For much of the population of London in the first half of the 19th century, beer was considered a safer drink than water, as well as more pleasurable. Beer brewing was concentrated in Burton on Trent. When Burton brewers succeeded in replicating the pale ale produced in London, the quality of Burton water allowed the development of Burton India Pale Ale, Britain’s leading export beer in the 19th century, brewed to keep during the long sea voyage to India. Burton became the world’s most important beer town.
Beer from Burton upon Trent was also one of the major commodities transported by canal and railway. Bass and Allsopp were the two largest Burton brewers and had warehouses on the Regent’s Canal to serve the London market. Not long after the arrival of the railway they established warehouses at Camden Goods Station.
The L&NWR Camden Station: Plan of portion of ale vaults (Network Rail) dated 1866 shows how the Eastern Horse Tunnel was to be extended by a branch into the new main goods shed. The 1856 beer vaults at bottom left, which connected with the canal dock under the Interchange, were occupied by Bass, for whom they had originally been built. These vaults connected via an underground passage with the remaining vaults built under the sidings and engine lane of the 1839 goods depot. As seen on the plan, these were occupied by Allsopp. Allsopp also occupied some of the arches that had supported the 1846 wagon construction shop, seen at the top of the plan.
Allsopp remained committed to Camden Goods Station and moved into the basement of the main goods shed on Bass’ departure. This move was driven by the LNWR attracting W & A Gilbey to the Camden depot. In 1869 Gilbeys leased the three sets of vaults shown in the plan, among other major facilities, for storage of wine barrels.
In 1876 the LNWR built stables for Allsopp in what is now 42 Gloucester Avenue, which connected with the goods yard via the Western Horse Tunnel.
The movement of beer or wine barrels around what now became the Wine and Beer Vaults can be seen in the photograph of 1987 (Nick Catford), where the wooden sleepers that had been used for barrel runs were still evident years after such work had ceased.
For the great breweries the horses that pulled their wagons were symbols of corporate pride, and distinguishable from any other horses by the care taken in grooming. Horse parades were a movement led by Sir Walter Gilbey and Baroness Burdett-Coutts with the aim of influencing public perceptions and improving morale and horse management, the London Van Horse Parades being held on Easter Monday in the Inner Circle of Regent’s Park.
In the last quarter of the 19th century the temperance movement, allied with improvements in public water supplies, bore down on beer drinkers. The Public Drinking Fountain Association was set up to provide the poorer classes with clean drinking water and wean them off beer. By 1882 the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association had 502 animal troughs and 497 ‘fountains for human beings’.
The filling stations of their time, serving 50,000 horses per day by 1885, they bear witness to forgotten ideals and attitudes. The image shows a drinking fountain with animal trough in Camden Town.