THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE BREWERY
3 Simnel Street
Started brewing Circa 1846
Ceased brewing 1848
It has been hard to find firm evidence as to how this house operated. A Thomas Gilbert is listed as a small brewer in Simnel Street in 1803 (but not in 1811). I do not know if Thomas Gilbert was associated with this Tavern (as it is described in newspapers, with lodgings), and I cannot see him in any later directories. We do however know that there was a brewery here, at least for a time.
This tavern is not the pub currently known as the Titanic, which is a newer building erected on the site of the Cat & Fiddle (later the Atlantic Queen, and Queen of Clubs). The Queen Charlotte was an old building which dated back to about 1783, and originally known as the Queen’s Head, according to Tony Gallagher in his book ‘Southampton’s Inns and Taverns’.
Simnel Street (also known as Derby Street) had perhaps the worst reputation of all the streets in Southampton, and was in the heart of Southampton's Victorian slums. Newspaper reports tell of fights, murders, prostitution burglaries etc, with some accusations against the various landlords, and which led to the withdrawal of the licence from at least one of them.
A man named Chandler was an innkeeper here in 1803. In 1811 John Diaper is listed at the Queen Charlotte Simnel Street. In 1834 Maurice Batchelor is listed at the Queen Charlotte Derby Street and he was the landlord from 1836 to 1845, also listed at Derby Street. (In 1851 he is at the Cat & Fiddle, and in 1853 at the Globe, both in Derby Street).
He may have moved on as in 1846 a D Clark is listed here, and also the freehold of the building was sold. An auction advert appears in the Hampshire Independent on the 6th June 1846 for the sale of freehold property throughout Southampton. This was a sale by the executors of the late Richard Cooe. Lot 6, was “a freehold estate consisting of a most capital public house known as the Queen Charlotte in Simnel Street, one of the most populous parts of the town it has been in the occupation of the late Mr. Batchelor and his widow for many years. The consumption of malt averages about 270 quarters annually. It is let at a very low rent of £74pa”. It is worth mentioning that Lot I, was “The old established Star Hotel in High Street” and Lot 3 was land at the rear. Lot 4 was the freehold estate, “consisting one of the most complete breweries in the kingdom, recently erected and fitted up by Messrs Pontiflex….”
Richard Cooe was from Milford Nr Salisbury, and the Salisbury and Wiltshire Journal carries the same notice, but with slightly different wording. The say the letting was to Mrs Batchelor. The brewery in Lot 4 was said to be part of the land immediately behind the Star Hotel. These details must refer to Scrase’s brewery, as it would later become, and the full description of this Lot is shown on the Scrase’s brewery page. This was clearly a sale of freeholds, and Scrase’s and Queen Charlotte had leases on their respective premises.
The reference to ‘consumption of malt’ suggests they were brewing here at this time, and 270 quarters annually equates to an average of about 3,240 gallons a month.
You will notice another issue, as Lot 6 refers to “the late Mr Batchelor and his widow”. However directories show him at other pubs up to 1853. He had a son William, so did he have another, Maurice junior?
Moving on, by 1847, Daniel Clark is in charge as Innkeeper, and remained so until 1849, but the brewery was up for sale a year earlier. In the Hampshire Independent of 21st October 1848 there is an advert for the "Queen Charlotte" Brewery ltd. to be sold by auction on October 26th, 1848. This was a sale of the ‘valuable plant and brewing utensils of the above Brewery’, comprising a 350 gallon copper, force and liquor pumps and thirty feet of pipe, a cooler 26 feet by 12 feet, ditto 19 feet by 9 feet, an excellent malt mill, large mash tub 6 ft wide by 2 ft 10 inches deep, a 2,664 gallon vat, eleven vats of 650 gallons each, eleven vats of 162 gallons each, thirty-eight hogsheads, eighteen barrels, four 18-gallon casks, eleven 9-gallon casks, thirteen 6 gallon casks, five 4 gallon casks, a pair of hand trucks, scales and weights, thermometer (by Stebbing), two square tuns with brass taps, and a quantity of useful articles suitable to a brewery; also three pockets of Farnham hops.
This was therefore the sale of the brewery equipment, not the premises, so perhaps the brewery business had ceased by this time, and Mr Clark wanted to move on.
In November 1849 the licence of this house was transferred by Daniel William Clark to Mr Alexander Sweetingham. His time there was not a success. In September 1854, an application was made to the annual licensing sessions for a licence for James Stockwell, the licence having been taken away from Mr Sweetingham by the magistrates “and thus caused great loss to Mr King the brewer” over 4 years or so.
So what have we learned? Richard Coo owned the freehold of this property, as well as the Star Hotel, and the brewery behind, and this was sold in 1846, with the lease to landlords presumably continuing. Perhaps the Mr King mentioned bought the freehold in 1846 and brewed here before all the kit was advertised for sale in 1848? Was this the J R King brewery of East Street? I say on the J R King page that the partnership in that brewery was dissolved in August 1848, and the brewery equipment of the Queen Charlotte was advertised for sale a few months later, so is this coincidence or evidence of a link?
As you will appreciate, the research on the Queen Charlotte is very much a ‘work in progress’. Maurice’s son William John Batchelor was at the West Quay Tavern (corner of West Quay and Simnel Street) and the Wonder Inn, Canal Walk at various times, and William was also described as a brewer in the 1861 census, with reference to the West Quay Tavern.