Crown And Cushion Pubs Perry Barr

[Pedrocut]

The Crown and Cushion is listed in Pigot's Directory of 1835 but not that of 1829 so must have been built when the road was turnpiked! If there was an earlier Inn it obviously did not merit the name. In 1835 it was just Crown and Cushion run by Sarah Ryley (Perry Barr).
Janice

This is intersting as in #42 during the year 1848, in the Birmingham Daily Post, there is not only a mention of the Crown and Cushion, but also the sale of the Lease of the Old Crown and Cushion. This states that the Inn had been a success for over half a century, bringing it to around 1800.

Of course there is a possibility that both of these mentions could refer to the same place, but still the Inn may be quite old.

 

[Vivienne14]

This is nice. The grounds of the old C&C were used for concerts. This advert calls it a Grand Concert and suggests there was a green too. Expect this was behind the old C&C where the later large 1930s C&C was built. And the procedes from the concert went to the Perry Barr Reservists Fund. Viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

Why would a pub/inn be called the Crown & Cushion? Anyone know? Does this give us any clues as to its age? Viv.

 

[Pedrocut]

Also in #42 I posted....

"In January 1870 there was an advert…Strayed, a White SWAN. If not owned in three days, will be sold to pay expenses…Apply, Crown and Cushion, Perry Barr. (No Joke!)."

I was amazed to discover this today...

 

[pjmburns]

Not sure this helps but an 1889 map appears to show Old Crown and Cushion with other buildings which seem to lie flush.
Janice

 

[pjmburns]

Why would a pub/inn be called the Crown & Cushion? Anyone know? Does this give us any clues as to its age? Viv.

I always assumed it was a reference to the crown carried on a cushion at coronations and other royal state occasions.
Janice

 

[Vivienne14]

Thanks Janice.

I think another factor in the life of the old C&C must have been the opening of the Perry Barr Station in 1838 as part of the Grand Junction line to Liverpool. This part of Perry Barr must have been a hive of activity with the turnpike road and the railway. The C&C must have benefitted enormously and possibly expanded in response to these developments. Viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

I always assumed it was a reference to the crown carried on a cushion at coronations and other royal state occasions.
Janice

Thanks Janice. Maybe it was named to mark one of the following two coronations:

Geo 3rd 1761 - unlikely, unless the building was later modified/extended/rebuilt
Geo 4th 1821 - possible, we have evidence in post #60 taking us back to 1824. The pub in the photos has Victorian exterior features, so I assume in the mid/late 1800s the exterior of the pub was embellished or changed.

We now need evidence to take us back to 1800ish.

Viv.

 

[mikejee]

I have tried to enhance the original OS drawing of 1817. It seems to show something at the junction

 

[Pedrocut]

here is a comparison from the Evening Despatch from August 1939, it shows in one the same view as the drawing of the Toll House...note it says seen from junction of Birchfield Road and Aston Lane

 

[Vivienne14]

Thanks Pedrocut. A nice comparison.

Mike thanks for the 1817 map. I think the building looks different in shape compared to the 1834 map. Comparison here - 1817 map to the right. Viv.

 

[Vivienne14]

This 1910 photo of the C&C shows the pub was called the 'Old' C&C (see name board at the side of the pub). But for it to be given the title 'Old' in 1910, how old would it have to be? 100 years? Or more? Viv.

 

[Pedrocut]

This is the 1887 OS section, have I placed it in the same orientation as the picture of the Old Crown and Cushion?

The tram line runs down Birchfield Road and onward stopping before the station. In an article in the Mail for 1915 entitled "The Origin of Aston Villa" it states that they took over the ground opposite the Old Crown and Cushion in Wellington Road at Perry Barr, and cricket was abandoned.

This 1910 photo of the C&C shows the pub was called the 'Old' C&C (see name board at the side of the pub). But for it to be given the title 'Old' in 1910, how old would it have to be? 100 years? Or more? Viv.

View attachment 108226

 

[Vivienne14]

Helpful map - thanks Pedrocut. I've used it to compare the footprint of the building( s) with Mikejee's 1817 map and with the 1834 map. Below are the enlarged sections showing the building(s).

It seems to have changed shape between 1817 and 1834. In 1817 it looks more like a cluster of buildings around a forecourt or at the end of a track leading onto Birchfield Road. Wellington Road does not exist at this point in time and some of the building(s) look to be straddling what was to become Wellington Road. I wondered if the buildings might have included stables? If they are straddling the later Wellington Road, they must have been demolished to make way for the road.

In 1834 the frontage along Birchfield Road seems to have been extended (moving in the direction of Perry Barr station). Was this a response to turnpiking the road in 1831 ? It would have been a busy thoroughfare by this time.

Between 1834 and 1887 it was further enlarged at the rear. (Or was it rebuilt?) Was this to add a function room ? Did this take place around the time the Grand Junction railway came to Perry Barr in 1838?

Also Wellington Road had, by 1887, come into existence.nAnd as Pedrocut mentions the tram had arrived too, passing in front of the C&C. This all adds up to a very busy position within Perry Barr Village.

Viv.

 

[Pedrocut]

The Crown and Cushion is listed in Pigot's Directory of 1835 but not that of 1829 so must have been built when the road was turnpiked! If there was an earlier Inn it obviously did not merit the name. In 1835 it was just Crown and Cushion run by Sarah Ryley (Perry Barr).
Janice

 

[Pedrocut]

Tolls to be Let...

Meeting of Trustees for making a Turnpike Road from the north side of of the Quarry House, in the township of Perry Barr, in the county of Stafford, to the brook which divides the parishes of Aston just Birmingham and Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, will be held at the Crown and Cushion Inn, in Handsworth, on Friday the 14th day of June 1833....the tolls to arise at the Perry Barr and Aston gates, and Birchfield Bar, erected on the said road will be LET by AUCTION....

