Forest Hill Brewery Co Ltd

Whitbread and Company bought Forest Hill Brewery, located at 61 Perry Vale, Forest Hill, in 1923 as a reaction to the competition for retail outlets created by the 1921 Licensing Act limiting licensing hours and also the continued erosion of licenses in general by previous legislation.

Forest Hill Brewery had been established in 1885 by the Morgan brothers but the owner at the time of Whitbread's interest was Edward Venner who offered the sale. Through Edward Venner, Forest Hill Brewery Company had also gone into partnership with J.H. Hull in a company known as Hull and Venner which had joint ownership of The Railway Tavern in Liverpool Street. Whitbread gained an interest in The Railway Tavern through its purchase of the Forest Hill Brewery Company.

Forest Hill had built up a reputation for trade in 'bright' beer which was matured and filtered before being bottling in contrast to Whitbread's current method of maturation in the bottle that ultimately led to the collection of sediment. The sale therefore appealed to Whitbread managing director Sir Sydney Nevile from a technical perspective. After the takeover, the brewery in South London was closed and the bottling moved to the redundant Gray's Inn Road bottling depot.

Forest Hill Brewery became Whitbread Properties Limited in June 1929.