Region & History

Who invented porter? Nobody knows. Porter emerged in London in the 1720s, and no inventor is known. What is known is the story of the brewer Ralph Harwood, who is said to have brewed a beer in 1722 as a substitute for "Three Threads," a blend of three casks that customers previously ordered separately. The tale first appears in John Feltham's book The Picture of London from 1802, roughly 80 years after the supposed event and without earlier evidence.

The name is said to come from the porters, the laborers who hauled goods through London's markets and along the river and favored the dark, robust beer. This, too, is tradition rather than documented fact. What is certain is that porter was brewed in enormous quantities during the 18th century. Meux, Whitbread, and Truman were among London's great porter brewers.

How dangerous such large installations could be was shown on 17 October 1814. At the Meux family's Horse Shoe Brewery, a tall wooden vat of fermenting porter burst after an iron hoop gave way. More vats ruptured in turn. Depending on the estimate, somewhere between roughly 580,000 and 1.5 million liters of beer flooded the streets of the poor St Giles district. Eight people died, including mourners at a wake. An inquiry ruled the disaster an act of God.

On the city's western edge, the Griffin Brewery in Chiswick brews—better known as Fuller's. The family firm Fuller, Smith & Turner was founded in 1845. In 2019 it sold its brewing business to the Japanese group Asahi for £250 million. The pubs stayed with Fuller, Smith & Turner, and Asahi announced it would continue brewing in Chiswick.

There is no protected designation of origin for London beer. The EU register lists only Kentish Ale and Rutland Bitter from England, and neither has anything to do with the capital. London thrives instead on its reputation as a city of porter and the pub.