This at least tells us that the toll gate was erected in 1833, and the Crown and Cushion existed. I would think that the Inn was the Old CC and that the "Old" was sometimes dropped. The chance of two Inns at that time would be remote.

 

[Pedrocut]

From Evening Despatch 8 February 1939.

 

[Pedrocut]

March 1869

 

[Lady Penelope]

Parker used to go occasionally when he worked in Perry Barr, leaving do's Christmas etc. I only went once, before we were married, about 1974 when we went to see Harvey Andrews. Anyone else go that night?

 

[Big Gee]

Mohawk,

that's the bit of the old Birchfield Road with the traffic heading towards the city-centre just before the junction with Aston Lane and Wellington Road. I can just remember having an eye-test at the optician's shop. The caption also vindicates my claim that the 'old' Crown & Cushion was the small terraced pub, and not the large stand-alone place on the other side of the road, at the corner of Birchfield Road and Wellington Road, which we always knew as the 'new' Crown & Cushion. Some rotten-looking old bangers at the front of the car 'showroom', too! All of the buildings on the left side of the photo were swept away when the underpass was built. The traffic-jams on the Birchfield Road were legendary way back then. I'm trying to figure out from just where the photo was taken. Maybe the top of Birchfield Library?

G

 

[oldMohawk]

Thanks Big Gee,
I generally got off the bus outside Dodds and walked along the pavement to catch the Outer Circle 11 to Witton or to Handsworth. I seem to have not taken much notice of the other side of the road. I am still a bit confused about 'Old and New' Crown and Cushion pubs and will have to look at old maps. Of course most of my memories are from the 1950s so fading a bit ....
oldmohawk
ps. The B'ham Library say the photo is looking south and if they were correct the traffic in the pic would be heading out of the city ...

 

[Astoness]

quite right big gee..the new crown and cushion was 6 down from barclays bank..building still there..there is a little passage way next to it and i used to see the beer barrels stacked up there..been in the pub a few times..last time would have been about 1998

lyn

 

[Big Gee]

Hi Mohawk and Lyn,

My dad and grand-dad both referred to the smaller of the two as the 'old' Crown & Cushion. As I haven't been down that way for ages I don't know if it's still a pub. I have misty memories of walking with my Mom along the other side of Birchfield Rd, past Brookes' Opticians and the car 'showroom' to catch a train to Walsall from Perry Barr station to visit some ancient relative. Our usual optician was Waddoup in Witton Road, but for reasons I can't remember I did once have an eye-test at Brookes.

On the corner of Birchfield Rd and Aston Lane opposite Barclay's Bank, and behind the Library building, was Roy's Bakery. The smells coming out of that place were gorgeous! I was in the Library one evening and overheard the staff complaining about rats from the bakery getting into the Library, although I never saw one. As far as I remember the bakery closed well before the Underpass was built. Another faint memory from those days is of trying to get into the Birchfield Cinema when they showed 'X' films...in short trousers...never did succeed.

G

 

[Vivienne14]

Re post #420

Hopefully this explains the different phases of the Crown & Cushion. The first image shows the original C&C 1 (red) and the 1930s replacement C&C 2 (blue) standing parallel to each other. They were literally spitting distance apart.

The second photo (1962) shows that the original C&C 1 (red) was demolished to make way for the wider Birchfield Road/ Underpass system. The van parked in front C&C 2 (blue) is roughly where the original C&C 1 (red) was positioned. At this point the road was widened. Wellington Road is off to the left of C&C2.

The third photo shows C&C 3 (purple). No longer a pub.

I don't think the pub on the other side of Birchfield Road near the Barclays Bank building was ever a Crown & Cushion. There is still evidence of a pub on the Barclays Bank side of that side but it's now shops. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Viv.

 

[Astoness]

thanks viv and just to round it off the pub at no 353 birchfield road was all the "new crown and cushion"

 

[oldMohawk]

What was the name of the pub to the right of the bus in this pic?
Elsewhere on the forum I've seen it referred to as the 'New Crown & Cushion' because it was built after the 'Old Crown & Cushion' before they built a 'New New Crown & Cushion' behind the 'Old Crown & Cushion'. I've also seen it called the 'Little Crown & Cushion' ... I used to often walk past it and never looked up at it's name !

 

[Vivienne14]

Hi Phil. That pub building - whatever it's name was ! - is still there, now shops. But I didn't think it was ever called the (new/little) C&C . It looks like an Ansells sign outside. The two C&C's across the road were, I think, Atkinsons.

In your photo you can still see the footprint of the Old C&C to the left. Behind that but out of view to the left would have been the 1930s C&C.

If we have any Perry Barr tram terminus photos, the pub to the right will be on those - maybe showing the name.

We need a look up to confirm what the pub to the right was called! Viv.

 

[Astoness]

morning phil..as said in my previous post it was offically called the new crown and cushion...i think its nick name could have been the little crown and cushion but not sure..certainly kellys gives the name of the new crown and cushion..viv see my post 421 and yes it was an ansells pub..the ansells sign was still up until about 5 years back and beer barrels and crates stacked up in the side passage way

lyn

 

[Vivienne14]

Posts have crossed Lyn. Well that means there have been 4 C&Cs! Viv.

 

[Astoness]

yes viv we have always known that but only 3 on the same site..then the smaller one opposite ...i guess that called that the new crown and cushion because the very first one was called the old crown and cushion...never really understood why the need for 2 pubs so close having the same name..most confusing lol