CHAPTER IX - Truman, Hanbury, Buxton and Company's Black Eagle Brewery, Brick Lane
The Present extent of the brewery site is
shown in fig. 30. The part which lies west
of Brick Lane was formerly a part of that
portion of the Wheler estate which passed to the
Wilkes family, and until 1904 was held by leasehold tenure. The other part, on the east side of
Brick Lane, lies in the Borough of Bethnal Green.
Several streets mentioned in this account, Mon-mouth, King, Black Eagle and (New) George
Streets, have been either absorbed into the brewery
site or otherwise obliterated, but their sites are
shown on the map on Plate 3.
The paucity of surviving records makes it
impossible fully to reconstruct the building history
of the brewery and nothing is known about the
architects or designers of any of the surviving
buildings of interest.
The earliest reference found to Joseph Truman
in Spitalfields is in August 1683 (ref. 1) when he is
described as a brewer 'of brick lane'. The earliest
lease to him of which record has been found is
dated 1694, and refers to a messuage, brewhouse,
granary and stable with two small pieces of land,
then in the occupation of John Hinkwell (ref. 2) or
Huckwell. (ref. 3) With the premises went the use of
two passages, one into Pelham (now Woodseer)
Street, and one into Brick Lane. This indicates a
site to the east of Brick Lane and perhaps represents
the origin of the Bethnal Green part of the
brewery.
There is another reference to Truman in 1694,
when he paid £10 to avoid serving as overseer of
the poor in Spitalfields hamlet. (ref. 4) He served as
churchwarden, however, in 1699–1701. (ref. 5)
The nucleus of the part of the brewery which
lies in Spitalfields was in existence by the beginning
of the eighteenth century. In 1701 Truman
obtained a sub-lease from Humphrey Neudick of
a piece of land eighty feet square fronting on the
west side of Brick Lane, (ref. 3) and apparently to the
north of Black Eagle Street (now closed). On it
stood a dwelling-house and brewhouse. The
wording of the relevant documents is so ambiguous
that it is not clear when or by whom these two
buildings were erected. The land was part of a
larger piece let to Thomas Bucknall, (ref. 2) citizen and
merchant taylor, (ref. 6) in 1669 by John Stott, who
himself held a lease from Sir William Wheler of
an even larger site (see page 98). Bucknall
certainly erected two new houses on his ground (ref. 3)
before his death in 1679, (ref. 2) but there is no proof
that he erected the brewhouse. It is known only
that in 1681–2 (ref. 7) the lay-out of buildings on this
part of Brick Lane approximated to the present
arrangement of brewery buildings round an
entrance yard, and that this lay-out may date back
to 1675. (ref. 8)
Perhaps in about 1701 (the date when Truman
obtained his lease) a house, whose appearance
accorded with this date, was built at the southwest corner of the present entrance yard facing
east towards Brick Lane. Part of its elevation is
shown in a painting in the possession of the Company, (ref. 9) and its plan on a deed of 1831. (ref. 10)
In 1711 Truman took leases of two narrow
pieces of land on the east side of Monmouth Street,
one at least abutting on the back of his premises in
Brick Lane. (ref. 3) Eight years later he obtained an
assignment of a larger site on the west side of
Brick Lane, which apparently included his first
leasehold premises there, from Humphrey Neu-dick's widow. (ref. 11)
Joseph Truman died in 1721. (ref. 12) Thereupon
his son Benjamin, with Isaac Cooper and Alud
Denne, all of whom were his executors, conveyed
the whole of the property already mentioned to
another son, Joseph, in trust for their co-partnership. (ref. 13) Not included in the conveyance was
another brewhouse, further north than the other
two, on the west side of Brick Lane, abutting
north on property in Sclater Street. This was
referred to in 1720 as 'Truman's Brewhouse'. (ref. 14)
It may be identified with the younger Joseph
Truman's property in King Street (which ran
parallel to and south of Sclater Street) and for
which he was presented in 1729 on account of
the state of the paving in front of it. (ref. 15) This
property is not mentioned in Joseph Truman
senior's will, though it apparently passed into the
hands of Benjamin Truman when his brother
retired. Joseph Truman the younger was probably
the head of the firm until his retirement in 1730. (ref. 16)
He is presumably the 'Mr. Trueman, Brewer in
Shoreditch, reputed worth £10,000' whose death
was reported in The Gentleman's Magazine in
April 1733.
