Bare-knuckled boxing and the brewery
Storied riverside location now home to major tv brand .. for now - story 33
Two views of Mortlake.
Same building but a different vantage point.
Welcome to the Stag Brewery in Mortlake. A landmark. If you have ever watched the Boat Race on television, you may have seen it. The building is on the south bank about 300m from the finish line.
It is the home of the story works, ‘London’s newest film and television studio’. Tomorrow, Thursday 27 February 2025, Disney+ is showing the first episode of a major new drama filmed in large part, at this location.
‘A Thousand Blows' is set in 1880’s Victorian London and the underground world of illegal boxing. The series is loosely based on true events and is written by the Peaky Blinders creator, Steven Knight.
There’s more on the story behind transforming the Brewery here and a review of the programme here.
Henry VII, King of England
There’s been a brewery on this site for over 500 years. That was Watney’s claim forty years ago. This twenty minute talk tells that story and many others. Great stuff. Umpteen monarchs before and many after Henry VII will have been familiar with spot on the Thames. They passed by boat. East is central London - the Palace of Whitehall, Tower of London etc.. West is Hampton Court and Richmond Palace where Henry VII died.
Studio or luxury residential development?
the story works facility is hugely impressive. It covers nearly 22 acres. The image below is from their brochure and gives you some idea of the scale.
This studio maybe a temporary thing. ‘A Thousand Blows' series two has already been commissioned so that should be made here.
After that?
There’s a proposal to redevelop the site into apartments, a school and shops. This process started when the last brewers sold up in 2015. The latest in that process can be found on Richmond council’s website.
Needless to say this development is controversial. The largest body opposing the current plan is the Mortlake Brewery Community Group.
I have made financial donations to this group. I have three specific beefs with the plan:
there is a shockingly low proportion of affordable housing
the buildings are so high, they do not fit with the overall sense of the river landscape in this area
and, this won’t come as a surprise, the traffic implications have not been thought through.
Other protestors have different concerns including that proposal for a school. All of the contentious topics talk to the nature of future Barnes.
I want a development on this site. I want to see many more apartments, and as many as possible affordable. And I want to see this development work within a landscape that assumes Hammersmith Bridge does not re-open to vehicles.
Mortlake Brewery is one of three large development issues in this area along wth Barnes Hospital, of course the Bridge. The will have a huge impact on how this corner of London develops. All will feature again on this blog.