Enfilade

From English Heritage:

Lynn Pearson, Built to Brew: The History and Heritage of the Brewery (Swindon: English Heritage, 2014), 264 pages, ISBN: 978-1848022386, £25.

Beer has been brewed in England since Neolithic times, and this book combines a thoroughly enjoyable exploration of beer’s history and built heritage with new in-depth research into the nuts and bolts of its production. Based around England’s breweries, but occasionally ranging further afield, it tells the intriguing story of the growth of this significant industry. From Georgian brewing magnates who became household names—and their brewhouses notable tourist attractions—through magnificently ornate Victorian towers to the contemporary resurgence of microbreweries, the text throws new light on brewers and the distinctive architecture of their buildings.

Detailed chapters explain what makes a brewery work, revealing the functions of sometimes enormous brewing vessels, the astonishing skills of coppersmiths and engineers, the work of heroic mill horses and the innovative steam engines which replaced them. The wider context of the brewing industry is also investigated, bringing out the breadth of the ‘beerscape’, including those buildings put up with brewing profits such as the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Lynn Pearson is an independent architectural historian, writer and photographer specialising in the brewing industry, sporting architecture, postwar decorative arts and architectural ceramics. She has been based in Newcastle upon Tyne since 1984 and has published 20 books including pioneering works on seaside architecture, the architectural history of British breweries, and the architecture of cooperative living. More information is available at her website.

◊  ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊

C O N T E N T S

Preface
Acknowledgements
1. The Prologue: Beer
2. The Emergence of the Brewery
3. The Development of the Brewery
4. Designing and Planning the Brewery
5. Inside the Brewery
6. Powering the Brewery
7. Burton upon Trent – Beer Capital of Britain
8. Beyond the Brewery
9. The Buildings of the Brewing Industry Today
Notes
Bibliography
Glossary
Brewery Index
Geographical Index
General Index