Windsor to Woolwich - Our Brewers' Tour de Thames

The third annual London brewery bike ride extended to two days this year with an exploratory first day from Windsor & Eton Brewery to Twickenham Fine Ales on Friday 21 July, preceding a larger group riding from Stag Brewery at Mortlake to Salt’s taproom at Woolwich the next day. Over that time the group passed Windsor’s archway neighbours Two Flints and Indie Rabble, Thames Side at Staines, Big Smoke at Esher, Park in Kingston, Jawbone and Twickenham Fine Ales, Fullers at Chiswick, Sambrook’s at Wandsworth, Battersea Brewery and Mondo in Battersea, Southwark, Mash Paddle, Kernel, Fourpure and Small Beer in Bermondsey. We also passed former brewery sites at Windsor (Burges), Staines (Ashby’s), Mortlake (Stag), Chiswick (Sich’s), Wandsworth (Youngs), Southbank (Lion), Southwark (Barclays), Horsleydown (Courage) and Greenwich (Brew by Numbers and Meantime). The number of riders grew from 3 explorers on Day 1 to a dozen at various points during Day 2, with about 50 km covered each day.

Highlights were the invitation by our former Clerk, Michael O’Dwyer, to visit the fabulous grounds of the Hurlingham Club and John Hatch’s tour of Youngs unique brewing heritage at Sambrook’s on the former Ram Brewery site, sharing memories with Derek Prentice. However, we agreed that the most unique item of brewing heritage is John Hatch himself, traditionally attired in brewer’s white coat and tie. For us aging former technical brewers it brought back memories of getting through ties at the rate of knots (pun unintended) as they invariably got soaked in wort or covered in yeast. Remarkably, since Thames Side moved locations and Brew by Numbers closed there’s no longer a brewery directly on the bank of the river whereas once breweries lined the river - from Stag to Southbank and Calvert (on Upper Thames Street) to Courage by Tower Bridge.

Brewing apart, the tour also covered miscellaneous history from William Hogarth’s Tomb, William Morris’s Hammersmith home, the Southbank Lion, the Greenwich Meridian, and the tea clipper Cutty Sark to the Thames Barrier, now celebrating its fortieth birthday. It’s a great city to pedal through!

Thanks for generous hospitality to Andy at Thames Side, Billy at Big Smoke, Phil at Park, Ben at Jawbone, Alex and Ben at Twickenham, Beverley, Amie and Guy at Fullers, Michael at the Hurlingham Club, Duncan and John at Sambrook’s, Todd at Mondo, Luis at Southwark, Klaudia and Sara at Fourpure, Michael and Felix at Small Beer and Luke at Salt.

- Will Calvert (Liveryman and organiser)