Demolition underway at 150-year old Edinburgh brewery.
William McEwan opened the Fountain Brewery in 1856, in the Fountainbridge area of Edinburgh. By the time it became in public company in 1889, the brewery was valued at £1 million. At the beginning of the 1900s, the brewery had a large share of the market throughout Scotland and a 90% share of the North East of England market, and was exporting to Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. At its peak, the brewery was producing 2 million barrels of beer a year, much of it for export.
In February 2004 Scottish & Newcastle announced the closure of McEwan’s Brewery, at the same time as buying a third of Caledonian Brewery in Slateford, Edinburgh. The Fountain Brewery finally closed in June 2005, with production of the McEwan’s keg beers being transferred to the Caledonian Brewery and cans of McEwan’s Export being produced at John Smith’s Brewery.
And now, the brewery that has lain empty for the past six years, is coming down:
