Old Brew House, Bushy Park

Summary

Old Brew House, 242m south-west of Upper Lodge.

Reasons for Designation

A brewhouse was a building containing brewing equipment used to produce beer and other alcoholic beverages. Brewhouses were usually attached to a country estate, and situated alongside other agricultural or service buildings associated with the running of the household. During the 18th century, the brewing process underwent considerable technological development and by the second half of the century beer was being produced on an industrial scale in London. The Whitbread brewery in Moorgate, for example, featured a 1770’s room for the maturing of beer that was unsurpassed in span or size.

Despite having lost some of its internal fixtures, Old Brew House survives well. It is an integral part of the surviving 18th century estate buildings on Bushy Park associated with Upper Lodge.

History

See Details.

Details

This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records. This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 25 March 2015.

The monument includes a late 17th century or early 18th century brewhouse situated on flat, low-lying ground in the north-west corner of Bushy Park.

It is a two storey oblong building in brown brick with red brick dressings. It has tall segmental-headed window panels on the ground floor, and small window panels of the same type above, although very few contain actual windows. The entrance is at the northern end of the building. It has a red tiled hipped roof and a modillion eaves cornice. The interior comprises a single space open to the rafters with three brick vaults, about 3m high against the eastern end, which once held the copper cauldrons for brewing. A timber platform is suspended from the wall plate above the vaults so as to enable heavy sacks of grain to be hauled into position for emptying into the cauldrons. There are two small rooms either side of the front door and the building has part whitewashed walls and a rough concrete floor.

The brewhouse was built by the Earl of Halifax, as part of a group of buildings used to support his estate. It would have provided the staple drink for the household of the Upper Lodge in Bushy Park. It is likely that cereal grain was grown on fields to the south of the building and that the water for the brewing process was drawn from the nearby Longford River. Whilst being functional, the brewhouse was also elaborately conceived to make it an integral and decorative feature of the landscaped Water Gardens and Upper Lodge. It was renovated in 1803 but had fallen into a state of disrepair by 1846.

Old Brew House is Grade II listed. Bushy Park is a Grade I registered Park.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

LO 67

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
NMR TQ17SE86. PastScape 541598. LBS 205238

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry