Remembering Guinness Time, the Iconic Beer’s Employees-Only Magazine

These days, it seems like everything Guinness touches turns to gold. Despite being over 250 years old, the beer brand has remained one of the trendiest in its category, with today’s sales driven by its permanent virality on social media in addition to its reliable, high-quality taste. Today, an estimated 10 million pints of the stout are sold worldwide every day, and that popularity has rapidly spread to other non-beer mediums.

Guinness merchandise, regardless of format, is currently just as hot as the beer itself, with consumers racing to get their hands on branded clothing from designers like Lazy Oaf, Lucky Brand, and Jonathan Anderson’s luxury label JW Anderson. Just as notable was the premiere of “House of Guinness,” which accrued a 90 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and secured a spot as Netflix’s third-most watched series globally within just three days of its premiere. And the series remained in the global top 10 for a full three weeks after its premiere. But once upon a time, a different kind of Guinness media existed — and it was specifically reserved for employees of the illustrious brewery.

“Guinness Time,” which debuted around Christmas 1947, was an internal-facing magazine published for and distributed solely to Guinness employees at the Park Royal Brewery in West London, which had opened 11 years prior. (Park Royal eventually closed its doors for good in 2005 when Guinness re-concentrated all U.K. and Irish production at St. James’s Gate in Dublin.) “Guinness Time” was released on a quarterly, seasonal schedule and focused on topics one would expect from an employees-only publication.

Credit: Bygone Bodiam, Illustrator:

There were articles on everyday goings-on at the brewery, including announcements on any upcoming changes or other noteworthy events; profiles on various brewery staff; notes on local community life; and more. While the topics covered in “Guinness Time” may have been relatively mundane, its covers were anything but.

Credit: Boak & Bailey, Illustrator: John Gilroy

If you recognize the design style and find it similar to some of Guinness’s legendary print advertisements, your eyes do not deceive you. Multiple editions of the magazine were published with covers illustrated by artist John Gilroy, the same hand behind the brand’s iconic “My Goodness, My Guinness” posters. Gilroy was brought on in 1930 — one year after Guinness signed with its first-ever advertising agency, S.H. Benson — and created illustrations for the brand for over 30 years. In that time, he introduced a number of the brand’s fabled mascots, including its famous toucan.

Credit: Boak & Bailey, Illustrator: Raymond Tooby

Several of Gilroy’s designs appeared on the cover of “Guinness Time,” even if Gilroy himself did not compose the front page. The beloved toucan, for example, shows up on the cover of the Spring 1957 edition designed by Raymond Tooby, and again on the Spring 1959 edition from Smilby (a pseudonym for Francis Wilford-Smith).

Credit: Boak & Bailey, Illustrator: Smilby

Following its initial release for Christmas 1947, “Guinness Time” ran once per quarter until 1975, at which point its publication was discontinued. Today, old printings are nearly impossible to track down, with searches often pointing to the vintage, crab-themed Guinness Time advertisement, not the magazine itself. Until we can locate an edition of “Guinness Time” to flip through ourselves, we guess a well-poured pint of the Irish stout will do.

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