An historic brewery brand was officially revived with a launch party among the vats attended by former rugby stars Will Greenwood MBE and Brian Moore.

The Wimbledon Brewery is celebrating its first 10,000 pints a week being drunk since entrepreneur Mark Gordon and his team started the business earlier this year.

Wimbledon Times:

Entrepreneur Mark Gordon, back centre, with his family at the launch

From January: Cheers! Entrepreneur reviving Wimbledon Brewery brand 183 years after it began

Just under a year after Merton Council gave the green light to the ambitious project, the brewery is now distributing its ales Common, the Tower and Quartermaine to pubs and bars across the area.

From December 2014: Historic brewery brand to be revived in Colliers Wood industrial estate

Wimbledon Times:

Will Greenwood gives a speech to guests in the brewery

Dozens of guests including Wimbledon resident Brian Moore, AFC Wimbledon director Ivor Heller, Mitcham and Morden MP Siobhain McDonagh and the team from Love Wimbledon packed into the brewery itself for drinks and wood fired pizzas, Italian cheeses and meats provided by local businesses.

From June: New Wimbledon Brewery about to turn the tap on its first beer - a Common pale ale

The unassuming location in a warehouse on the industrial estate in Prince Georges Road, Colliers Wood, played host to the event on Wednesday, November 18.

Wimbledon Times:

Nicola and Mark Gordon with MP Siobhain McDonagh, centre

The name pays homage to the company of the same name set up by William Cook in 1832.

The original Wimbledon Brewery was a Tower Brewery - a five storey high building which is said to have used state-of-the-art techniques before it burnt down in 1889.

Only a few bricks of it remain which have been worked into the current building which still sits opposite the Dog and Fox pub in Wimbledon Village.

In 1889 it became a fire station, because, according to Mr Gordon, the fire alerted people to the need to have fire engines based in the area.

The brewery logo, which has been designed to incorporate a press drawing of the original brewery and a phoenix rising from the flames, can now be seen in pubs and bars across the borough and beyond.