Remarkable collection of Vaux memorabilia on show at event to mark 25th anniversary of brewery closure

Houghton's Maxim brewery- set up by former Vaux workers - is holding an event on Friday evening to mark this week's anniversary.

Transcript

00:00Mark Anderson is the boss here at Maxim Brewery, which will be hosting a reunion of Vaux employees.

00:06How long were you at the brewery?

00:08Oh, from 85 to 99, so in total working for Vaux and Ward's breweries as well, so 24 years, something like that.

00:16And what was it like as a place to work?

00:18It was great. I mean, obviously very busy, much, much bigger than we are now.

00:21You know, 550 employees, so lots of customers.

00:25Very busy, great brands, you know, just a lovely place as well, and people were all friendly.

00:31Never an issue with the employees, so it was lovely.

00:34And how does it feel now it's 25 years?

00:36Well, 25 years, yeah, I still get lots of memories about the closure.

00:40Very sad about how it worked and how, you know, the City of London closed it.

00:45But at the same time, pride as well.

00:47It's nice to hold a 25-year anniversary, meet up with some old colleagues, old friends,

00:52and also some general public as well who can come here and have a look at the memorabilia.

00:56So, looking forward to tomorrow, and, you know, it should be a good day.

01:00And how important is it to keep the memory of the brewery alive, do you think?

01:03I think it's very important, you know.

01:05I mean, obviously we've got plenty of information, plenty of memorabilia.

01:09There's a film being done, of course, which I encourage people to have a look.

01:12That does tell the story about the closure.

01:15And, yeah, history's a great thing. It's great for the city.

01:19And, obviously, things have moved on. The site's now totally different.

01:23So, it's great to remember what the city was like, both in the brewery terms and its industry.

01:29Obviously, the site was empty for a very long time. That must have been quite heartbreaking.

01:33Are you pleased to see it taking shape now?

01:35I am, yes. I think, certainly, obviously, the council offices look great.

01:39I believe there's going to be the hospital on there, the Eye Hospital as well,

01:42which is really nice to have something new.

01:45It would have been nice to have a small brewery on there as well, but that wasn't to be, unfortunately.

01:50But we did try at one stage, but it didn't work out.