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Smethwick

Apparently they tried to reinforce the building with steel girders inside, and made it unsafe instead. They probably shouldn't have dug the cellar out either! Finally it was just a shell.
 
rosie said:
Apparently they tried to reinforce the building with steel girders inside, and made it unsafe instead. They probably shouldn't have dug the cellar out either! Finally it was just a shell.
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Have tube very careful digging the cellar out on older buildings, you never know what you are going to find!
 
It's sad to see so many of those old landmark pubs gone forever.

Unfortuantely, these buildings are often over 100 years and the effects on the wooden structure content from nicotine and other chemicals in combination, damaged many of these once pristine buildings so badly, that most could never go through a simple refurbishment. Pretty much only the shell is ever salvageable, so it takes a professional team with the proper equipment to stabilize the buildings while the old failing structure is removed and new is installed.

I was happy to see that our cousin Freddie and Gilly Games' last pub, the Shelton Inn in Halesowen, does live on beyond their retirement and subsequent passings. That building was originally an old mill and it was turned into apartments.

FWIW, in downtown Detroit and some other cities, old buildings are shored up at the front with heavy steel structures to maintain the facade and entrances, while a new building is constructed behind and tied to the piece of history facing the street.
 
always sad to see another pub demolished...an usual shape to the pheasant...does anyone know when it was built

lyn
 
I was thinking about Smethwick earlier today and recalled seeing a listing in the back of one of my Alton's Birmingham Books for "Joe Russell's Smethwick" as shown in the listing image below from the back cover inside page.

I don't have a copy of that publication, but for those interested specifically in Smethwick, maybe there's one out there somewhere!

These are the Birmingham Books in my personal home stash, some of which appear to be the source for quite a number of the photographs that I've seen posted in the forums. I should have a book, "Birmingham 50 years On", or similar title around here somewhere too.

Martin
 

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MartinS said:
FWIW, in downtown Detroit and some other cities, old buildings are shored up at the front with heavy steel structures to maintain the facade and entrances, while a new building is constructed behind and tied to the piece of history facing the street.
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Despite the wholesale slaughter of beautiful buildings in Birmingham, that has happened a few times here as well - here is an example in Paradise Street facing the Town Hall, a former shops & office front remains while a new main building was constructed behind it.

Paradise Street .jpg
 
Richard Dye said:
Srokkie, that is what we call in the US ”snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”!
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A traditional pub obviously needs a cellar, but I guess many younger people are unfamiliar with these. I never drank there, but went to The Thimble Mill, The Abbey, Bear Hotel for music, Kings Head, The Talbot (Dirty Bett’s), The Hen and Chickens, and on the High Street, The Red Cow. Some of these survive.
 
Stokkie said:
A traditional pub obviously needs a cellar, but I guess many younger people are unfamiliar with these. I never drank there, but went to The Thimble Mill, The Abbey, Bear Hotel for music, Kings Head, The Talbot (Dirty Bett’s), The Hen and Chickens, and on the High Street, The Red Cow. Some of these survive.
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In the older or traditional pubs the cellar was really there to keep the beer cool, today the beer is is kept in coolers in kegs under the counter or close by.
 
Lloyd said:
Despite the wholesale slaughter of beautiful buildings in Birmingham, that has happened a few times here as well - here is an example in Paradise Street facing the Town Hall, a former shops & office front remains while a new main building was constructed behind it.

View attachment 171887
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Lloyd, that's a beautiful example of retained architecture that needs to be maintained and appreciated instead of facing the wrecking ball, only to be replaced by faceless reflective mirror glass frontages that are so popular world-wide today.

Thanks for posting.
 
That was the front of the old queens college before it was demolished. There are photos of the demolition on my thread Birmingham 1969-73. Cannot seem to give exaxt link as am on mobile
 
Stokkie said:
A traditional pub obviously needs a cellar, but I guess many younger people are unfamiliar with these. I never drank there, but went to The Thimble Mill, The Abbey, Bear Hotel for music, Kings Head, The Talbot (Dirty Bett’s), The Hen and Chickens, and on the High Street, The Red Cow. Some of these survive.
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When my wife's cousin Freddie ran the Shelton Inn in Halesowen before retiring, he took me down for a tour of his pride and joy, the well-organized cellar, maintained at I believe was 56 degrees. A large pipe affectionately known as the "Python" ran from the barrel piping, up around the wall of the staircase, into the bar and lounge. The building was originally a mill, fed from the adjacent stream.

The Python was constructed of multiple tubes in one, with the centremost being the coolest, carrying almost icy lager, and progressively, the outer tubes carrying other beers at rather less frigid temperatures, to please the British pallate, for what North Americans affectionately describe as "warm beer".

There's widely accepted "mythbelief" in NA about Joseph Lucas vehicle electrical systems being rubbish and one associated with, "Why do the English drink warm beer?" "Because they have Lucas refrigerators".

