Kemp Town Brewery Ceramic Ashtray

Kemp Town Brewery ceramic ashtray dating from the 1930s.

The Bristol Brewery & The Abbey Family

The Bristol Brewery was founded by a coal merchant, William Hallett, on Seymour Road, Brighton, in the 1840s.
The Bristol Brewery was jointly run by William and Henry Abbey from 1854.
When William died in 1862 the business passed into the hands of the Abbey family.
The Company traded as Abbey & Sons.
The Abbey's attempted to brew lager in 1887 but within two years the experiment had failed and the Company returned to brewing stout together with its strong ales, pale ales, and mild.
The Abbey's acquired local competitor H.B.Longhurst & Son Anchor Ale Brewery of Brighton in 1899.
In 1907 the maltings were completely destroyed by a fire when a kiln overheated.

The Kemp Town Brewery

From 1908 the brewery name changed to the Kemp Town Brewery.
Henry Abbey died in 1911.
Before World War I the Company acquired Young & Rawley Ltd of Eastbourne with it Lion Brewery and 15 public houses in 1914.
In 1919 it acquired J.Dudney, Son & Co. of Portslade and resold the brewery and several public houses to Smithers & Sons Ltd of Brighton.
The Company's final acquisition was Harry Chapman's Tower Brewery of Worthing in 1924.
The Company was registered as the Kemp Town Brewery (Brighton) Ltd in 1933 to acquire Abbey's Kemp Town Brewery.

Charrington & Co. Ltd Takeover

The Company, its brewery and 236 public houses, was acquired by Charrington & Co. Ltd in 1954 and the final beer was brewed and bottled in 1964.
The brewery was vacated in 1965 and the main site was purchased by Brighton College in 1967.
The remaining buildings were sold in 1970 for the Seymour housing development.
In 1989 a new Kemp Town Brewery Co. Ltd opened at the Hand in Hand public house.

The manufacturer's mark states - James Green & Nephew Ltd Designers & Manufacturers Stoke & London