family of Streatham seen through the eyes of Beryl Bainbridge, author of the book on the same subject, According to Queeney. We also have an account of the Bery Bainbridge book According to Queeney, upon which this TV programme about Queeney, Johnson and the Thrale family is based. |
Matches 1 to 5 of 5
Last Name, Given Name(s) | Birth | Person ID | Tree | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | THRALE, (miscarried) | 10 Aug 1779 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I2168 | UK Thrale family |
2 | THRALE, Frances | 27 Sep 1765 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I216 | UK Thrale family |
3 | THRALE, Henry Salusbury | 15 Feb 1767 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I670 | UK Thrale family |
4 | THRALE, Hester Maria | 17 Sep 1764 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I94 | UK Thrale family |
5 | THRALE, Susannah Arabella | 23 May 1770 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I93 | UK Thrale family |
Matches 1 to 3 of 3
Last Name, Given Name(s) | Death | Person ID | Tree | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | THRALE, (miscarried) | 10 Aug 1779 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I2168 | UK Thrale family |
2 | THRALE, Frances | 6 Oct 1765 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I216 | UK Thrale family |
3 | THRALE, Henry Salusbury | 23 Mar 1776 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I670 | UK Thrale family |
Matches 1 to 1 of 1
Last Name, Given Name(s) | Occupation | Person ID | Tree | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | THRALE, Ralph M.P. | Between 1711 and 1731 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I69 | UK Thrale family |
Matches 1 to 5 of 5
Last Name, Given Name(s) | Property | Person ID | Tree | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | HALSEY, Edmund MP | Between 1693 and 1729 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I746 | UK Thrale family |
2 | SALUSBURY, Hester Lynch | Between 11 Apr 1781 and 31 May 1781 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I87 | UK Thrale family |
3 | THRALE, Anna | Between Aug 1729 and 1731 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I70 | UK Thrale family |
4 | THRALE, Henry M.P. | 10 Apr 1758 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I83 | UK Thrale family |
5 | THRALE, Ralph M.P. | 1731 | Anchor Brewery, Southwark, Surrey, England | I69 | UK Thrale family |