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Report - - Gales Brewery, Horndean - June 2011 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Gales Brewery, Horndean - June 2011

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mffp

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
A visit with TehCocoRico on a successful day, seeming to see more than the other reports on here, including the old shop on the other side of the road to the main brewery.

Gales Brewery was an old brewery situated in Horndean, near Portsmouth in Hampshire. It made the nutty HSB (Horndean Special Bitter) and the newer Gales Bitter. It took its water from its own well situated under the brewery which is fed from the South Downs, and the yeast and 'liquor' (local water used for brewing), coupled with the local brewing style, produce beers with a sparse head, quite dark in colour.
In late 2005 Fuller's Brewery bought Gales for £91.8 million. It raised fears as to the future of Gales' Horndean brewery and some of its beers, and the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) launched a campaign to encourage Fullers to continue production of the full Gales line at Horndean. However, in January 2006, Fuller's began cutting jobs at the Horndean brewery, and it was announced on 27 February 2006 that the brewery would close at the end of March 2006, although distribution and warehousing would continue in the area.
The proposed plans below have been approved. So a final farewell to Gales Ales, it was a pleasure getting messed up on your ales,

This Statement is in support of a planning application for the Former Gales’Brewery site, London Road, Horndean.

• Demolition of existing brewery buildings (excluding brewery tower) and
other structures;
• Demolition of storage & distribution buildings associated with the former
brewery;
• Demolition of offices in buildings known as 'Southfield' and 10 London
Road;
• Demolition of No.s 5,7 & 9 London Road;
• Erection of 73 dwellings (4 x 4-bed, 23 x 3-bed, 39x 2-bed & 7 x 1-bed);
• Erection of 60-bed care home and ancillary development (to include the
change of use of the existing brewery tower);
• Erection of new retail unit (350sq.m gfa);
• Erection of building for new D1 surgery;
• Conversion of retained part of Nash Hall to community facility;
• Change of use of 17 London Road to B1(a) offices;
• Change of use of former Clubhouse to commercial uses; and
• Associated parking, boundary treatment, landscaping, access (including ramps and steps) and environmental / highway improvements

1.2 The existing residential unit within 15 London Road will be retained.

Our explore started with a look around the smaller side of the road, with nice views of the tower on the other side.
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A quick walk around found the truck pump.
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We then made our way into a small, dark, pretty poor looking garage, to find over 100 bottles of Gale's Prize Old Ale
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Along with the instructions to a pretty old fire extinguisher.
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(picture from TehCocoRico)

We then found our way through a few empty warehouses into the old shop, which is now empty, except for one till.
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Next, we headed across the road into the main part of the site, into half a room, right next to the gate, with lots of barrels and lots of colour.
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From there we went into the main courtyard. I have no idea what used to be here, but it's now pretty difficult to tell...
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From there, into a vaguely underground couple of huge rooms.
One of the scariest moments of my life to walk into a pitch-black room, swing a torch round and find this....
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From there the only place to go was into the main part of the brewery, where the well is situated. Being very very deep.
We saw this, with it's strange beauty. It seems to have been like it for quite some time...
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And the only thing left to do was to climb the tower, with a nice view of the shop across the road.
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From there, it was a nice hour walk back to the train station... Well worth it though.
 

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