Kirkstall Brewery is situated in Kirkstall

Kirkstall

Kirkstall is a suburb of north-west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, on the eastern side of the River Aire. To the west is Bramley, to the east is Headingley and to the north is West Park. Kirkstall is around from the city centre and is close to the University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan...

, Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It operated as a brewery

Brewery

A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....

 between 1833 and 1983.

Kirkstall Brewery consists of several Grade II listed buildings. These buildings are situated on either side of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal

Leeds and Liverpool Canal

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , it crosses the Pennines, and includes 91 locks on the main line...

. On one of the buildings on the west side of the canal (The Warehouse) it is possible to see the doors just above the water level that were used to load barrels of beer

Beer

Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

 onto barges.

History

The Kirkstall Brewery Co Ltd was registered in 1871, and by 1898 the brewery was producing around 72,000 barrels of beer a year. The beer was sold in Leeds, Yorkshire and beyond.

In 1936 Dutton’s Blackburn Brewery Ltd purchased Kirkstall Brewery Co Ltd. and its subsidiaries, Albion Brewery (Leeds) Ltd and Willow Brewery Co. Ltd.

In 1938 the Company was renamed Dutton’s Lancashire & Yorkshire Brewery Corporation Ltd.

Duttons in turn was bought by Whitbread

Whitbread

Whitbread PLC is a global hotel, coffee shop and restaurant company headquartered in Dunstable, United Kingdom. Its largest division is Premier Inn, which is the largest hotel brand in the UK with around 580 hotels and over 40,000 rooms. Its Costa Coffee chain has around 1,600 stores across 25...

 in 1957. Kirkstall Brewery was re-equipped, and the production of bitter

Bitter (beer)

Bitter is an English term for pale ale. Bitters vary in colour from gold to dark amber and in strength from 3% to 7% alcohol by volume.-Brief history:...

 and mild

Mild ale

Mild ale is a low-gravity beer, or beer with a predominantly malty palate, that originated in Britain in the 17th century or earlier. Modern mild ales are mainly dark coloured with an abv of 3% to 3.6%, though there are lighter hued examples, as well as stronger examples reaching 6% abv and...

 went up to quarter of a million barrels a year. The brewery was closed in 1983, bringing to an end a 150-year tradition of brewing in the Kirkstall Valley.

Kirkstall Brewery stood empty and unused for several years until it was given a new lease of life in the late 1990s with an ambitious project to create Kirkstall Brewery Student Village. This project was undertaken by Leeds Metropolitan University

Leeds Metropolitan University

Leeds Metropolitan University is a British University with three campuses. Two are situated in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England while the third is situated in Bhopal, India...

. The development provides accommodation for over 1,000 students. Other facilities include the Students' Union

Students' union

A students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges and universities, and has started appearing in some high schools...

 bar, a cafe, a shop, a gymnasium, an events hall, pool/snooker room, laundry and car parking facilities for a small number of vehicles.

A new brewery with the same name has been set up close to the original site. http://www.kirkstallbrewerycompany.com/

Renovation

The renovation project was a challenging one; the spring

Spring (hydrosphere)

A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...

s and watercourses that provided the water used in the brewing process had to be diverted without damaging the unique ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

 that is a recognized Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

.

During renovation it was discovered that a WWII submarine engine was installed at the brewery as a power back-up facility. This engine was one of a pair built in 1943 for submarine duties but was never actually installed in a submarine. It was sold after the Second World War (1948) to the brewery for power generation. Although it is the size of a Ford Transit van it was carefully removed and now resides at the Anson Engine Museum

Anson Engine Museum

The Anson Engine Museum is situated on the site of the old Anson colliery in Poynton, Cheshire, England. It is the result of years of work by Les Cawley and Geoff Challinor who began collecting and showing stationary engines for a hobby. When the number and size of engines they collected...

in Poynton, Cheshire, United Kingdom where it is undergoing restoration. Photograph's and progress of the engine can be found here : http://www.enginemuseum.org

Kirkstall Brewery Student Village won the City of Leeds Award for Architecture in 1997.