Seven Dials Club, London

Grade II listing:- Former Brewery Building. 27-33 Shelton Street and 42-54 Earlham Street. Mid-19th century, designer unknown. Yellow stock brick with granite dressings; roof not visible. Occupying a narrow wedge-shaped site, narrowing to the east, this former brewery building comprises a five-storey structure with a granite plinth, a granite impost band, a brick cornice and parapet. EXTERIOR: the narrow three-window wide east front has a large central opening with a pedimented door surround, retaining a gas lamp bracket to the centre. The longer side elevations have a mixture of window openings, generally with sash windows, some of which have been enlarged in recent times, but which retain their brick arches. The south elevation retains a loading bay with a crane hoist. Large granite-lined door surrounds are found on each side elevation too, as well as smaller openings. INTERIOR: inspected in part; the basement, currently the Belgo Restaurant, retains its cast iron columns, jack-arched roof and barrel-vaulted cellars to the east, with a stone-paved floor. Other cast iron columns remain in situ within the retail space at upper levels. HISTORY: this block formed part of the former Combe's Brewery, the origins of which go back to the early 18th century. It expanded in the mid-19th century, becoming the 4th largest London brewery by the 1880s; it amalgamated with Watney's in 1898, and was vacated by them in 1905. According to the 1888 Goad Insurance Plan, this building was the cooling and fermenting section of the brewery, and was linked at its upper levels with bridges connecting this block with its neighbours to the north and south. Discussions for constructing such bridges were commenced in 1861, which is a probable terminus ante quem for the building's construction. The building had various post-1905 uses: the largest of which was as a stationers' warehouse. Despite considerable lesser alterations, the building retains its pronounced industrial character, and as such is an unusual survival in inner central London. It also possesses strong group value with already listed brewery buildings to the south, over the boundary in the City of Westminster.

SOURCES: Watney Combe Reid archives, Westminster City Archive; Goad Insurance Plan; Alfred Barnard, 'The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland' (1889) vol. I, 274 ff.; Hurford Janes, 'The Red Barrell. A History of Watney Mann' (1963).