Three Swans
55 Andersons Terrace, then 84 Albert Road.
Brewing started Circa 1866
Brewing ceased between 1871 to 1883
Albert Road was famous, or infamous if you were part of the renowned Temperance movement, for an uninterrupted line of six ‘pubs’. These were the Alliance Inn, Robert Burns, Welsh Harp, Inkerman Tavern (previously the Inkerman Inn), Calshot Castle, and Queens Hotel all of which were built in early 1860s. In addition to this ‘run’ of houses, there was also at various times the Railway Tavern, American Hotel/Loosemores,Hotel, York & Albany Inn, Saracens Head, Royal Albert Hotel, St Crispin & the Bear, and the Atlantic Hotel, as well as the Three Swans Inn. The separate brewery was at the back of the Inn, between Albert Road and Andersons Terrace.
There is a connection with the Davis’s Railway Hotel at 3 Terminus Terrace. That hotel was owned by Robert Davis when opened in the 1850s, and directories from 1859 and 1867 show Robert Davis as a hotel keeper at 2 & 3 Terminus Terrace.
However, the 1867 PO Directory of Hampshire also refers to Robert Davis as being at the Three Swans brewery in Anderson’s Terrace, Albert Road. This led me to think that he was a brewer at the hotel, as well. That was before I saw reports in newspapers of 29th August 1866 of an application for a licence by Robert Davis the younger, the occupier of a house with a brewery attached which had just been built in Albert Road, opposite Ransom’s Terrace. The premises cost over £1,000 in building and had a frontage of 39ft and depth of 200ft with plenty of stabling and room to build more. There was no house between it and the Albert Hotel on the one hand and the Marsh Hotel on the other.
The application was granted.
The 1851 Census shows Robert Davis at the Davis’s Hotel, married to Ann, with a son Robert aged 13, and who would have been about 24 when he applied for the licence at the Three Swans. Robert at the Three Swans was therefore the son of Robert of the hotel, which is why I could find no evidence of brewing there. It must be the case that the August 1866 application related to the Three Swans, since, as we see later, Robert Senior owned both the hotel and the Three Swans.
On 17th August 1870, newspapers carry notice of an auction sale, with reference to 150 casks, vats, hogsheads, barrels kilderkins, 9, 6 and 4 1/2 gallon working squares, coolers, a malt mill, stillions etc. Also the brewery utensils, underback, and a 4 quarter mash tub with cast iron bottom (a brew of about 570 gallons a time). All were on the premises at the Three Swans Brewery in Albert Terrace and Anderson Rd St Mary’s. The sale was by order of the proprietor, and “The above was new within the last 3 years” (1867)
It looks as if there was a sale as later in August the licence was transferred from Robert Jun to George Robinson. On the same day, Robert Senior transferred the licence of the Railway Hotel to Robert Junior, so the sale appears part of an overall business plan. By 1871, the reference is to the Three Swans Inn.
In June 1871, there is a report of an accident involving “a horse and cart belonging to the Three Swans brewery Andersons Road driven by George Lee of 42 St Mary’s Street”. In newspapers of June 1873, Mr Martin is described as a brewer, and a Mr Martin is referred to as being at the Three Swans in September that year, so I believe he may have taken over, and brewed here. Either way, it seems that brewing did continue as newspapers of June 1874 carry a ‘Wanted’ notice, for a situation to manage a beerhouse or in a brewery, good testimonials and experience. Address, LZC, Davis’s Hotel opposite SWR station.
An auction notice in newspapers of 26th May 1883 clarifies the history a little. There was for sale, by order of the executors of the late Robert Davis, the Davis’s Hotel in Terminus Terrace, as per earlier advert and with “brewery in Andersons Road, now used as a store by Messrs Peacock and Buchan”. (According to Sotonopedia this firm produced anti-fouling compositions for ships’ hulls and other preservative paints). On 9th June the same year, there is an auction notice advertising the sale of the well-known Davis’s Railway Hotel Terminus which was in the successful occupation for nearly 40 years and now in the occupation of Mr Thorn as a free house at a rental of £20pa. It was to be sold as going concern.
I do not know what happened between 1874 and 1883, but brewing looks to have ceased over that period.
Tony Gallagher in his book ‘Southampton’s Inns and Taverns’ (and indeed other sources, which may have simply repeated the same item) says that this beerhouse was leased to Eldridge Pope (brewers in Dorchester) since June 1866, which raises a number of questions. In 1866, this was a ‘house with a brewery attached that had just been built’. Was the pub leased to Eldridge Pope and the brewery operated by Robert Junior? Did Eldridge Pope lease the whole, and employ Robert Junior as landlord/brewer? The sale in 1870 was for all the brewery plant and equipment, and was by the proprietor, which was not Eldridge Pope. Could this simply be a typo/printers error, with 1866 appearing instead of 1886? Another one for more research.
The pub continued trading until 1967, and the Itchen Bridge now runs over the site.