Simon, a colourful character who often greeted friends with ‘Hello Dear Boy’, passed away at home aged 86 in late September. He will be best remembered as a pioneer microbrewer in London in the early days of CAMRA.
Encouraged by the opening of Godson’s Brewery in East London in 1977 (the first new London brewery that century) and also David Bruce’s first brewpub, the Goose & Firkin in Borough Road in 1979, he quit his job as senior assistant borough treasurer with Southwark Council and, in February 1980, founded the Tower Bridge Brewery in a former ropemakers premises on Tower Bridge Road.
I first met him there on a visit with CAMRA’s West London Branch soon after he started brewing. His was a one man operation, so we were immediately put to work shovelling out the spent grain from the fermenting vessel before we were allowed to sample the beer, Simon’s Tower Bridge Bitter. He was probably better at marketing than brewing, with his branded T-shirts, beer mats and pump clips all helping to promote the beer in the free trade. His brewing days were short lived however and, in July 1981, having obtained a licence to open a brewery tap on the premises, he sold out to two brewers recently made redundant from the nearby Courage Horselydown Brewery. They renamed it the Tower Brewery and the tap, named Ye Old Bridge House, opened in May 1982. The brewery was renamed Bridge Brewery in early 1983 but, by 1985, brewing on site ceased with Tower beers being contract brewed elsewhere. By 2004 the much expanded Bridge House had been taken over by Adnams as its flagship London pub. It passed to a new operator in 2019, was renamed the Raven, and, since 2022, has been run by the Pulse Venues group with cask and craft beers on tap.
Growing up in Warwick, Simon studied geography at Sheffield University, switching to politics and economics. He later qualified as a member of the Institute of Municipal Treasurers and Accountants (now CIPFA), moving to Blackheath and working for the GLC and several south east London Boroughs. After his brewing career ended, Simon returned to local government finance, both as a freelance and in agency work.
In 1997 however he was tempted back to the beer world and, with a partner Tony Flatman, he regenerated a small run down historic pub, the Wharf House, on the fringe of Oxford city centre. It was a true free house, specialising in local real ales, cider, perry and Belgian beers, and soon became a regular entry in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide. After a while however he sold out to Tony and finally left the licensed trade for good. As a long term CAMRA member however he maintained his interest in pubs and beers to the very end, including trips to Belgium and Germany, supporting beer festivals and fulfilling his aim to visit every new craft brewery in London. Farewell Dear Boy.
Roger Warhurst