'Tom and Jerry' houses

Q: Joan Jones from Acrefair: "While researching my family history on the 1891 census for Acrefair, I came across 'Tom and Jerry' houses, which were after Black Lion Row. Can anyone tell me what Tom and Jerry houses were?"

your comments

Lee Tomkow from Santa Barbara
From the Boddingtons website: "Henry Boddington was born in 1813, and at the age of 19 was employed as a 'traveller' for the brewery, rising rapidly to become a partner in the Brewery, which was renamed John Harrison and Co. It was a difficult time for the Brewery, with the duty payable on sugar very high and the Beer House Act of 1830 enabling lower class boozers to begin trading. They were called 'Tom and Jerry shops' and were to ruin trade for the major brewers for years to come." Also: 'Running beers', the forerunners of today's real ales, were designed for a new method of retailing beer in brewery-owned pubs. A Beer Act of Parliament in 1830 had introduced a total free market in the selling of beer. Any citizen who paid two guineas (just over UK £2 sterling) could turn his home into a beer shop. The shops, intriguingly known as 'Tom and Jerry houses', led to a rapid rise in beer consumption and outbreaks of drunkenness and riotous behavior. 'Tom and Jerry' derives its name from the two chief characters in Life in London: Or the Day & Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq. & Corinthian Tom by Pierce Egan (1821). In England a low beer joint was called a 'Tom and Jerry Shop', and, that indulgence in riotous behavior is 'to tom and jerry'. You can see how the cartoon was named now. As a former barman in a number of pubs in Fflint (the Oak, the Cross Foxes when Nev Butler had it and the Harp) the riotous behaviour started on Thursday and went on until Sunday night.

Darren from Connah's Quay
I think the name must originate from rhyming slang (not necessarily cockney).

Julian from Wrexham
During annual fair weeks anyone could purchase a special licence and turn their home into a shop selling cheaply made and quickly brewed beer. These beer shops were known as 'Tom and Jerry houses' although I can't think where the name originates.

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