Biden’s Brewery was in Seahorse Street Gosport. James Biden was the brewer from 1825. He leased the brewery but bought it and the adjacent Seahorse public house in 1838. In 1840 he acquired the Rose and Crown at Hardway. By the end of the1840s he had acquired 18 more houses, three of which were in Gosport, most of the rest were on Portsea Island.
He bought Town Field and laid out an estate covering Victoria and Albert Streets off Forton Road at Gosport. He then added a public house at each end, the Five Alls and Royal Marine Arms. His other Gosport pub was the North Star, formerly called The Traveller’s Joy. James and his family lived opposite the brewery but had moved to Bury Lodge by 1845 and then to Monckton House in 1849, which was built for him. His brewery in Seahorse Street became J. Biden & Company by 1877.
More Gosport pubs were added including The H.R.H. Prince Alfred in Clayhall Road, and the Blenheim in Queen’s Head Lane, which opened in 1866.
James lived at Monckton House until his death on the 8th of October 1872, aged 69 years. His sons continued the brewery business. Biden and Co. Ltd came into being in 1896. Arthur and Vernon Biden sold the buisiness in 1918. The Brewery was bought by Sir William Dupree of the Portsmouth United Breweries but Herbert Biden continued as the brewer until 1921 when the business closed.
Today the façade of the old brewery buildings in Seahorse Street have been retained in modern housing and the name survives as Seahorse Walk. The old brewer’s house survives opposite.
Original page created by David Moore.