New Bottled Beer Store - Phoenix Brewery Wateringbury 1936

Following the acquisition of the Phoenix Brewery by Whitbread & Co. in 1927, the increased popularity of Whitbread's bottled beer was such that it was found necessary to build a new bottled beer store in Wateringbury. It was sited about fifty yards from its overburdened predecessor. The new store, which opened in June 1936, was half the size again of the old store with a floor space of over 9000 sq. ft.

Besides the large amount of floor space devoted to the storage of bottled beers, there was a foreman's office, storeroom for labels and capsules, loading dock, general labelling store and women's mess room. The office, which was raised to the height of the loading dock, commanded a view of the whole interior allowing the foreman, Mr. Charles Latter, to be in constant touch with all operations inside the building.

In the centre of the floor, conveyors were installed to serve three sides of the building and connected up to the loading-in doors with the loading-out dock. These conveyors enabled incoming beer from Grey's Inn Road and Lewisham to be delivered to any part of the store for labelling. Likewise, labelled beer would be placed on the conveyors for dispatch to the loading-out dock.

Photographs and words Courtesy of Dail Whiting

Charles Latter, the mentioned store foreman was my mum's uncle and he got my mum a job in the store for a while. Mum said the bottle store was later badly damaged by a fire that started in the paint shop.
John - Webmaster