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Beer history london

Q&A: What was ‘The World of Brewing’?

When Lou Tweeted the above at us back in August we added ‘World of Brewing’ to our list of things to keep an eye out for in the archives. This week, we found something.

It’s an advertisement from around the time of the museum’s launch in June 1980 and gives a pretty decent description of its purpose along with some good, solid facts.

Text of an old newspaper ad.

It’s good to know exactly where it was, for one thing — at 226 Tower Bridge Road, right next to the river.

That very distinctive name, Tarant Hobbs, is also helpful. Following that trail we discover that (a) the museum ‘flourished briefly’ but had closed by December 1980; and (b) it was backed by Big Six brewery Courage, somewhat on the quiet:

The Cornell Column, June 1980.
Hertfordshire CAMRA newsletter, June 1980

The museum might have come back to life – it seems to be listed in this 1986 tourist guide to London – and there are hints, here and there, that Tarant Hobbs might still be around. If we can find a postal address we’ll send him one of our nice letters and see if we can get him to tell us a bit more.

In the meantime if you find this reviving any long-buried memories of visiting the exhibition, do drop us a line.

UPDATED 11.03.2019: Jake Gutteridge has been in touch to flag a website about the World of Brewing he put together with Tarant Hobbs, his grandfather.

2 replies on “Q&A: What was ‘The World of Brewing’?”

Wow, really interesting discovery! It would be interesting to visit the site now and see if there are any lingering indications that could give us some more information!

Very interesting – I’d never heard of it. There’s a Tarant Hobbs living on Canvey Island.

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