Also known as the Worshipful Company of Brewers, this is one of the oldest of the London City guilds. Guilds were made up of businessmen who had joined together, ostensibly to protect themselves and their trade. The oldest written evidence we have of a guild of brewers is to be found in a 1292 entry from the London Letter Book. Headed “Edward, etc. to the Warden and Alderman of the city of London, etc.,” it commences: “Whereas it has been shown to us by certain brewers, citizens of London, that they had been prejudiced as to their franchise in relation to their trade by our Sheriffs of London, and by those appointed by us to hear plaints in London, and we have already you to enquire into the matter….”

Over the ensuing centuries, this organization was to evolve to become the Wardens and

Commonalty of the Mistery of Brewers of the City of London, and would assume the position of fourteenth in order of precedence among London’s 84 Livery Companies. There is no record of exactly when the Brewers formalized their association, but it is likely that, given the importance of ale in the medieval diet, they were one of the earliest guilds.

When the Brewers Guild received its first charter it was known as the Guild of St. Mary and St. Thomas the Martyr (Thomas à Becket). Why Becket was chosen is unclear, but legend has it that after his martyrdom in 1170, the numerous pilgrims that made their way to Canterbury quaffed enormous quantities of ale along the way, thus making brewers very happy.

The importance of ale/beer in the Middle Ages can be gleaned from the fact that a London poll tax in 1380 records over 1,000 brewhouses in the city, which worked out at one for every dozen inhabitants. The original Brewers’ Hall was first recorded from 1403, but the grand old building in Addle Street was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. Its replacement stood until the Second World War, whence it was destroyed by bombing. The Brewers’ Company still exists to support the industry in London and southern England, with the new Brewers’ Hall now located in Aldermanbury Square, London.