In the Editor’s note to my letter ‘Memories of Mortlake in the December/January edition, he mentioned the 135 Association, an organisation of drinkers who had drunk, but not necessarily been drunk, in every Young’s pub. Back in the early 1960s when most breweries, including Fuller’s, were switching to keg beer, Young’s made a deliberate policy decision to stick with real ale or real draught beer as they referred to it. A public relations consultant suggested that if they were going to do things differently from other breweries then they should publicise the fact so that drinkers would become aware of the differences between Young’s and other brewers.
Young’s therefore brought out a threefold leaflet called ‘Real Draught Beer and Where to Find It’ for display and distribution in their pubs. The leaflet explained their beers and the difference between them and keg beers. It also listed all of Young’s tied houses, so anyone finding one Young’s pub would be able to find the lot. This led to Young’s achieving a cult following among real ale drinkers. In 1967 someone wrote to the brewery saying they had drunk in all of the pubs and enclosed a copy of the leaflet signed by the publicans to prove it. The chairman, John Young, was so impressed by this that he invited him in for a VIP tour of the Ram Brewery, a slap-up feed, as much beer as he could drink in the sample room and a pin of beer to take home.
The tour was never publicised or organised on a formal basis as are some breweries’ passport schemes but it just grew organically and was spread by word of mouth, possibly largely through the Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood (SPBW). In the years that followed more people made the same pilgrimage. Eventually, the slap-up feed was dropped but they still got a visit to the brewery and some free beer.
By 1972, 29 people had done the tour and Young’s decided to commission a special tie for them. This was the standard Young’s tie of yellow rams on a dark background to which the Roman numerals CXXXII for 132 were added beneath each ram. At the time Young’s had 132 pubs, most of which were in Greater London with a handful in Surrey plus the Fountain in Plumpton, Sussex. The tie was mentioned in the Morning Advertiser, leading to the word spreading around the pubs and in CAMRA and SPBW circles, and in itself advertised the tour because anyone wearing it was likely to be asked about its significance. It also meant that people who had done the tour could identify each other.
Some of the people who had done the tour drank regularly in the Buckingham Arms in Petty France SW1 and they discussed the idea of setting up some kind of club or organisation. This became the 135 Association, which was formally constituted on 23 April 1975. No-one appears to remember if the date was deliberately chosen to be on St George’s Day or if it was just a coincidence. By 1975 Young’s had 135 pubs and the tie was upgraded to 135 (CXXXV in Roman numerals) accordingly. Despite more pubs being added to their estate over the years, both the tie and the association remained on 135.
The association functioned rather like an SPBW branch or the social side of a CAMRA branch. It put on pub visits and crawls, brewery and beer festival visits, held a Christmas charity draw and an annual dinner, all themed around Young’s pubs. At its peak in 1985, the Association had about 100 members, a lot of whom were also members of CAMRA and/or SPBW.
By the late 1990s, interest in the Association was declining. Young’s were acquiring more and more pubs spread over a wider area, which made the tour more difficult and the wider availability of real ale meant that Young’s had lost the cachet of real ale being available in all its pubs. Fewer people were doing the tour and coming forward to replace members who were dropping out owing to old age or moving away from London. Furthermore, some of the more traditional members were unhappy with the direction Young’s were taking. By 2000 there were not enough people willing to be on the committee and so the Association was formally wound up. The remaining funds were used to pay for a farewell social and the balance was donated to a charity of which John Young was a trustee.
These days, thanks to the internet, there is no longer a need for groups of people to form organisations to stay in touch with each other and the remaining members now meet on an informal basis three times a year.
Young’s are now just a pubco with about 280 pubs spread all over the South of England and South Wales. As far as I am aware they no longer have a printed list of all their pubs nor award anything to anyone drinking in all of them.
Colin Price