Figure 30:
Truman, Hanbury, Buxton and Company's Brewery, Brick Lane, lay-out plan. Based on the Ordnance Survey
Before his brother's retirement, Benjamin Truman, under whom the brewery greatly increased
in prosperity, was living at No. 4 Princelet Street. (ref. 17)
Gradually, and chiefly under Benjamin Truman's
guidance, the brewery site increased in size, and
longer leasehold terms were obtained from the
owners and sub-lessees of the Wheler estate. In
1742 the frontage to Brick Lane measured some
156 feet and that in Monmouth Street 163 feet.
On the south the site was bounded by the backs of
houses in Black Eagle Street and on the north by
the Ship ale house (ref. 18) (whereabouts unknown). By
1749 the Bethnal Green part of the brewery had
been augmented by a piece of ground abutting
south on Spicer (now part of Buxton) Street and
west on Brick Lane and another piece further east
abutting north on Spicer Street and west on George
Street (ref. 19) (now absorbed into the brewery premises).
When the main site was extended southward
to include Black Eagle Street (now closed) is not
clear but stylistic evidence suggests that the
Directors' House facing east on to Brick Lane
and abutting south on Black Eagle Street, was built
not later than the 1740's (Plate 52b, fig. 31). The
pilasters on the street fronts resemble those on
No. 4/6 Fournier Street and the demolished
house No. 1 Church Passage built by Marma-duke Smith and Samuel Worrall respectively in
1726 and 1733.
The Dining Room in the Directors' House
probably represents the period of the house's
original construction (Plate 93b). The Corridor
and the Boardroom in their present forms appear
to be subsequent improvements introduced over a
period of years by Benjamin Truman while he
lived there (Plates 89a, 93a). These had presumably been completed by the time Sir Benjamin
(who had been knighted in 1760) made his will,
in May 1779. (ref. 20)
In this he stated that he had ’lately greatly
altered and improved’ his ’dwelling house in
Spitalfields’, and directed that all the paintings and
pictures at Popes, his house in Hertfordshire,
should be moved to Spitalfields. He also directed
that ’a proper Maid Servant or Housekeeper’
should be employed to keep the Spitalfields house
clean until his residuary legatees, two great
grandsons called John Truman Villebois and
Henry Villebois, should reach the age of twenty
one and so be entitled, under the will, to a share in
the business. In the meantime he directed that
their parents ’may live in the said House Rent
free and have the use of all the furniture and plate
therein and make it their Town House during the
time aforesaid also that it shall be a place of
Residence for my said two Great Grandsons the
Villebois as they are to be bred up to the Business
conceiving it must be agreeable to Mr. and Mrs.
Villebois to see how the Trade is going on which
in a few years their said Sons are designed to have
the benefit of…’.
Sir Benjamin's account of his motives in
decorating his house illustrates the continuing
residence of even wealthy tradesmen on their
business premises. ’And I think it proper to
declare that the Motive for my laying out a very
Considerable Sum of Money in Alterations and
Improvements above mentioned is to make my
House more complete for the Reception of Mr.
and Mrs. Villebois and their said two sons and to
induce them to spend some part of their time in
Spitalfields especially in the winter season. I need
not enlarge on the pleasure it must give Mr.
Villebois for tho’ no sharer in the Management of
the said Trade He will soon form an Idea from the
regular manner in which the same is conducted
how beneficial a Trade is carrying on And how
comfortable a prospect there is for his said two
sons my great grandchildren.’
The will also mentions storehouses and ware-houses in Bethnal Green, probably on the east side
of Brick Lane and premises in Coverley's Fields,
in Mile End New Town (see page 280). All of
this, like the Spitalfields property, was leasehold.
Benjamin Truman had taken a lease of houses
on the south side of Westbury (now Quaker)
Street in 1751 (ref. 21) and Horwood's map of 1799
shows that the brewery then extended thus far
north.
Sampson Hanbury and Thomas (later Sir
Thomas) Fowell Buxton both joined the firm
about 1800. Extensive building took place in the
next thirty or forty years.
Between 1799 and 1812, perhaps in about 1805, the Vat House (Plate 53b) on the east side
of Brick Lane, was built. (ref. 22) The Engineer's
House and the former stables were built between
1831 and 1836 (Plate 53c). (ref. 17) In 1834 additions
were made on the west side of Brick Lane, (ref. 23) which
may probably be identified with the Head Brewer's
House and Experimental Brewery (Plate 53a).
