Brading Breweries Ltd.

Ottawa's oldest long-lived brewery: Union Brewery 1865, H. F. Brading & Co. 1867, The Brading Breweries Ltd. 1914; rebuilt under the Taylors in the late 1920s and the seed of E. P. Taylor's Brewing Corporation of Ontario (March 1930, with Kuntz of Waterloo), which became Canadian Breweries Limited in 1937. Brewing at 451 Wellington St. ended for Brading's in 1944 (the plant brewed O'Keefe's to 1956, demolished 1960); Brading's brewed at the former Capital plant, 840 Wellington at Preston, as Brading's-Capital until 1956, when it passed to O'Keefe's; the company ceased in 1970 (closedYear). Brands: Brading Ale, Cincinnati Cream Lager (trademarked 1927), Old Stock Ale, Stag's Head Lager, porter and lager. CONTRADICTION KEPT: 'merged with Capital in 1930' is widely repeated (and was in this archive's own letter of 18 Sept 2026); Rohmer 1978 and the Ottawa Citizen of 3 Feb 1944 (both at one remove) put the Capital acquisition in 1944. Recorded as 1944. EVIDENCE: three secondary accounts by Ashley Newall citing dated newspapers this archive has not read, the held Canadian Breweries article (Tertiary), and the City of Ottawa Directory 1869-70 page supplied by the City of Ottawa Archives (scan not yet read). Confidence C until the primaries are read. PEOPLE NAMED, NOT YET ROWS: Henry Fisher Brading (1836-1903, founder); Ernest William Israel and John E. Atwood (partners 1865); Col. Plunket B. Taylor (president 1923-24); E. P. Taylor (director c.1924). Sister record: capital-brewing-company-ottawa (TB-MDEMEHPP). Created INTERNAL 2026-09-24; not promoted. SECOND PASS 2026-09-24: two tertiary accounts now corroborate 1930 = Brading + Kuntz; 1923 directorship corroborated; Magee link is a family interest, not a documented holding. 451 Wellington today: UNKNOWN — no entry for either address on the published list of Ottawa's designated heritage properties (checked 2026-09-24), which is a negative, not a finding. No Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry for Henry Fisher Brading (searched 2026-09-24). Officers between Brading's death (1903) and the Taylors (1923): UNKNOWN. Mechanism of the 1970 cessation (wound up, amalgamated, name dropped): UNKNOWN. DIRECTORIES READ 2026-09-24 (PRIMARY): 1901 Harry Brading foreman of the Union Brewery, 451 Wellington; 1903 Henry F. Brading proprietor; 1908-09 Brading Brewing Co., Limited with Harry Brading president, W. G. Brading vice-president, J. Lynn McAboy secretary-treasurer. The 1914 renaming to The Brading Breweries Ltd. (Newall) is consistent with an earlier incorporation as Brading Brewing Co., Limited between 1903 and 1908. RELATED 2026-09-24: the 1930 merger partner now has a record — kuntz-brewery-waterloo (TB-KETJFPW8), Waterloo, 1844-1993. DIRECTORIES 1917-1927 READ 2026-09-24 (PRIMARY): officers by year — 1908-09 Harry Brading president, W. G. Brading vice-president, J. Lynn McAboy secretary-treasurer; 1917 Thomas J. Grimes vice-president and manager, McAboy secretary-treasurer; 1926-27 Lt-Col Plunket B. Taylor president, John Rankin secretary-treasurer. The 1909-1927 classified lists name only Brading and Capital as Ottawa brewers (Carling's 144 Albert in 1909 and John Labatt Ltd's 275 Kent in 1917 are out-of-town companies' local addresses).

A summary written during research. The sourced facts are in the sections below.

1. 1865
   Union Brewery opens at 451 Wellington Street

   Henry Fisher Brading (1836-1903) launched the Union Brewery with partners Ernest William Israel and John E. Atwood, where Wellington and Sparks converged.

2. 1866
   Charged with selling by the glass without a licence

   The company was charged for "selling liquor by the glass not having a license to do so."

3. 1867
   Israel retires; H. F. Brading & Co.

   Israel retired and the firm was renamed H. F. Brading & Co. Atwood's position after this year is unclear; Brading is described as sole proprietor by about 1880, the exact timing of the buyout uncertain.

4. 1869
   Listed in the City of Ottawa Directory, 1869-70

   The Archives supplied the directory page carrying the Brading entry on 22 Sept 2026. The page has not yet been read by the archive's editor; wording and address to follow from the scan.

5. 1900
   Narrowly escapes the Hull-Ottawa fire

   The great fire of 26 April 1900 threatened the brewery; a contemporary photograph is captioned with Brading's Union Brewery in the foreground having "narrowly escaped destruction". Brading gave $100 to relief.

6. 1903
   Henry Fisher Brading dies

   The founder died in 1903.

7. 1908
   Brading Brewing Co., Limited — the officers

   Might's 1908 and 1909 directories carry the bold entry "BRADING BREWING CO, LIMITED (Union Brewery), Harry Brading President, W G Brading Vice-President, J Lynn McAboy Secretary-Treasurer, 451-461 Wellington". So by 1908 the firm was a limited company run by the family, five years after the founder's death — part of the answer to who ran it between 1903 and the Taylors. The 1903 volume still reads "Brewery, Henry F Brading prop" with Harry Brading as foreman.

