• 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

Mermaid Inn Warwick Road.

Funny pub the Mermaid,and definetely stood out from the norm.I remember bands playing back in the 80s,but as a drinking establishment it went down hill fast.No idea why,maybe others have a better idea?

In 1988 I went to look at it,the tennancy was available,and the tennants just wanted to leave fast.During the 10 minutes it took us to drink a half we saw the barman evict 2 drunks,half of the drinkers present.Needless to say we never took it over.
 
Tali do the letters stand for VERY IMPORTANT PERSON (OK) I pass the Mermaid PUB quite often and wonder what it must have been like to stand there every morning hope you would get a shift of work, as i said my Dad was one of the lucky ones and he moved on ,but even today i see sad faces of people passing the Mermaid who were not as lucky as my Dad and your Friend :)

Yes they do :)
 
There is an early 1950's photo of the Mermaid i posted a couple of months ago. Think it was in one of my "When Was This?" competitions.
 

Attachments

  • Sparkbrook Mermaid Stratford Rd  (2).jpg
    Sparkbrook Mermaid Stratford Rd (2).jpg
    134.9 KB · Views: 41
Last edited:
Passed by The Mermaid ,Warwick rd , and a large part of it appears to have burned down !
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just looked on Google street scene , the pub i am talking about was renamed The President , and its half burned down . Any info . Max
 
The Mermaid, Sparkhill.jpg The Mermaid pub, now called The President, Stratford Road, Sparkhill, Birmingham, England. Built as a public house, with pub sign, c 1960, sculpted by Alan Bridgwater (attributed) and other carvings by William Bloye. Damaged by fire. Len.
 
Yes Stitcher is right Freda Cox did run the Dolphin in the 60's, but in the early 50's she ran The New Inns on Moseley Rd at the top of Edward Rd. My mother used to work there as a cleaner and while she worked I would sit and play on the piano upstairs. Freda would often come in with a glass of Lemonade and a bag of Smiths for me.

Lencops you are also correct about the Mermaid, except for the date you quoted 1965. Both pub & sign have been there a lot longer than that. This photo was taken in 1885.

Phil
Lost Photo replaced by same photo

SparkhillStratfordRdMermaidCabRankc1885.jpg

Sparkhill Mermaid Cab Stand 1895  .jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
When I lived in Brum the Mermaid was the starting point of my annual Christmas Eve cycle bash to Warwick and back. As a kiddie I swore that I'd do that Christmas Eve ride every day of my life little knowing that I'd leave Brum for good in 1966, Graham.:(
 
Last edited:
hi graham
are you really sorry you left brum for good and also seeing the old mermaid reduced to the state it is in today makes my heart weep
to see how that building and in fact to see the whole area become derict from was a great area and post card picturesess to the run down envoiranmental state its in today

in fact the whole of the south side of the city is a complete mess if you asked me even pershore rd as gone to the dogs i was previuosly told by
some one 12 moths ago that selly park was going to be big and up coming since the close of the bbc its just the oppersite
its about time the council got to gripps with these private land lords letting all these students and landlord responible for all there past and present tennants dumping rubbish all around selly park but they are very quick to pick out and on the council tennants for dumping but not the private sector
and i know that to be a fact best wishes astonion
 
Astonian, I'm only sorry that I had to leave Brum for good because it had nothing more to offer me in my chosen sport and profession; cycling. I now live in a country that is cycling crazy and as an ex cycling champion the people here hold me in great esteem, that alone made my move worthwhile. The sight of the area now convinces me that moving out was the best move in my life.

On my visit to the Birmingham History Forum 60's night I brought one of my Belgian grandsons with me and showed him the area his granddad grew up in, I was ashamed! If they had restored the area instead of pulling it down it would have looked lovely today.:(

Sorry if this is off topic but it is still to do with the history of the area and should be recorded, Graham.
 
Hi graham
you are quite rightly in what you are saying and it is part of your history and of ours being brummies and being born and bred
here for each and every one of us on this forum to look back and reflecton our childhood days whether they be good or bad
i also moved to the country and i have no desire to move back to brum to live
i only go back to see my brothers and sisters from time to time and for work commitments is my reason for going into brum
i think once you have experience the country life style you can adappted to it and you ajust to it but i know of some people they try it but cannot ajust to it and they movbe back i had my taste for it many years ago when i lived in honeybourne from time to time
just aqfter the war in a cottage with no running water and no electrics we had big candles and the fresh water from our garden well
and the village life also i spent time in a village life in wales
graham have yourself a good day best wishes astonion
 
I've noticed that they are repairing the roof on The President / The Mermaid. Second time now (as it was repaired / restored after the first arson, only to go up in flames again a few years ago). Needs new window panes to replace the ones blown out.

Hope it doesn't get set on fire again.

Meanwhile, what's going to happen to that shop site opposite which burnt down earlier this year? They have left demolition rubble and done nothing since.
 
The Mermaid pub in the 50's & 60's was where the mostly Irish building workers congregated in the early mornings if they needed a job on the building gangs by the day or the week. My husband was one of them.

They got paid by the agents in the pub at night and most of the Irish lived in that area too.

We went through that way last year and was quite shocked at how the place had deteriorated.

All those memories, and now most of the places they built in Birmingham are being demolished.

What are your memories Sparkhill lad?

