Guinness Brewery, St James's Gate

Name: Guinness Brewery, St James's Gate
Address: IE

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Arthur Guinness founded the brewery at St James's Gate, Dublin, in 1759 on a 9,000-year lease. It is a yard of red-brick halls, a tall chimney and white brewhouse towers; at the Storehouse's centre a glass atrium shaped like a pint of stout rises to the Gravity Bar on the top floor.

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At a glance

Country: Ireland
Type: Infrastructure

Quick answers

Where is Guinness Brewery, St James's Gate?

Guinness Brewery, St James's Gate is in Ireland.

The St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland, is the home of Guinness, the famous dark stout. Arthur Guinness began brewing there in 1759, and the factory has stayed on the same spot ever since. Today it is part of the drinks company Diageo.

The place is famous for its enormous lease. Arthur Guinness signed a deal to rent the brewery for 9,000 years at 45 pounds a year. The business grew so fast that by 1886 it was the biggest brewery in the world. Next to the factory stands the Guinness Storehouse, an exhibition about the long history of the brand.

The 9,000-year lease

On 31 December 1759 Arthur Guinness signed a lease for the old, unused brewery at St. James's Gate. It ran for 9,000 years and cost 45 pounds each year. The lease is no longer in force, because the company later bought the land as the brewery grew far beyond its first four acres. Still, the story shows how confident its founder was that his business would last.

From Dublin to the world

In 1769 Guinness shipped its first beer to England, six and a half barrels in all. Steam power and exports helped the firm grow, and the brewery site expanded from about one acre to over 64 acres by 1868. In 1838 it became the largest brewery in Ireland, and by 1886 the largest in the world, making 1.2 million barrels a year. It is no longer number one overall, but it is still the biggest maker of stout.

Fun facts

The lease was for 9,000 years at 45 pounds a year, a price that never changed.
In the 1800s the brewery owned many nearby buildings, including streets of homes for its workers.
The brewery once had its own power plant.