'Sir Ben Truman's House’ is evidently of similar
date. The appearance of the new buildings in
Brick Lane in 1842 is shown on Plate 52a.
In 1813 the brewery sue had extended south of
Black Eagle Street, being bounded on the south by
houses in Brown's Lane, (ref. 24) and between 1819 and
1826 it was extended westward to cover the former site of Monmouth Street. (ref. 25) (fn. a)
In 1831 a further lease was granted to the
brewery partners, then headed by Sampson Hanbury, for sixty-one years at £1,500 per annum and
four kilderkins of the ’Best Beer or Porter called
Stout’. The site had by then extended to include
the ground between John Street and Grey Eagle
Street south of Black Eagle Street. (ref. 10)
Another lease was granted to the partners in
November 1842. Included in this were the
houses on the east side of Wilkes Street, of which
the lease was to run from April 1852. The lessees
covenanted that if they pulled these houses down
they would spend £10,000 replacing them with
others or brewery buildings. (ref. 27) The brewery
buildings were erected after 1855 but probably
before 1858, when the firm was rated at £800 for
'additional Buildings' (ref. 28) (Plate 53d).
In 1 846 and 1847 it had been intended to make
a raised ’Tramway’ from the Eastern Countries
railway line to the brewery which the railway
company would have been prohibited from selling
during the term of Truman, Hanbury, Buxton
and Company's lease, (ref. 29) but this was never carried
out.
In 1904 Truman, Hanbury, Buxton and Company bought from representatives of the Wilkes
family the freehold of their premises west of Brick
Lane (ref. 30)
The east end of Black Eagle Street was closed
to the public in 1912 and the west end in 1913. (ref. 31)
Buildings on the West Side of Brick
Lane
The Directors' House, fronting on to Brick
Lane south of the main entrance yaro, is a much
altered building of several periods (Plate 52b,
fig. 31). Its nucleus was probably a small house no
longer existing, shown on the lease plan of 1831.
Set well back from Brick Lane, it was a singlefronted house, two rooms deep, with the staircase
between the rooms. One bay of its typical Queen
Anne front, two storeys high, appears on the left
in a view of the brewery painted about 1825 by
Dean Wolstenholme. (ref. 9) South of this house was
added the wing containing the handsome second storey room now used as the Boardroom, and a
parallel range was built along the Brick Lane
frontage line. The general plan, however, has
been so much changed over the years that the
original arrangement of the interior is now quite
obscure.
Figure 31:
Truman, Hanbury, Buiton and Company's Brewery, Directors' House, 1740's, elevation
It seems probable that the Brick Lane front was
largely built in the 1740's, although the general
design suggests an earlier date. Alterations are
evident and there is a strongly defined straight joint between the second and third bays north of
the southern pilastered feature. It is a long and
low front of two storeys, built of yellow and pink
stocks, dressed with stone and gauged red brick.
At each end is a narrow, slightly projecting
feature, flanked by giant pilasters of stock brick
with Doric capitals of stone which support the
plain frieze and moulded cornice of gauged red
brick. In the upper storey of each end feature is a
simple Venetian window, with red brick mullions,
central arch, and lugged apron, stone being used
for the moulded imposts, keystone, and sill. The
northern window, although glazed, is blind and
apparently has always been so, and the window
below it is a modern insertion. The plain brick
face between the two pilastered features is divided
by the plain bandcourse at first-floor level, and the
cornice of flat profile below the parapet. Both of
these horizontal strings are of stone. The number
of windows in the ground storey has been increased, but the spacing was always irregular. The
seven windows of the second storey are more
evenly spaced, and each end one is round-headed.
All the other windows have slightly cambered
arches of yellow brick. Generally, the windows
are furnished with double-hung sashes of late
eighteenth-century type, in moulded flush boxes.
