Details
HERTFORD
TL3212NW HARTHAM LANE
817-1/16/100 (West side)
McMullens Brewery
GV II
Brewery. 1891 with C20 alterations. Red brick, laid to English
bond, with blue engineering brick plinths. Welsh slated and
tiled roofs, hipped over main building with lantern with
timber louvres, slated upper roof and wrought-iron arched
cupola and flagpole. Cast-iron cupola with ogee lead roll
roof, on lower building incorporates a clock of 1829 by Moore
& Son, Clerkenwell, and restored by them 1891.
EXTERIOR: single storey, 2-storey and 5 storey buildings. Main
building, 5 bays by 3 bays, 5 storeys, left-hand 2 bays being
slightly later extension. Multi-pane cast-iron windows
recessed under segmental arches with stucco kneelers and
keyblocks, moulded bands below sills and at impost level,
corbelled cornices. Original part of main building has brick
triglyph frieze and cornice above second-floor windows, which
have broad outer arched surrounds. To left of centre on south
elevation is timber hoist cage with cross and arched bracing,
and a hipped roof above third floor.
2 storey wings on left and right, terminating in pediment
gabled and pilaster fronts to street. The main block faces a
long triangular area between the 2 arms of Hartham Lane.
Single-storey buildings around perimeter, with division into
bays by shallow pilasters, recessed multi-pane cast-iron
windows, some under broad segmental brick arches with stucco
kneelers and keyblocks. Similar arches to loading bays. Tall
parapet conceals Welsh slated roof on west range; east range
has tiled roof with long timber louvred vent, with hipped roof
bearing fretted ridge tiles and terracotta finial.
South of site has single storey building with parapet roof, 2
bays on west, 1 bay on east, formerly the tally house to
brewery yard. This has 2 light arched moulded wood windows
below elliptical brick arches. These have projecting keyblocks
and flanking pilasters with moulded impost caps, raised brick
panels below sills, outer pilasters, coupled at building end,
with moulded brick frieze and cornice. Doorway at apex has C20
3 panel door, recessed in stucco surround with Tuscan
pilasters, semicircular panel above, and segmental pediment
with carved leaves and small central cartouche.
To the north, along the west arm of Hartham Lane lay the
brewery yard, now roofed in with lightweight corrugated metal
cladding. Cast-iron screen along frontage with spearhead
railings with conical heads, gate posts of 4 clustered shafts,
with roll bases on square plinths, cavetto and roll caps and
ball finials on pedestals, gates of similar design to screens
extant but covered with metal sheeting.
INTERIOR: structure exposed in main buildings with 1890s king
post trussed roofs, cast-iron columns with bell caps,
supplemented by late C20 steelwork in places, vaulted cellars
below cask house, brick walls, concrete floors. First floor of
main building has 6 vats, timber, wrought-iron strapped, and
copper lined, by Wilson, Brewers Engineers, Frome; additional
vats in west wing. Second floor has mash tuns and malt room,
central riveted girders and cast-iron column, malt room
occupies loft of east wing and has large queen post trusses to
roof. The hoist serves all floors up to third floor, and the
mechanism is still in situ on third floor, access through pair
of half-glazed doors on each level. The fourth floor is an
attic, steel trussed roof with tie rods, louvred lantern
above.
HISTORICAL NOTE: McMullens Brewery was founded in 1827 by the
son of a Scottish nurseryman in Back (now Railway) Street. The
firm moved to Mill Bridge in 1848, and the site is now
occupied by a McMullens public house, 'The Woolpack'. The firm
moved to Hartham Lane in 1891, and built new premises. The
operation involved cooperage, and dealing in malt and hops in
addition to brewing. In late C19 the Maidenhead Yard site was
developed for McMullens' Seed Warehouse, while Old Cross
Wharf, (qv), gave easy access by river.
The move to Hartham adjoining the old Great Northern Station
reflected the increasing use of rail for delivery of raw
materials and distribution of finished products. McMullens
became a private limited company in 1897.
(The Industrial archaeology of the British Isles: Branch
Johnson W: Industrial Archaeology of Hertfordshire: Newton
Abbot: 1970-: 46-7; Green L: Hertford's Past in pictures:
Ware: 1993-: 88, 91-3; Pevsner N: Buildings of England:
Hertfordshire: Harmondsworth: 1977-: 190).
Listing NGR: TL3246912841
