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Golden Eagle- Hill Street

ethanedwards

ethanedwards

Brummie Muso
Golden Eagle

Hill Street

CityHillStGoldenEagle.jpg
....
TheGoldenEagleHillSt1976.jpg


With special thanks to pmc1947 ......... ...1976. And Special thanks to Barr Beacon
for the photographs.


The Golden Eagle, Probably the best pub venue in the City.
Many local bands, made their name there,
including the Spencer Davis Group

sdgeagle.jpg


Spencer Davis played solo guitar spots
at the Golden Eagle pub on Hill Street in Birmingham
which was at that time a hangout for the city's rhythm and blues enthusiasts.
It was there where he met the Winwood brothers
while they were performing on stage
as the Muff-Woody Jazz Band in early 1963.
Steve Winwood was aged 15 at the time
but he posessed a vocal style that was way beyond his years
and was also talented as an instrumentalist
and alternated between guitar and piano on stage.
Finding common musical ground, Davis joined them
and brought in accomplished jazz drummer
Pete York (born August 15, 1942 in Nottingham),
a Birmingham University student, and the group became known as the Rhythm and Blues Quartette.

sdgrp01.jpg


A regular visitor to the Golden Eagle R&B nights was future
Slade star Noddy Holder
 
hi barr beacon...if i remember correctly the golden eagle is one of the pubs that is very difficult to find any pics of...will keep searching...

lyn
 
Astoness said:
hi barr beacon...if i remember correctly the golden eagle is one of the pubs that is very difficult to find any pics of...will keep searching...

lyn
Click to expand...

Lyn thats quite hard to imagine this pub stood out a mile i should think everbody in brum of our era remembers it.DEk
 
hi dek..yes i know you would think it was easy to find a pic of it but i cant think that one has ever been posted on the forum...

lyn
 
hi Lyn and dek
I hate to beg your pardon,s but it must be a good 12 months at least if not longer
but some-one did put one on the forum when it was discussed along time ago
its a case o scrolling through the archives , and searching backwards
it was in the days before we lost certain members
have a nice day every body , best wishes Astonian ;;;
 
Dek

I agree with Lyn photos of the Golden Lion are hard to come across. The spot it was in was a bit out of the way and most people were only interested in photographing the GPO bridge further up the hill. The is the best I could come up with.

Phil

CityHillStGoldenEagle.jpg
 
well done phil....if i may i will save this one in my pubs file....

cheers

lyn
 
thanks astonian...phil has just posted a pic of it....

have a good day...

lyn
 
such is the difficulty in finding pics of the golden eagle even carl chinn is searching for them and has none....phil ...carl sends his thanks to you for the one you have posted which i forwarded onto him..

lyn
 
Just about remember it in its last throws, it was a sort of bikers/rockers pub. Seem to remember alot of the fixtures and fittings were taken on the night it closed. Might still be a few knocking about!
 
I am sure in my days, 1953/57 this was known as the Postmans Pub!, the sorting offices took up both sides of Hill Street all the way up with a bridge across the street,
having just got married with wages of £5.19.6 didnt leave me much pocket money, Bernard
 
great pic barr beacon....not many of them about...thanks for posting it...

lyn
 
Nice photo barr beacon i notice the P.O. bridge has gone gives it a completely different outlook. Dek
 
I took one just before it was demolished its in the loft somewhere I will find it at the weekend scan and send it to you if you pm me with your e mail address.
 
hi all..when folk say to me that they will never find a pic of this or that i always say dont give up they are out there somewhere...well as promised hately (john) has rumaged in his loft and sent me what must be a rare full on shot of the golden eagle that he took while working at the post office opposite...it was taken shortly before demolision....:( many thanks john..you are a star...

lyn:)
 

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Well Lyn what a find never give up is the motto a special well done to John. worth waiting for . Dek
 
its a good one dek and as john was saying with its original gothic facade..such a pity but at least we have another pic of it..

lyn
 
lyn you are right that's a real gem thanks Hateley for the photo!
 
Sorry to drag up an old thread, but The Golden Eagle was a place very special to my heart. I first started going there for its legendary Thursday night disco called 'The Shoop Shoop Stereo' (stereo discos were very rare back in those days) - known as 'The Shoop' for short. Later I saw such bands as UB40, Dexy's Midnight Runners, and The Specials (still under their original name of The Automatics) at the Eagle. It was a lovely warm, atmospheric place with extraordinary Art Deco internal architecture, fixtures and fittings. The journey to the men's loo was particularly extraordinary, being a long subterranean journey along an originally tiled corridor with authentic period light fittings and brass hand rails. Just astonishing.

Towards the end things started to fall apart (literally and metaphorically) - managers came and went in quick succession, few of whom seemed to know or care about the Eagle's proud history. At least one was a National Front sympathizer who rented the upper room out for Y.N.F. meetings that ensured that the even more of the beautiful internal architecture was ruined in a succession of fights and brawls.

The pub was a beautiful Art Deco building inside even more majestic than the outside. It was considered the finest example of Art Deco architecture in the West Midlands, sadly that wasn't enough to keep them from demolishing it. I was in a pressure group that lobbied to keep the place open, but although politicians promised verbally to do what they could - none were really willing to put themselves out.

In the pre-demolition photo, you can see the extraordinary brass Golden Eagle formed in the Art Deco Style by local artist William Bloye https://www.moseleians.co.uk/index.asp?id=126&bid=P28&Title=William%20Bloye. It was commissioned for the opening of the pub in 1936 by the Holt Brewery. In an extraordinary act of corporate vandalism the Eagle plaque was destroyed during the demolition.

Even more beautiful was another stunning Golden Eagle which was engraved into the pub's front window, an extraordinary piece of art for a city centre pub (though I don't know the artist). I heard a rumor that that window, at least, had been removed before demolition, and the photo above would suggest that that is true - which is a relief.
 
That's a really interesting post Purple Cow, thanks.

I went to the Golden Eagle a few times in the 70's to see a band and I remember thinking the upper room was amazing.
 
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