The following is from directories , McKenna’s Central Birmingham Pubs (Vol1) and electoral rolls
The Hope & Anchor opened 1762. Originally it was a two story Georgian house with a bow window in the front .When Ansells took pub over in 1893 the front was remodelled , but inside left as was. It had a Gentlemen Only bar , where councillors and aldermen met to discuss business (whether the term “gentlemen “was suitable for a place of machinations and dubious deals is open to question) . Eli Fletcher, a former alderman, held the licence for more than 34 years, and it was often known as Eli’s. McKenna states that the Fletcher family ran it for over 100 years, but this would not seem to agree with the landlords listed below.
Landlords and known dates (In some early years it is listed as “The Anchor” )
1841-45 William Pugh
1849-52 John Greenhill
1855-79 Thomas Jones
Here Edmund Street was renumbered, and the Hope & Anchor became no 19
1880-83 Thomas Jones
1884 William Britland Jones
1888-92 Henry Cutts
1895-97 Joseph Astle
1899-1903 George W.Webb
1904-21 Walker Fletcher
1950 Eli Walker Fletcher
1955-56 Ian Hurst Burns
The pub is not listed in Kellys directory after 1963, and no licensee is named for 1962-3, but McKenna states that the last licensees were the Wilson’s and that the pub closed the 27 th June 1965 when the (then) new library built.
The electoral rolls also show Eli listed as owning The New Inn , 191 Bromsgrove St in 1930. In 1939 he also owned the Old Red Lion , in the Bull Ring, while living at 95 Nursery Road, Edgebaston, with wife Hettie and Marjorie Patricia Fletcher (daughter?) , Eli disappeared from the electoral roll between 1950 and 1955.
Mike