8. 1914
   The Brading Breweries Ltd.

   The company adopted the name The Brading Breweries Ltd.

9. 1917
   Grimes manages; McAboy keeps the books

   Might's 1917 directory: "BRADING BREWERIES, The, Thomas J Grimes, Vice-President and Manager, J L McAboy, Secretary-Treasurer, 451 Wellington" — the firm under its 1914 name, run by a manager who appears in no secondary account. Who was president in 1917 is not stated in the entry: UNKNOWN.

10. 1923
    The Taylors arrive

    Colonel Plunket B. Taylor became president in 1923-24; his son E. P. Taylor was named a director — "a year later" in Newall's account, 1923 in the E. P. Taylor article, which calls Brading "one of the family businesses, and which his father was president". Both years are kept. PRIMARY: Might's 1927 directory carries the bold entry "BRADING BREWERIES LTD, Lt-Col Plunket B Taylor President", with John Rankin as secretary-treasurer (1926 and 1927 volumes, "h 9 Wilton cres"). Taylor's grandfather Charles Magee held brewing interests in Ottawa; whether Magee held Brading itself is NOT established by any source read.

11. 1927
    Cincinnati Cream Lager trademarked; plant rebuilt

    Cincinnati Cream Lager first trademarked 1927. The 451 Wellington complex was rebuilt and modernised — 1927-30 in one account, 1923-30 in another by the same author; both are kept. The old red frame Union Brewery buildings were being pulled down in 1929.

12. 1930
    Into the Brewing Corporation of Ontario — with Kuntz, not Capital

    In March 1930 E. P. Taylor and Jennison incorporated the Brewing Corporation of Ontario by merging Brading Breweries Limited with the Kuntz Brewery of Waterloo — so the Canadian Breweries article and, independently, the E. P. Taylor article ("merged the Brading and Kuntz breweries and the British interests"), both resting on Rohmer 1978. Renamed Brewing Corporation of Canada in October 1930 and Canadian Breweries Limited in 1937. The popular reading that Capital Brewing of Ottawa was in this 1930 merger (Steam Whistle's history blog; this archive's own letter of 18 Sept 2026) is CONTRADICTED by those two accounts and by the 1944 purchase reported in the Ottawa Citizen of 3 Feb 1944 (per Newall). No 1930-dated primary document has been read either way.

13. 1944
    Moves into Capital's plant; 451 Wellington stops brewing Brading's

    Canadian Breweries bought the Capital Brewing Company for $1.5 million (Ottawa Citizen, 3 Feb 1944, per Newall 2025) and Brading's moved into its 840 Wellington St. plant at Preston, renamed Brading's-Capital Brewery. The original site stopped brewing Brading's beer in 1944 and brewed O'Keefe's from the mid-to-late 1940s.

14. 1945
    A tunnel under Wellington for the bottles

    A 1945 announcement reported that "a tunnel would be dug under Wellington for the movement of millions of bottles of beer from the plant on the south side to the warehouse on the north side" — the Brading's-Capital plant at 840 Wellington and its warehouse across the street. Newall 2025 records the primary north-south tunnel under Albert St. confirmed in 2014 sewer work, with a conveyor for bottled beer.

15. 1956
    Brading's beer leaves Ottawa

    The Brading's-Capital plant was transferred to O'Keefe's in 1956 (Ottawa Citizen, 13 Sept 1956, per Newall): "Brading's beer would never again be brewed in Ottawa." The 451 Wellington facility ceased operations the same year.

16. 1959
    Brands pass to Carling

    Cincinnati Cream Lager was advertised as "now brought to you by Carling" in 1959; Brading Ale followed under Carling in 1960.

17. 1960
    Original site demolished

    The Wellington Street buildings were being demolished on 24 March 1960. The site today: "on a former stretch of Wellington St. near Pooley's Bridge, in the present-day Park of the Provinces" (Newall 2025 — the Garden of the Provinces and Territories) and "almost under the morning shadow of Christ Church Cathedral" (Apt613). No heritage study plots the parcel against a present address; none of the block carries a City heritage designation.

18. 1969
    The last pints

    "The last of billions of pints came off the line in 1969, when the business was consolidated in Toronto" (Newall, Apt613); the entity ceased in 1970. The mechanism — dissolution, amalgamation or a name dropped — is UNKNOWN: no Canada or Ontario Gazette notice was found.

19. 1970
    Brading's ceases to exist as a company

    Brading's ceased as an entity in 1970; the Canadian Breweries account lists "The Brading Breweries (Ottawa) (merged 1930, closed 1970)". The brand itself was gone by the early-to-mid 1980s.

20. 2014
    The tunnel found

    On the morning of 2 July 2014 sewer contractors on Albert Street "broke into the Fabled Lost Beer Tunnel of LeBreton Flats" — the bottling tunnel between the Brading's-Capital plant and its warehouse (West Side Action, same day; Newall 2025 cites the Ottawa Citizen of 3 July).