The most noteworthy internal features are
the Corridor, the Directors' Dining Room, and the
Boardroom, forming a suite on the first floor. The
Corridor extends through the building at its
north end (Plate 89a). The walls are divided into
bays by fluted Ionic pilasters, supporting entablature-blocks. These consist of a frieze
ornamented with a simple key fret, and a dentilled
cornice. From these entablature-blocks spring
the semi-circular arches dividing the ceiling into
a series of five compartments, the second and
fourth being ceiled with saucer-domes on pendentives, and the other three with intersecting
vaults. The arch soffits are decorated with
guilloches, the pendentives with husk and ribbon
wreaths, and the intersecting vaults with centrally placed paterae from which extend branches
of formalized foliage. The doors are centred in
the bays with doorcases consisting of a moulded
architrave, fluted frieze, and a triangular pediment. In each end wall is a round-headed sash
window with a panelled apron. The general
character of the Corridor suggests the employment
of a skilled designer working in the later manner
of Sir Robert Taylor.
A door in the north wall of the Corridor opens
to the Directors' Dining Room, a simple rectangular apartment lined with painted deal
panelling in two heights, set in ovolo-moulded
framing with a moulded chair-rail and a dentilled
cornice (Plate 93b).
The door at the west end of the south wall opens
to the fine Boardroom, originally the drawing-room (Plate 93a). The plan is a slightly irregular
oblong, with a screen of columns forming a
shallow ante at the north end. There are three
windows in the long west wall, and the fireplace is
centred on the opposite side. The walls, which
are plastered and moulded to form large panels
above the chair-rail, finish with an enriched
modillioned cornice. The Rococo ceiling faithfully reproduces the original plasterwork, the
design having obvious affinities with the fine
ceiling at No. 58 Artillery Lane. It is a delightful
confection of lightly modelled C-scrolls, rocaille
scrolls, and diapered panels, the inner ring of
ornament round the chandelier-boss being linked
to the outer chains of scrolls by floral festoons
held by the beaks of birds perched on scrolls. In
the incurved angles of the simply moulded outer
frame are motifs of putti, emblematic of the four
seasons (Plate 108a). The cornice and ceiling
have the character of mid-eighteenth-century
work, but the screen-columns are surely later.
There are two columns with respondent pilasters
on the side walls, all with moulded bases, fluted
and cabled shafts, and delicately modelled Corinthian capitals. They support a beam, the soffit of
which is decorated with a guilloche and the fascia
with a frieze of delicate foliage-scrolls with lyres
placed above the columns. A late eighteenth-century date must also be assigned to the two door
ways, one a dummy, in the north wall, and to the
fine marble chimneypiece. Each six-panelled
door is framed by a doorcase consisting of a
moulded architrave, fluted frieze, and a dentilled cornice. The chimneypiece has a flat architrave
of figured marble, flanked by half-pilasters with
swagged Ionic capitals. The frieze of inlaid
fluting is broken by a wide tablet carved with a
lyre flanked by sphinxes, and surmounted by an
enriched cornice-shelf (Plate 103c). The room is
beautifully furnished in late eighteenth-century
taste, and the walls are hung with portraits. Outstanding is Gainsborough's splendid full-length’Sir Benjamin Truman’, hung centrally on the south wall.
The main brewery, which fronts the extensive
complex of buildings developed during the nineteenth century, is a rebuilding of 1924 (foundation stone laid 12 June 1924 by Gerald Buxton).
The architect, A. R. Robertson, used early
Georgian motifs with others more typical of the
commercial Classicism in vogue during the 1920's.
The front has four lofty storeys, the ground storey
being of grey granite and the rest of red brick
dressed with stone. There are three slightly projecting bays, the middle one being more elaborately
treated than the others. Above it rises an oblong
turret with a domed roof. This front has replaced
the bold, utilitarian structure of c. 1820, shown in
Wolstenholme’s painting and in the lithograph
reproduced as Plate 52a. There were two lofty
storeys in this brick front, each containing four
openings, two wider between two narrow. The
ground-storey openings had round arches and the
louvred openings above had segmental arches, all
with plain keystones.
Immured in the complex of buildings, lying
behind and parallel with the Directors' House, is
the former external wall known as ’Sir Ben Truman's House’, an elegant Grecian front of two
storeys, the upper having two pedimented three
light windows placed in bays between paired
pilasters. This front was, presumably, not existing
in 1831 since it is not shown on the lease plan of that date.
