" I have no pain now, mother dear, But, oh, I am so dry! Connect me to a brewery and leave me there to die."

Breweries were large and striking buildings whose towering presence was often reinforced by their occupation of sites in the middle of towns. They were the flagships of a major industry and generators of some of the great business fortunes. Designing their breweries for architectural grandeur as well as for their function, brewers were well aware of the marketing value of their buildings and used them as advertisements. What is surprising is that so little attention has been paid to breweries, in contrast to other great industrial buildings such as mills and warehouses. Lavishly illustrated, British Breweries covers the whole of their history, from the country house brewhouses of the eighteenth century to the great breweries of Georgian and Victorian England, and to widespread disappearance in the twentieth century.

Lynn Pearson is a writer, researcher and photographer whose main interest is architectural history.