Mackeson’s Canterbury Maltings

Mackeson’s Canterbury Maltings, Station Road, Canterbury, Kent

Clive Bowley of Anthony Swaine Architecture Ltd was conducting a topographical survey of Station Road in Canterbury West and sent us this extract from the Brewers Journal of 1899 detailing Mackeson’s new maltings.

NEW MALTINGS AT CANTERBURY FOR Messrs. MACKESON and Co., BREWERS, HYTHE, KENT

OUR plate this month illustrates two 120-quarter maltings for Messrs. Mackeson and Co., Hythe, which are being erected from the designs and under the superintendence of Mr. Richard Hardy, Brewers' Architect, Nottingham, at Canterbury, adjoining the station of the South Eastern Railway Company, whose line runs alongside No. 1 maltings. The barley is hoisted from the trucks to the barley stores and dresser and conveyed to barley drying kiln, and back to stores, thence to conical steeps in barley stores, from which it falls on to the working floors. There are three kilns (Hardy's patent) side by side, as previously described in the February number of The Brewers' Journal. After kilning, the malt is placed in the cooling room situated adjoining and in the rear of kilns. Here it remains in bulk for 24 hours, after which it is dressed and falls into bins below, which are ventilated by a current of warm air passing over the top. The malt is drawn from the bottom of bins in the sacking-up room, thence direct to railway trucks. No. 2 malting is similar to No. 1 house, except that the malt store is placed over the working floors and under barley stores. Malt is conveyed from this store over bridge direct to trucks. Cottages for workmen employed in the maltings are being erected adjoining.

Only one of the two maltings blocks in the illustration was actually built. Mackeson passed to Jude, Hanbury & Co. Ltd in 1929, which, in turn became part of Whitbread. The maltings ceased to be used in the early 1960s and became a car parts warehouse. This closed in 2010 and was acquired by the King School and converted into the 384 seat Maltings Theatre, to designs by Tim Ronalds Architects opening in 2019. The rest of the site, upon which Barretts had erected other workshop buildings, has also been redeveloped with the erection of a new international college for the King School and the conversion of one of the former Barretts workshops into a sports hall.

• 
  Brewers’ Journal 15th November 1899. Courtesy Clive Bowley
• 
  Brewers’ Journal 15th November 1899. Courtesy Clive Bowley
• 
  Messrs Mackeson & Co, Hythe, Kent. New Maltings. Brewers’ Journal 15th November 1899]]