The Head Brewer's House and Experimental
Brewery (Plate 53a), north of the entrance yard,
was probably erected about 1834. The exterior,
of yellow brick with stone dressings, is particularly interesting in that the front to Brick Lane
is large-scaled and industrial in character, whereas
the return front to the yard has a quiet domestic
air, enhanced by the fig tree and the handsome
lead tank, initialed T H B and dated 1821,
which is placed near the entrance. Before the
alteration, the Brick Lane front was a balanced
composition in which the various windows were
placed in a range of five tall round-arched recesses, the middle three contained in a slightly
projecting central feature, crowned with a
lofty attic storey. This was divided by plain
pilasters into three bays, each containing a round
window, and was finished with a plain frieze,
cornice and blocking-course.
North of the Head Brewer's House is No. 10
Building (Plate 53a), which appears to date from
the 1840's, and fronts on to Brick Lane and
Quaker Street. The exterior consists of two lofty
stages, the lower faced with stucco and the upper
with yellow brick. Each stage is evenly divided
into bays by wide pilasters, four to Brick Lane
and three to Quaker Street. The pilasters of the
lower stage support a deep pedestal-course, and
those of the upper stage finish with moulded imposts from which spring linking arches of flat
elliptical form. Each bay contains a vertical series
of three-light windows linked by panelled aprons,
the topmost aprons being ornamented with large
guilloche grilles.
The long range of buildings fronting the east
side of Wilkes Street belongs to the late 1850's.
The front elevation, of yellow brick with cement
dressings, is an impressive example of industrial
architecture continuing the Classical tradition of
Rennie and Telford (Plate 53d). Massive pilasters
divide the great length into two series of equal
bays, seven to the north of the entrance feature,
and twelve to the south. These brick pilasters rest
on a plain cement plinth and rise through two
storeys to a cornice which is returned round each
pilaster and across each bay. A secondary range
of short pilasters in the attic storey supports the
unbroken main cornice, which is surmounted by a
plain parapet. Each bay contains three windows,
first a square one, then a round-arched one, and a
square one in the attic storey. The great entrance
archway has a high segmental arch formed of four
rings of brickwork. Above are three round-arched windows, and the parapet is broken by a
panelled pseudo-attic.
Buildings on the East Side of Brick Lane
The Vat House (Plate 53b) was built during
the 1800's, but the interior has been entirely
reconstructed. The charming front, so suggestive
of a meeting-house, is a simple Classical design built in yellow and pink brick with stone dressings,
now painted. The high plinth, finished with a
stone bandcourse, is broken by the central doorway, a modern addition, which is framed by a
moulded architrave and surmounted by a
triangular pediment resting on consoles. The
main wall face contains three large three-light
windows, set in plain openings with high segmental-arched heads. The front is finished with
an open-bedmould triangular pediment, the returns of its delicately moulded cornice resting on
elongated plain consoles, centred over the mullions
of each side window. In the tympanum is a large
clock dial and above the pediment apex rises a
bell-turret of hexagonal plan. This has a plain
arched opening, with louvres, in each face, and the
helmet-shaped dome is surmounted by a wind-vane.
The Engineer's House (Plate 53c) adjoins the
north side of the Vat House and probably dates
from the 1830's. The three-storeyed front is a
simple design with the ground storey divided into
two bays by Doric pilasters. The left-hand bay
has a brick face containing a round-headed window, but the right-hand bay is an open passageway. A deep frieze and narrow cornice underline
the yellow brick face of the upper two storeys,
each with four windows which were originally
framed with stucco architraves. A shallow frieze,
moulded cornice, and blocking-course finish the front.
North of the Engineer's House stretches the
long front of the former stables (Plate 53c), now
masking the canteens and boiler-house.<This stable-block was built c.1836-7 to designs by R. Davison, Assoc. MICE, at a cosy of £10,000 (see The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal, vol.1, 1837-8, pp.47-50).> This front
is an excellent example of early nineteenth-century
industrial architecture, a monumental design in
restrained Classical taste carried out in yellow
brick with simple dressings of stone or stucco. The
high plinth, finished with a stone bandcourse,
supports the plain pilasters of a blind arcade, sixteen bays long, with round arches of brickwork
springing from the moulded imposts of stone.
Each bay contains a segmental-arched window
and, concentric with the arch, a circular window
within a moulded frame. The continued entablature, consisting of a plain frieze and a boldly
moulded cornice, is surmounted by a blocking-course, broken over the middle two bays by a
panelled tablet, flanked by stele and finished with a
triangular unmoulded pediment bearing a black eagle.