All this talk on here about London Pride. Well l think in terms of London based brewers Youngs are far superior to Fullers, only my opinion of course. Youngs ales though aren't too easy to find in Sussex, (Brighton and one or two other main towns excepted).
Yes l remember Tongham. Does anyone recall the Simonds Brewery of Reading?, They owned various pubs in my home town of Staines when l was a boy. They were bought out by Courage l believe, back in the early 1960's.
If massively expanding the production is done at the expense of quality and taste it isn't a good thing!, and wake up to what exactly?, you have one opinion and l have another. That's just the way of things.
Exactly the same thing happened to my favourite pint, Doom Bar, when Coors took over Sharp's Brewery. It is now much too widely available, and hence standards have slipped. Far too inconsistent.