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Alcester Street, Digbeth

K

kevccfc

Guest
Hello All, This is my first post and it's to satisfy my curiosity.

I would like to ask if the now Paragon Hotel on Alcester Street, Digbeth was built as a Rowton House or was it previously a workhouse?

Best regards,Kevin.
 
when i was a kid i was told all the down and outs could go there and sleep lying over a rope stretched across the room for 3d a night,i use to run past it in case they come out to get me,all these tales never did me any harm and i dont need councelling,or do i?
 
HI KEV.
Very Good Question That , I Think I Would Like The Answer To That One
I Heard It Was Called A ROUTIN HOUSE Years AGO When I Was A YOUNG Lad ,And For Years I Often used to Ponder What It Was Before That ,
Before The Poor Old Souls Of The Street Be Came Dependant On It
When I Was Young It LOOKED Impressive building
So Come On All Our Inspector Clusoes Put Kevin AND Dolly And myself
Put Our Tiny Little minds At Rest ,---- please .
good night all you night owls , and remember .
its the early bird that catches the worms ,
 
:angel: First welcome to the forum Kev, we're a pretty good bunch here.

I for one remember 'The Rowton House' you mention very well.

As a child I lived just down the road in Dymoke St and when my Dad was late home from the Pub and Mom had locked him out, he and a number of other neighbours would from time to time spend Saturday nights there.
If on a Sunday morning we were not meeting my Dad on the steps (and what impressive steps they were), we would be meeting our friends Dad's.

One Sunday we arrived to meet one friend's Dad, only to be told he had been taken to hospital. He and another chap had been fighting over my friend's mother and those steps were covered in his blood.

Funny really we would go there on Sunday mornings unafraid of anything, but on week days when my siblings and I walked through Highgate Park to school on Mosley Rd we would run as fast as we could when we got close and would never dream of leaving the park at the Rowton House gate.
 
Top Of The Morning To You Cromwell
many Thanks For Answering Our QUESTION For Us
I Personaly Wondered For Years What That Place Had Been
As Most Of Our Other Members On The Site May Have Wonderd
From The Side View With The Red Brick And The Turret
It Looked A REMARKABLE Building In Its A Day
Have A Nice Day Crom,
best wishes ASTONIAN ,;;;;;
 
About 1993 I spent three nights there, on a sentimental trip back to Brum, when I stayed at the Chamberlain Hotel, as it was then called. About £30 B&B single a night it was, and quite passable. I was mainly roaming the Black Country in those days, but I did manage to visit the 'White Swan', 276 Bradford St and the 'Fountain', on the corner of Cheapside, where the landlady invited me to stay for afters [don't get me wrong please - I mean drinking after 11.00]. I walked past the rebuilt 'Ship' on Camp Hill, now closed, which looked very sad even then, and didn't have the will to try it.
I remember noticing the bulk of the Rowton House from the front balcony of the No 41 tram going up Leopold St. It stood out because of the open space opposite.
Peter
 
I have always known this as Highgate Hotel.....?.....
When I used to work for Bristol Street Motors in the early 1970s....dinner time we played football on the park next to the hotel....it was then in use as a doss house.....? we were always indated by the tramps asking for a few pennies for a cup of tea.......drove you round the bend at times....said some nasty things in reply...which I regret saying now.....
 
Thanks

Thanks for your replies.......I stayed there recently. I thought it had the look of an old workhouse. I've now learnt what Rowton Houses were.
I've since found out that George well stayed there and is mentioned in his book "Down and out in Paris and London" Many thanks. Kev.
 
the peacock,dymoke st/darwin st,carpenters arms/adelaide st
 
musicians union hq.market tavern,and another pub /the fountain
 
cost ya more than 3d to slump over a rope now,womans hostel next door
 
the lamp.barford st.the queens arms,the town crier ,macdonald st
 
The Fountain

Dollyferret, nice to see a photo of the Fountain, a pal of mine from the Navy, Spud Murphy used to run it in the early sixties.
 
I just lived down the road from the rowton house and my old lady used to work there emptying the .... pots from under the vagrants beds back in the 60s, Playing next door in highgate park was frightening, at times as the vagrants would approach you drunk as a skunk and slurring words so we would get scared and run off, they would go down to the scrumpy house in gooch street as the scrumpy was cheap back then and if that was not enough to tide them over they would buy a bottle of wine to drink in the park, even though it's an hotel now, i would still not enter inside as i have bad memories of the people that stayed there associating with my ....... of a stepfather and nearly burnt our house down
 
Nice photos of the park area not my side of town but i do remember doing electrical work in that building behind the Queens Arms. I think the was another pub we used called the Earl Grey a couple of Streets away correct me if i,m wrong. Looking at the photos #22 the timber building would that have been on the corner of Moseley Rd coming from Camp Hill before it was altered. Dek
 
The old Rowton House is now a popular hotel for coach tour parties overnighting en route to somewhere or other. I often wonder what they make of the building and location.
 
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