JOINERS ARMS
141 St Mary Street
Also St Mary’s Brewery from 1874
Brewing started Circa 1838/9
Brewing ceased Circa 1874
This beerhouse standing on the corner of Cumberland Street and St Mary Street will be familiar to readers. It exists today as one of the many live music venues that we are fortunate to have in Southampton. It boasts having hosted many up and coming bands including Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Green Day, Muse, and Arctic Monkeys, having been a music venue since 1968. The pub however dates back to 1839 or earlier when it was a beerhouse having its own brewery for around 35 years.
The Southampton Sotonians and friends Facebook had a very interesting and detailed article of this beerhouse and I now quote from that piece “To investigate the pubs origins and who might have been running the premises on the corner here, one thing that helped to narrow the search was that the pub/beer house sat "between two places of worship", there was the Methodist Chapel to the north of the pub and Albion Chapel to the South. In 1839 the first brewer and beer retailer seen on the corner was Mr Robert Sims and his wife Sarah Sims, Robert was born around 1781 and his wife Sarah around 1791”.
The 1839 directory lists Robert Sims as a brewer in St Mary’s Street, as he is in 1843 at 57-58 St Mary’s Street. He is listed with Hunt JR, and Hunt James. Those of you paying attention will recall that James and John Hunt were brewers in High Street (see the Hunt & Co page).
The keeper of the premises in 1841/2 was Henry Stillwell, and he applied for a new Licence in August 1842. He had applied the previous year but the problem then was a lack of stable accommodation, which he said had now been rectified. Stillwell had been in town a long time and was very respectable. This, with a majority of the applications was refused as being ‘unnecessary’.
Robert Simms died in 1844 and the 1845 Fletcher & Forbes directory shows his wife Sarah as a beer retailer at Cumberland Street, (as ‘Sims’), as does the 1847 directory. She does not appear in the 1849 directories, but she reappears in 1851 when she is listed as a brewer at St Mary’s Street. She is listed at No 3 Lower St Mary’s Street with Ed Strange, and James Hunt. In 1853 she is again a brewer (under ’Sims’) and listed at 4 Lower St Mary’s Street, still with James Hunt and various others. Did Hunt assist with brewing here?
The Hampshire Independent of 30th December 1848 carries a notice for the letting of a well arranged 6 quarter brewery (a brew of about 860 gallons a time), known as the St Mary’s Street Brewery, with convenient dwellinghouse and retail premises attached. I cannot guarantee that this notice does relate to the Joiners arms, but the name suggests that it does. However, the capacity seems rather large for a ‘pub brewery’. Was it let to Hunt & Co
Thomas Mannings had taken over the pub and brewery by 1854, and in theSeptember Licensing Sessions he applied for a new licence for the Joiners “which he had occupied as a beerhouse for nine and a half years”. Any coincidence that this would be around the time that Robert Simms died?
In September 1855 at the Licensing Sessions, another application was made for a new
Licence. It was said that “Thomas Mannings (applied) for a licence for the St Mary’s Brewery situate at the top of Cumberland Street. He stated he had kept the house orderly since he had been in it. Granted.”
Newspapers of March 1862, refer to Thomas Manning as a brewer at St Marys. The 1863 PO directory and 1865 Forbes also list Thomas Mannings as a brewer at the Joiners Arms 141 St. Mary’s Street, an entry repeated 1867. The Southampton Sotonians then take up the story; “Thomas Mannings ran the Joiner's Arms until at least 1867, remaining in the area of St Marys. Thomas had retired from the pub by 1871 moving to number 31 Clifford Terrace in Clifford Street. The Mannings had not lost their connection with the Joiner's Arms as their daughter Rebekah (Rebecca) Mannings who lived with them at the pub in 1850's was 26 years old when she married John William Whitworth in our town in 1866. It was the Mannings son-in-law 'John William Whitworth' who would be the next landlord of the Joiners Arms.”
Mannings was still at the Joiners in 1868, with Whitworth, as confirmed in the report of a Court case in January 1868. Mannings owned the freehold of the premises so maintained a connection. In 1871, John Whitworth gave a prize of a 36-gallon cask of ale to Sergeant Smith of the First Hants Engineer Volunteers. (I will refrain from comment!).
The Hampshire Independent of 4th April 1874 reports on a formal dinner to celebrate the addition of a “commodious harmonic room at the rear” of the Joiners, and which was now known as the “St Mary’s Brewery”. The room was ideal for Ward meetings and could hold up to 100 people, and was fitted with “a lifting apparatus communicating with the underground kitchen”. Another report of the same event says the Joiners was ‘better known’ as the St Mary’s Brewery.
The 1875 directory shows John William Whitworth at the Joiners Arms, a brewer, at 141 St. Mary Street, but as we see below, he had been there at least a year earlier. In February 1875, newspapers again refer to him as a brewer and licensed victualler at 141 St Mary Street.
In the Hampshire Advertiser of 19th January 1878 there appears a very short advertisement; “For sale in St Mary’s Street Southampton a two Quarter brewery (a brew of around 288 gallons at a time) with spirit house attached known as the Joiners Arms, all freehold”. Application to Mr Mannings at 31 Clifford Crescent.” Note reference to a two quarter plant, not the six referred to in 1848. If both adverts are correct, this suggests a downsizing at some time.
Perhaps Mannings granted a lease of the brewery to Whitworth, but either way, by December 1879, there was to be a sale of the brewing plant and fittings of the Joiners Arms St Mary’s Street. This was described as comprising a nearly new 2-barrel copper, and brickwork by Pontifex, a mash tub with cast iron false bottom, cooler, underback, lead and copper pumps, several hogsheads and smaller casks, a malt mill, slate cistern, two gas meters, lead and iron pipe, and a refrigerator. There was indeed a sale, as in April 1880 there is a report of a Court case concerning the removal of the copper boiler from the premises and damage to the brickwork.
The Licence was transferred from John Whitworth to H J Harvey in January 1880, and John Whitworth died in February 1880, so perhaps the sale arose as a result of ill health or a desire to retire? According to Tony Gallagher in his book ‘Southampton’s Inns & Taverns’ Eldridge Pope's Dorchester brewery purchased the pub in November 1883. By 1884 William Hansford was at the Joiners Arms, having moved from the Arrow Inn Chapel Road. This may be the same person who was at 4 Canal View Park 1867 as a brewer, but it seems safe to conclude that brewing ceased after the 1874 auction.
The name ’St Mary’s Brewery does cause confusion, having been used by the Joiners Arms, St Mary’s Hotel, and St Mary’s brewery Love Lane/St Mary’s Road.