This Is Whitbread History of Breweries Buildings Beer

ANYONE TODAY visiting one of the ultra-modern Whitbread breweries, with their automated controls and huge building complexes, largely concealing most of the key beer-making operations in progress, might well find it hard to reconcile such futuristic scenes with the knowledge that Whitbread is among the oldest brewery companies in Britain. Yet the integrity and fundamental traditions of the firm's attitude to its craft have not changed since Samuel Whitbread I founded his first brewery in the City of London in 1742. That was in Whitecross Street, Finsbury, and eight years before he bought the adjacent premises in Chiswell Street, still the company's headquarters. By 1796, the year of his death, this brewery was producing 200,000 barrels annually, making it the leader among the 12 principal London breweries in those days and Whitbread beers continued to be brewed there right up until 1976. Much of Samuel Whitbread's success was due to his personal standards of excellence and to his highly imaginative mind, which led him continually to seek new ways to improve both the quality of his beer and the efficiency of the plant making it. Through his talent for engaging the interest of the most original scientists and engineers of his time, such famous names as James Watt, John Rennie (the Scottish civil engineer who designed the former London Bridge) and John Smeaton (who rebuilt Eddystone lighthouse and improved Newcomen's steam engine) all became associated with the Chiswell Street brewery. It was there that Watt built one of his biggest steam engines, then among the wonders of London a 70 hp machine which supplied power for grinding the malt and raising the "liquor" (the water used in brewing). Slightly grubby on page edges but otherwise in very good condition. Thanks for looking :)