• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Rowton House

brummy10 said:
Could anyone please shed light on "Wroughton House" i have a descendant was told died there in 1921
I believe it was a workhouse, and have been told it may now be "Chamberlain Hotel", could anyone please add any further information
Click to expand...


I just browsed into this thread; Rowton House is the former name, of the big Edwardian(1903?) institution in Alcester st Highgate, which was refurbished and reopened as the Chamberlain Hotel in the late 1980s 0r 1990s. It has been privately owned by a firm called Rowton Hotels LTd who also ran similar buildings in London, and maybe Liverpool. Their original purpose was to provide the cheapest possible accomodation for working men, travelling workmen, sailors etc and had the most basic semi open cubicles with a bench bed and a chair and little else; they ended up providing accommodation for men on Supplementary Benefit paid direct to the managers. By the mid 70s Rowton Hotels tried to improve the standards and began to exclude men with drink, incontinence and other problems and the place closed for a good while. The City Council, as a consequence had to open up a day centre at Summerhill Terrace and support the St Chads crypt which offered a night shelter for homeless, mostly men. I think Rowton tried to do it up and reopen it for students; eventually it came back as the Chamberlain Hotel, and changed again when it became part of another chain which I think includes the JURYs Inn. I don't have any connections and most of this is from memory. Julian C.
 
Put the words 'Rowton House' in the search box (Top of the page right hand side) and '14 Threads' will come up with information of the building and it's uses. Hope this helps :)
 
Here is an article on the Highgate hotel written just after it was sold (Sunday Times 23.8.73). Sorry for the qualioty of the pictures.
mike

Highgate_hotel1.jpg


Highgate_hotel_2A.jpg
 
Rowton House was a working mens lodging house with over 500 beds. It is now called The Paragon Hotel, 145 Alcester Street, and has gone considerably more upmarket. The "institutional" style of the establishment is shown by the white glazed bricks in the entrance porch. If you get a chance to look through some of the service doors leading off the public rooms on the ground floor you will see more of these white glazed bricks along the corridors. I would guess that if he died at Rowton House this would be recorded as in the parish of St Alban's Highgate.
 
Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein visited Birmingham on June 23rd 1903. She was known before her marriage as Princess Helena and was the 5th child and 3rd daughter of Queen Victoria. She was therefore a sister of King Edward the Seventh. She was met at Birmingham New Street Station by the Lord Mayor, Hallewell Rogers. The purpose of her visit was to lay the foundation stone to a Rowton House. This house was to be situated at Moseley Street/Alcester Street and overlooked Highgate Park. The house would be built to accommodate, nightly, 619 men at a charge of 6 pence per head, which would entitle them to remain indoors during the day. The house still stands but it is now the Paragon Hotel. Other threads mention Rowton Houses included the wrongly spelled thread on "Wroughton" houses. The princess lived from 1846 to 1923. Dave
 
I am wondering if Princess Christian of Schleswig Holstein had any particular connection with Birmingham as she also opened the building which is now the Paragon Hotel in Highgate Birmingham formerly Rowton House, a cheap lodging house when built.
 
This is an account of Rowton written in its early days from the Birmingham Gazette and Express on 4/1/1905. Viv.
 

Attachments

  • 701537FD-0380-488F-AAE5-01CA8DC4D95C.jpeg
    701537FD-0380-488F-AAE5-01CA8DC4D95C.jpeg
    403 KB · Views: 13
  • FB31E096-45FD-4A73-8EE2-67189163AA0C.jpeg
    FB31E096-45FD-4A73-8EE2-67189163AA0C.jpeg
    400.7 KB · Views: 13
These are fantastic, thank you for sharing. I would love to know what capacity my family were at Rowton House. I believe that he was a worker there, but have not been able to find any records.
 
Thank you for your reply.I am very pleased that you like them.I wish I had some info for you,but unfortunately I do not have the sort of detail you are after.Good luck and I hope someone can help.
 
The Rowton House at the time, but some latter day posh people called it the Highgate Hotel , I've never stayed at this establishment but good luck to those who have and will
 
During my early days with the Birmingham Fire & Ambulace Service (50s & 60s) we had regular calls to Rowton House Moseley to pick-up patients and take them to the General Hospital. My heart sank when I knew we were going to Rowton House due to the unhygienic conditions, smell and state of the patient. I will leave the rest to your imagination. I believe conditions improved in the intervening years?
 
I don’t know how the above happened.I was trying to put an appreciate for the aerial view but it would not register.I may manage to sort it but in the meantime please take the thumbs up as read.
 
Four years after the date of the aerial view in post#43 Birmingham was under aerial attack in the autumn of 1940. During all-night raids high explosive bombs and sets of incendiary bombs rained down on the city. If Rowton House was occupied at the time it may have been difficult moving occupants to air-raid shelters but the building came through the blitz apparently undamaged.
A sequence of photos in the 'Then and Now' thread starts with a 'morning after the raid' photo and Rowton House is in the pic.
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/then-now.44065/post-641968
 
Great pics old Mohawk,thanks for the link.When I press appreciate it comes up(you and)so I’m doing something wrong as usual but I can’t see what ? Please take thumbs up as read.
 
I often find when I click the 'Appreciate' button it does not work and need to click it later.
It does not matter how many times it is clicked, it only appreciates once ! :)
 
oldMohawk said:
I often find when I click the 'Appreciate' button it does not work and need to click it later.
It does not matter how many times it is clicked, it only appreciates once ! :)
Click to expand...

Sometimes it won't work when my phone is slow downloading pictures that have been posted on the page - when that's finally done it will work - I don't know whether that might be the case for you?
 
Thank you A Sparks for your suggestion.I hope you don’t mind but I have shown on the above what happens.Maybe I should be clicking on something else as well but if so I haven’t found the right one.
 
Thank you Janice,I see what you mean.When I came back to it the name came up before I logged in then reverted once I had.Slow or what ! Thanks for your help and everyone else who has persevered with me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top