Meux's Brewery Co Ltd was a London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 brewery

Brewery

A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....

 owned by Sir Henry Meux. Established in 1764 the company was a major supplier of porter

Porter (beer)

Porter is a dark-coloured style of beer. The history and development of stout and porter are intertwined. The name was first used in the 18th century from its popularity with the street and river porters of London. It is generally brewed with dark malts...

 in the area. The company had several breweries around London and was eventually sold off in 1961.

Owners and mergers

Sir Henry Meux, 1st Baronet had been a partner in Reid, Meux & Co, who operated from the Griffin Brewery in Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...

 Road. After a dispute in 1807, Sir Henry left the firm and purchased the Horse Shoe Brewery, located on the junction of Tottenham Court Road

Tottenham Court Road

Tottenham Court Road is a major road in central London, United Kingdom, running from St Giles Circus north to Euston Road, near the border of the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile...

 and Oxford Street

Oxford Street

Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, United Kingdom. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, as well as its most dense, and currently has approximately 300 shops. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate,...

, which had been established in 1764. The horseshoe

Horseshoe

A horseshoe, is a fabricated product, normally made of metal, although sometimes made partially or wholly of modern synthetic materials, designed to protect a horse's hoof from wear and tear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall...

 became part of the Meux identity and was incorporated into their logo. Dudley Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth

Dudley Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth

Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth was a Scottish businessman and a Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1853 until 1880, when he was elevated to thepeerage as Baron Tweedmouth...

 was the chairman for many years in the 19th century. In 1921, the Thorne Brothers brewery of Nine Elms Lane was also acquired by Meux, and the company brewed there for 43 years. In 1956, Meux's Brewery merged with Friary, Holroyd and Healy's Breweries Limited based in Guildford

Guildford

Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, to form Friary Meux Limited. They went into liquidation in November 1961 and were acquired by Allied Breweries

Allied Breweries

Allied Breweries was the result of a 1961 merger between Ind Coope , Ansells , and Tetley Walker .- Ansells :...

. The Horseshoe Brewery ceased to brew in 1964, although the Friary Brewery continued until 1969. The Friary Meux brand was later revived by Allied until they sold their brewing interests to Carlsberg-Tetley in 1997.

1814 vat failure

The Horse Shoe Brewery featured a giant porter vat

Vat

Vat or VAT may refer to:* A type of container such as a barrel, storage tank, or tub, often constructed of welded sheet stainless steel, and used for holding, storing, and processing liquids such as milk, wine, and beer...

 measuring 22 feet (6.7 m) high and containing 3555 barrels (565.2 m³). In October 1814, the vat burst when the securing hoops failed. The contents rushed out of the vat into the streets and surrounding buildings. At the time, the brewery was surrounded by small housing owned by the poorer classes of London; some of the buildings could not withstand the force of the flowing beer and collapsed. Eight people are known to have died either from falling debris, drowning, poisoning by the porter fumes, or from inebriation.

The company found it difficult to cope with the financial implications of the disaster,being mainly a significant loss of sales made worse because they had already paid duty on the beer. They made a successful application to parliament reclaiming the duty which allowed them to continue trading.

The Horse Shoe brewery was demolished in 1922, and today the Dominion Theatre

Dominion Theatre

The Dominion Theatre is a West End theatre on Tottenham Court Road close to St Giles Circus and Centre Point Tower, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:...

occupies a part of the site of the former brewery. The adjacent brewery tap, built on a grand scale as a combined pub and restaurant, survived in other uses until 2004.