The Allen family had a long history in the brewery trade in Leicester, in 1870 John Allen was was a wine & spirit merchant and victualler in Gallowtree Gate and Thomas Allen was an innkeeper in Redcross Street. In 1875 Southam & Allen were mineral water manufacturers and Allen & Co were wine and spirit merchants in Humberstone Gate. In April 1898 R.C. Allen was floated as a limited company, it was set up to bottle beer other than that of Bass, Allsopp and Guinness. It was effectively a joint venture between three local breweries- Everards, Leic Brewing & Malting and Welch Brothers. R.C. Allen died in 1918, but the business continued to operate under his name. The business was taken over by Praeds in 1951 and the premises sold for £38,000. The bottling plant buildings were later used as an antiques centre, before closing down quite a number of years ago.