Martin
 
Richard Dye said:
In the older or traditional pubs the cellar was really there to keep the beer cool, today the beer is is kept in coolers in kegs under the counter or close by.
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Richard, yes, I suspect that when this pub was demolished and rebuilt in 1930s, the Victorian cellar was retained. Most beer is in keg under gas, but some ales are in metal casks without gas. I know some breweries who still deliver with horses, but I’m less sure who might still retain barrels. I’m currently in Norfolk where cask beer is widely available. The British tradition of warm beer survives. https://camra.org.uk/learn-discover/discover/00IM
 
Marston’s Pedigree in barrels…

www.marstonsbrewery.co.uk

Brewery film festival pulls in the crowds - Marstons

With just two weeks to the closing date for entries at the end of this month, our audacious plan to combine cultural pursuits with drinking beer – Beer Town Film Festival – has already attracted over 600 entries from around the UK. Working in partnership on the film festival with Burton and...
www.marstonsbrewery.co.uk www.marstonsbrewery.co.uk
 
Two pubs in the Black Country survive. Ma Pardoes in Netherton and The Crooked House in Himley. The latter has an extension on a concrete raft which isn’t crooked, which misses the point.
 
Stokkie said:
Richard, yes, I suspect that when this pub was demolished and rebuilt in 1930s, the Victorian cellar was retained. Most beer is in keg under gas, but some ales are in metal casks without gas. I know some breweries who still deliver with horses, but I’m less sure who might still retain barrels. I’m currently in Norfolk where cask beer is widely available. The British tradition of warm beer survives. https://camra.org.uk/learn-discover/discover/00IM
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Stokkie, back in 2000, one of the units I was running what is the largest manufacturer of beer kegs in the US. They were made out of 304 stainless steel and while we made a lot of kegs in the US it was nothing compared to the European manufacturers. During the eight years running that business unit, I got so much different feedback from different breweries.The warm beer irony in the US he’s actually a bit of a myth. Most breweries recommend that the beer is is served between 45 and 48° F, which is just a little cooler than many cellars in the UK. In the US there has been a resurgence of what are called craft beers, this brings them much closer to the beer from the UK. As long as they are cool and wet and taste good, I’m OK with that :)
 
Stokkie said:
Two pubs in the Black Country survive. Ma Pardoes in Netherton and The Crooked House in Himley. The latter has an extension on a concrete raft which isn’t crooked, which misses the point.
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I remember the crooked house when it was genuine and you could truly be puzzled by a coin apparently running uphill on a table. Then they refurbished it and put in artificial crookedness which was exaggerated. Not the same
 
mikejee said:
I remember the crooked house when it was genuine and you could truly be puzzled by a coin apparently running uphill on a table. Then they refurbished it and put in artificial crookedness which was exaggerated. Not the same
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I seem to remember the Crooked House, when did they refurbish it approximately?
 
Richard Dye said:
Stokkie, back in 2000, one of the units I was running what is the largest manufacturer of beer kegs in the US. They were made out of 304 stainless steel and while we made a lot of kegs in the US it was nothing compared to the European manufacturers. During the eight years running that business unit, I got so much different feedback from different breweries.The warm beer irony in the US he’s actually a bit of a myth. Most breweries recommend that the beer is is served between 45 and 48° F, which is just a little cooler than many cellars in the UK. In the US there has been a resurgence of what are called craft beers, this brings them much closer to the beer from the UK. As long as they are cool and wet and taste good, I’m OK with that :)
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Richard, we have an ‘American’ craft beer trend running here, which seems to mean very hopped IPA. I’m happy to drink beer in different styles too. Like wine, stainless vats have proved to be clean and practical, Derek
 
Richard Dye said:
I seem to remember the Crooked House, when did they refurbish it approximately?
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Their website is down at the moment. The building was condemned in the 1940s and shored up. I saw it first in the early 1970s, and more lately about 8 years ago. I think it has had work done on it several times to prevent collapse. As well as perhaps to make it like a 1920s expressionist film!
 
Stokkie said:
Richard, we have an ‘American’ craft beer trend running here, which seems to mean very hopped IPA. I’m happy to drink beer in different styles too. Like wine, stainless vats have proved to be clean and practical, Derek
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Love it! I happen to be drinking a Sweetwater IPA and will have a glass of Pino with my dinner, which is my wife’s stir fry…
Cheers!
 
Stokkie said:
Their website is down at the moment. The building was condemned in the 1940s and shored up. I saw it first in the early 1970s, and more lately about 8 years ago. I think it has had work done on it several times to prevent collapse. As well as perhaps to make it like a 1920s expressionist film!
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I think I went there late 50’s or maybe 60/61, really just to see it, not my usual stomping grounds.
 
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