Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
The Hen and Chickens (at least prior to 1741 until 1894)
The Making Of Birmingham (Robert Dent, 1894) provides a nice engraving of the Hen and Chickens, by a Samuel Lines from 1833, but only gives a brief mention. A few lines from the book The Taverns of Old Birmingham by E Edwards written in 1879 may be of interest.
The tavern was originally in High Street, the first record may be around 1741 in Aris's Gazette, and described as stabling 70 horses. In 1798 it was in the ownership of Mrs Sarah Lloyd who sold the old premises and moved over the road into New Street...to increase the hotel accommodation in the town. Soon after she sold out to a Mr Waddell.
As early as 1819 it is said that 30 coaches a day left the Hen and Chickens, and 15 to 20 years later the number had doubled. It also housed the Fire Brigade. In 1830. Mr Waddell bought the freehold an erected the portico....receipts from beds alone was 800 pounds per year
Talking in 1879 Edwards says that within the last few months the whole place has been entirely re-modeled and the frontage would not be recognised, being converted to a commodious restaurant.
Some of the visitors to the Inn are listed....William McCready (theatre), 1829 and 1843 Daniel O'Connell (first Roman Catholic MP since Reformation), 1857 Crown Prince Oude, 1863 Prince Louis of Hesse, as well as Charles Dickens and many great actors. Literary men such as Wordsworth, Southey and Thackery, and musicians aplenty.
"Gillott (of steel pen fame) was a frequent morning visitor into the bar for a half glass, and never had more, of bitter ale; and he had his own glass, which no one else was permitted to drink. He and a few others came every night for about an hour to the little smoking room at the back, from which Gillott regularly adjourned to the Theatre."
"At this time, too, the office-room was the special rendezvous of "Young Birmingham." It was here 20 years ago that the young bloods came in the morning for a "B and S" or a glass of "Divy Shewwy"...they nicknamed the place as "The Fowls." (The young bloods)...when the streets were crowded would heat half pence on a fire shovel and scatter them from the upper windows amongst the people below...great amusement being had at the antics of those who found the coppers hot.
It is interesting that in 1879 he remarks, "Nowadays you are not a guest, you are only a customer."
In December 1894 the Newspaper carried the headline...Hen and Chikens; Last of a Birmingham Hotel.
...will close its doors after Christmas in order that the ground be cleared for the erection of King Edwards High School for Girls...for a few years past it has occupied a very humble, and been a casual, corner of Birmingham life...but now it is about to disappear there are many who will regret the loss of such an important landmark in Birmingham's history