The Truman Show
Recently I did something that I had been missing since March 2020 - a walk around Tate Britain and its incredibly rich collection spanning centuries of British art. While perusing the late 18th century, I saw this painting - one I had not noticed before.
This was in the section of the gallery dominated by portraits by Reynolds and Gainsborough of the rich and powerful men (and their families) of Georgian England. A quick glance showed that this was a portrait by Gainsborough of Sir Benjamin Truman, brewer. Gainsborough, the Tate catalogue notes, is better known for his portraits of women, but
“this portrait.. displays to the full his ability to convey a forceful and virile personality, subtly enhancing it by the use of sober but warm colours, and by placing the figure in an open setting which underlines the sitter's gravity and self-reliant isolation”.
I was vaguely aware of Truman Ales, but this made me want to find out more about them. “A HIstory of the County of Middlesex” (1911) starts the story in the 1660s, when Thomas Bucknall founded the Black Eagle Brewery at Spitalfields. In 1694, this passed into the hands (how it did so is unclear) of Joseph Truman. It is then recorded that Benjamin Truman joined the company in 1722. Benjamin gets the credit for a massive marketing coup in 1737 when he managed to supply beer to the crowds celebrating the birth of George II’s grand-daughter. It is recorded that Frederick Prince of Wales initially used another supplier, but that the crowds threw this beer in the fire and in each others’ faces. The following night he called on Trumans, and the beer was excellent.
(Frederick Prince of Wales unfortunately died in 1751 aged 44, clearing the way for his son to become George III - and of course that ended well… Frederick is known for planning a marriage to a lady with the auspicious name of Lady Diana Spencer, which was vetoed at the last minute by Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole. He was also a massive patron of cricket, assembling and playing for a team that was effectively Surrey. But let’s get back to the Trumans.)
Sir Benjamin was knighted in 1760 on George III’s accession. For the usual reason - he had given the Crown a lot of money by subscribing to war loans. He bought up a large chunk of Hertfordshire and was named High Sheriff (one of his near neighbours up there was a Mr Samuel Whitbread). The Rest Book that he wrote to his grandson in 1775 - five years before his death - confirms the impression of his portrait that he was a tough old sod.
“There can be no other way of raising a great Fortune than by carrying on an Extensive trade”, he wrote. “I must tell you Young Man, this is not to be obtained without Spirit and great Application”
It is recorded that subsequent members of the Truman family ignored his advice and became sleeping partners, leaving others to run the business. Sampson Hanbury and Arthur Pryor are renowned for their stewardship of the business in the 19th century (and they both had portraits painted in the style of Sir Benjamin, trying to convey the same air of authority).
There are numerous references to Trumans in popular culture from the 19th century. When reading “David Copperfield”, I found Mrs Micawber lamenting that her good man was ideally suited to brewing and had written offering his services to Messrs Truman, Hanbury and Buxton, but that they “decline to answer his letters, when he offers his services even in an inferior capacity”
Then, while I was researching this, I happened to listen to the 2009 Madness song “Liberty of Norton Folgate” - a magical piece of nostalgia about the Victorian East End, which includes the lines
“The music hall carousel is spilling out into bonfire light
Sending half crazed shadows, giants
Dancing up the brick wall
Of Mr. Truman's beer factory
Waving bottles ten feet tall”
Trumans eventually fell victim to the rationalisations within English brewing in the 20th century - it was bought by Grand Metropolitan, the beers that it produced did not win favour and eventually the East End brewery closed completely in 1989. (The genuine beer historian Martyn Cornell has documented all the twists and turns at length - on this and on many other aspects of the story - if you are interested https://zythophile.co.uk/2013/03/14/when-brick-lane-was-home-to-the-biggest-brewery-in-the-world/ )
What of the beer itself? Like all of the major brewers of the 18th century, Trumans initially made their money from a dark, strong, sweet, brew produced in massive butts. It was popular among the market porters of the East End and therefore came to be known as “porter”. Like other breweries, they then evolved their product range as tastes changed. A key driver of changing taste came when the Government abolished excise duty on glass in 1845 and it therefore became popular to serve beer in glasses as opposed to pewter tankards. So people could see that their porter rather resembled a muddy puddle, and many of them gravitated to newer types of ale, including the “mild” that gained pre-eminence in the north of England and the “bitter” (which was not particularly bitter but more so than the mild) that emerged from the Midlands and came to dominate much of England. At least until mass produced lager kicked in, but that’s a story for another day.
The story ends on a positive note. In 2010, James Morgan and Michael-George Haemus resurrected the “Truman” name and began brewing Truman Ales at a new site in Hackney Wick. In 2013, their website proudly relates, they visited the National Collection of Yeast Cultures (who knew there was such a thing?) at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich. There they found the original Truman yeast, frozen in liquid nitrogen since 1958 but ready to be revived. If you want to sample where it all began, Truman’s ales can be found on the menu of the bars at the Old Truman’s Brewery - a food, drink and entertainment venue that graces the original site in Brick Lane.