The
Hop Cellars
Of
all the company's departments the Hop
Cellars is probably the most romantic. It
was situated beneath the Hop Exchange in
historic Southwark, London, covering an
underground area of nearly one acre. It
was acknowledged as one of the finest and
largest private cellars in the country.
The company moved from earlier premises,
under St Philip's Chapel in Regent Street,
to the Hop Exchange, Southwark, in 1903.
Known as Hop Cellars, this department was
responsible for the buying and storing all
of the company's wine and spirit needs.
Most red and white wines, ports and
sherries were shipped in casks (hogsheads,
butts, drums and pipes) and bottled by the
Hop Cellars staff.
Although
Lyons had used the extensive cellars from
1903 until 1972 (when the stock was moved
to Greenford) they did not own the Hop
Exchange until 1944 when they bought the
entire freehold of the building which was
ultimately transferred to their subsidiary
Auriol Property Company. This company was
responsible for the redevelopment of the
Groups properties. The Hop Exchange was
built in 1860 as a hop and malt exchange
and offices. A fire effectively reduced
the height of the building by a half and
practically destroyed the Exchange Hall
with its domed glass roof where auctions
were held. In the 1960s it became apparent
that the upkeep of the was becoming
greater than the revenues from letting. A
plan was put forward by Auriol, supported
by the Royal Fine Art Commission, to
restore the front of the building to its
original height and form, together with
the Exchange Hall and replacement of the
offices with new ones.
Meanwhile
work continued in the cellars of storing
and bottling wines for the Lyons
businesses. In those days it was important
to use the right shaped bottle for a
particular wine. Staff were taught to know
the difference between a
sloping-shouldered Burgundy bottle and a
white Sauterne bottle. Bottles were
returned after use, cleaned and re-used.
There average life was six fillings.
Bottling was done by machine for filtered
wine and spirit, or by hand for 'fined'
wines, which cost more. In a single day a
hand bottling team would fill 96 dozen
bottles, while a team working on automatic
bottling would fill 300 to 350 dozen
bottles. Only an experience cellar-man was
allowed to bottle by hand. Before corking,
the hand filled bottle was held against a
candle flame to ensure that the wine was
perfectly clear. Electric light was too
harsh and did not show up any
imperfections in the wine.
After
bottling came binning, or the art of
stacking bottles for storage. This
consisted of laying the bottles in rows
between iron partitions and building up,
placing hardwood laths between each row.
The average bin held about 2,000 bottles,
and the upmost skill was needed to ensure
that the bin would not collapse. Nearly
all the red wines were stored for a
minimum of five years before the bottle
was sold. Although the cellar temperature
did not vary much between summer and
winter it was necessary during colder
periods to light gas jets to keep the
temperature at an even 60 degrees. Labels
were not attached to the bottles until
they were ready for dispatch when they
were cleaned up and given a bright new
label. The bins were in 25 large vaults
opening off from the main passages. The
cellars were reputed to be part of the
notorious Clink Prison (hence the slang
word for prison-clink) and the vaults were
previously used to house the wretched
souls who had strayed.
While
most of the work was undertaken in the
vaults of the Hop Exchange, it was the
Catering Office who calculated the value
of the company's wine and spirit stocks.
To calculate the value of the stock the
Catering Office needed to know what wines
and spirits had been received and issued
by the Hop Cellars. Nearly all the white
wines, clarets and bugundies, ports and
sherries were bought in barrels, and all
champagne and liqueurs in cases. For
barrel wines the Hop Cellars notified the
Catering Office the quantity received and
the number of bottles they themselves
produced from it. With this basic
information, and the other labour and
incidental charges, the cost of each
bottle was calculated. Over 1,500 stocks
cards were kept for each bin and onto
these was entered the quantity and price
of every consignment. In addition to
paying the supplier the company also had
to pay excise duty. Issues to restaurants
and hotels were also recorded on the stock
cards so that a price per bottle could be
calculated.
In
later years the Hop Cellars became part of
the Central Buying Group. Because the
wines had a good reputation, connoisseurs
began to buy their wines direct from the
cellars and the trade gradually increased
until, in the 1970s, Hop Cellars were
supplying 8,000 customers. Manager and
buyer at this time was John Brownsdon who
succeeded Ted White in 1968 and there were
another 46 staff supporting him. New
working practices were brought in to
increase the number of wines sold to the
public. Tankers brought much of the wine
from France, Germany, Spain and Portugal
and the old method of binning was replaced
with boxing and storing on pallets ready
for transporting. The old traditional
method was replaced with mechanization and
as a result the quality suffered. The
restaurants, hotels and steak houses, were
still supplied from the Hop Cellars, which
by now had changed its name to Lyons Wine
Cellars, but by now they were also
supplying supermarkets and cash and carry
stores and there was also an own label and
mail order business. As a result of the
changes that took place the business
outgrew their premises and it moved to
Greenford in 1972.
©
Peter Bird 2005
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