TOLLY COBBOLD IN LONDON
Further to the article re the Richard the First in the December/January edition, Tolly Cobbold did have a brewery in Walthamstow until the early 1970s. The brewery was originally established as the Walthamstow Brewery in St James Street in 1859 by William Hawes. In 1871 it was purchased by the Collier brothers who renamed it the Essex Brewery. A large part of their business was brewing draught beer for home consumption and in 1890 they advertised 11 beers available in pins, firkins and kilderkins with prompt deliveries to all parts of London and suburbs.
In 1920 the brewery was sold to Tollemache & Co of Ipswich who subsequently merged with the Cobbold Brewery of Ipswich in 1958. Brewing ceased at the Walthamstow site in 1972 and it was demolished in 1975. Apart from the Richard the First, the five other pubs were sold off to Charrington’s. Four of the pubs were in Walthamstow and these were:
- Essex Brewery Tap, St James Street – now a gym with flats above;
- Common Gate, Markhouse Street – now the Commongate Hotel;
- Tower, Hoe Street –- still a pub but now called the Goose;
- Flowerpot, Wood Street which is still there.
After Charrington’s took it over, the Flowerpot was one of the few real ale pubs in the area and sold draught Bass. The other pub was the Turpin’s Cave in Loughton, which has since been demolished and replaced by a housing development. The pub’s name came from the belief that the highwayman Dick Turpin had had a hideout nearby.
I presume that the reason the Richard the First was sold to Young’s was that Charrington’s didn’t want it as they already had the Fox and Hounds next door.
Possibly, if Tolly’s had kept the brewery and the pubs on a bit longer, they may have benefited from the emergence of CAMRA and the revival of interest in real ale.
Colin Price