What did Perkins & Co. black plaque Julius Jacob von Haynau and Barclay do at Park Street?

The Story

# The Dreymen's Revolt Standing on Park Street in 1850, General Julius Jacob von Haynau, the feared Austrian military commander infamous for his brutal repression during the Hungarian Revolution, made a fateful decision to visit the Barclay, Perkins & Co. brewery—one of London's most prestigious beer producers. What should have been a quiet tour of industrial London became an explosive moment of popular justice when the brewery's draymen, many of whom sympathized with European nationalist causes, recognized the general and attacked him in the street, beating him with whips and cart-traces in a spontaneous act of working-class defiance. This violent encounter on Park Street represented far more than a personal assault; it was a rare moment when ordinary Londoners physically rejected the presence of continental authoritarianism on British soil, transforming the brewery district into an unexpected stage for international political sentiment. The incident embarrassed the British government, delighted radical newspapers, and cemented Barclay, Perkins & Co.'s place in London folklore—not for what they brewed, but for the moment their employees reminded the world that some acts of tyranny would not be tolerated, even in the heart of industrial England.