Description: The Nottingham Brewery during demolition work in 1960, also showing the business premises of W M Gell, Coal and Coke Supplier in the foreground (See also NCCE000025). The Nottingham Brewery was situated at 52/56 Mansfield Road where York House now stands. The origins of the Brewery can be traced back to at least 1847 when James Long was listed as an East India and Pale Ale Brewer on the site. He sold the business in 1875 and after passing through several ownerships it was purchased in 1879 by Edward Wheeler Field. The brewery became a registered company in 1887 at which time it was recorded as owning many public houses of which several are still standing (including the Sir Charles Napier on South Sherwood Street and The Plough in Radford). Beneath the brewery immense sandstone cellars were used as an excellent storage location for beers as the temperature never rose above an ideal 56 degrees farenheit. In 1887, the premises were completely rebuilt to make it one of the best equipped in the country. Wm Bradford of Carlton Chambers in London designed the handsome new building in a Grecian style. Overall the site occupied 21,000 sq ft. Nottingham Brewery soon established itself as the City's main brewery, serving fine ales to local citizens from its expanding estate of public houses. It also gained world-wide acclaim for transporting its gold medal winning India Pale Ale to troops of the British Empire across the globe. The brewery continued to flourish through the first half of the twentieth century but was sadly sold to Tennant Brothers Ltd of the Exchange Brewery, Sheffield in 1944 along with 150 pubs. Bottling at the site ceased in 1948 and brewing stopped later in May 1952. On 15 June 1956 the Nottingham Brewery Company was formally wound up. Whitbread later owned the site, before it was demolished and a large concrete office block (York House) was built here. (Information extracted from The Nottingham Brewery Company web site).