The Stag Brewery in Mortlake has been in use since 1765, but now it looks as though it may only have a couple of years (if that) left. InBev, the owners intend to close the site sometime in 2010. All this came about after InBev bought Anheuser-Busch (the brewer of Budweiser) for around $52bn in November of last year, making it the world's largest brewer. Inevitably this has led to the restructuring of its UK operations, part of which is the closure of the brewery.
But the picture below is not the brewery. This stonking Victorian warehouse lies to the north fronting the river Thames and every year it appears on the telly.
There's a development up the road in Mortlake called Boat Race End and to be fair you could (just) see the end of the Oxford & Cambridge boat race from it, but this imposing warehouse is right on the finish line, not only that, but it's also next door to The Ship Public House. The Ship was my local for a while hence my familiarity with this building. You'll notice the 2006 date on the picture, but if you went round there today I guarantee it would still look the same. And that's the problem. It's such a great building in such a great position that nobody knows what to do with it, so its been slowly crumbling away for at least the last 10 years if not more. But things may be about to change. The brewery and surrounding buildings (including this one and the pub) were protected as employment generating sites, so a residential conversion would be out of the question. But does the end of the brewery also mean the end of the site's status, and if so what will become of this warehouse, because it too is owned by InBev.
Come to think of it what's going to happen to The Ship...
