Sidegate Brewery

Business: John Martine

Location: Haddington

Type: Brewery

The Sidegate Brewery was located on the east side of the Sidegate on land that was once owned by John Martine, a tanner. His son, also John, had been "apprenticed to a west-country brewer", but had returned to Haddington to establish the Sidegate Brewery by 1834. In 1862, after continued financial difficulties, he decided give up the brewery and it was offered to let in 1862. It was briefly tenanted by Thomas Laurie before being taken on in 1865 by James Richardson, who owned the Nungate Brewery.

When James retired in 1881 the brewery was offered to let, and was described as being "in excellent order, and the plant almost entirely new. There is a 12 quarter malting in connection with the brewery, and another of 9 quarters could be let along with it if required".

The brewery was acquired by James Mackell Montgomery who commissioned additions to the buildings between 1893 and 1894 from noted Edinburgh brewery architect Peter Lyle Barclay Henderson. James sold the brewery to the newly formed Haddington Brewery Co Ltd in 1896. The company went into liquidation in 1899, rose phoenix-like from the ashes in 1901, and went into liquidation again in 1904. It was finally dissolved in 1905 bringing brewing at the Sidegate Brewery to an end. Some of the equipment was then purchased by the nearby Belhaven Brewery and the site was sold to a local coach builder, A. D. Kennedy.