I am heading a project for Birmingham Irish Association about the contribution of the Irish to the building of the city, i would love to capture your memories of your husband and the work he done, especially memories of being picked up outside the Mermaid. I look forward to hearing from you Yvonne,
please don't use your email address for replies, instead please use the private message way, thanks.
 
Evening louisa

I remember vividly a chap called Tony Warburton (no relation to the loaf people, who knows) who was the son of the landlord at the time, this would be 1960-2.

He had a garage at the rear of the Mernaid, he asked my friend and I to wire it as at the time we were apprentice electricians.
Many free drinks followed.:redface:

Another Irish friend we had was Tony O'hagan who came from Newrey and stayed with us as our lodger for about 18months.
Tony took myself over to visit his family in Ireland and toured with an accordian band.8)

There were several boxers/wrestlers living in the area, the Levey brothers Mike and Seamus were the ones I remember the most.
We would watch the fights just down the road at the Embassy in Waldorf Road.

Good times.

Derek
Hi Derek
Did you run a lodging house?
 
The Mermaid pub in the 50's & 60's was where the mostly Irish building workers congregated in the early mornings if they needed a job on the building gangs by the day or the week. My husband was one of them.

They got paid by the agents in the pub at night and most of the Irish lived in that area too.

We went through that way last year and was quite shocked at how the place had deteriorated.

All those memories, and now most of the places they built in Birmingham are being demolished.

What are your memories Sparkhill lad?
Hi i used to wait outside mermaid early in the morning for a days work or if you were lucky you might have got a week or so. I used to live just up the road from pub on madeley road and also went to golden hillock school my dad also called willie gallagher used to drink in all local pubs mermaid. The sportsman. The black horse was his favourite he was very well known by the irish community especially around that area do you remember that cafe owned by maltese joe opposite the mermaid i used to go in there and play on this really old tic tac toe one armed bandit cos you could put the old 5p in it the cafe was known as football joes cafe cant remember the pub owners but the sportman was owned by the farrels at the time the daughter was called sharon farrel
 
Last edited:
Hi william
are you related to seamus and Ann gallagher once the owners of the old monica pub
monica road small heath way back in time then went to the pub on stratford road
best wishes Astonian;;;;
 
In January 1972, at the age of 21, in the middle of the Power worker's "go slow", which caused a 6 hour blackout every day, I ran from home during a family crisis and ended up in Birmingham for 6 days before I came home again, and while there I found three days work by hanging around the front yard of the Mermaid waiting to see if a sub contractor or "subbie" would pick me up for work, at £4 for an 8 hour day. On the first day, a thursday, there were about 20 men waiting there in the cold and most of them got collected by regular subbie gangs, leaving about 5 of us who gave up at about 09:00 and waited in a nearby cafe and got to know each other, and a nice little Irish guy called Chris, with long straight black hair and some front teeth missing advised that one subbie yet might come along and sure enough, a tall serious chap with a big black coat and curly hair and strong accent soon poked his head around the door and asked who could "drive" a shovel. I though he meant a JCB but it was just a metaphor for a bit of hard digging and Chris told me to put up my hand anyway and he took all 5 of us in his grey Consul Classic about 7-8 miles out to a housing estate under construction.
One day driving home he had 9 of us in that car in the pouring rain, and the wipers had bust, but he got us home without hitting anybody, using a technique of hitting the brakes when the red lights of the car in front got brighter, as that was all you could see. I can't remember his name, but he had a mate about the same height with curly red hair, whom we called "Red".
All sorts of funny things would go wrong, especially things like service pipes and border markings getting buried and lost by accident, and our group of hand shovellers had to dig them up again!

This was life on the "lump" as this kind of work was called, and I spent another three mornings at the Mermaid front yard, and on friday evening to get paid, I went inside where the subbie had set up his pay station actually inside the pub!

I seem to remember in those days the "Mermaid" featured a prominent and colourful statue of a mermaid, right in the top centre of the main frontage, in the style of a ship's figurehead. However I can't find any photographic evidence, all that shows in photos is a bas relief. Is my mind playing tricks on me?

The subbie activity at the Mermaid was featured a few months later in a TV "expose" about tax avoidance, but nothing illegal was done at the time. They were nice guys to work with and paid you promptly. I had to go home without the last two days pay but went back several months later and the subbie still had it waiting for me and wrote me a cheque on Allied Irish Banks.

One website implies that all the Mermaid subbies actually only worked for the J J Gallagher construction firm, can anyone back this up?

By Ben McDonnell
 
Welcome Ben. An interesting post, thanks. We could do with someone posting a few close-up photos of the 'statue' to see if it actually was one. Be nice to confirm one way or the other.

Hopefully someone can answer your question about Gallagher's. Enjoy the forum. Viv.
 
Hi,
I wonder if anyone has info on the "Mermaid" Inn Warwick Road, Yardley?
Is it still there by any chance ??

Regards,
Margaret.
Hi, The Mermaid was one of my drinking haunts in my younger days (60s-70s) After it shut it became a restaurant, pity really it was a good pub.
 
Hi Ben

A lot of the subbies worked for JJ, but he wasn't the only one who employed them in fact most of the main contractors in the building trade in Birmingham used lump labour until or was stopped with 715 certificates. The Mermaid wasn't the only preferred pick up point, it was only one of many.c1960  The Mermaid Stratford Rd.jpg
 
In January 1972, at the age of 21, in the middle of the Power worker's "go slow", which caused a 6 hour blackout every day, I ran from home during a family crisis and ended up in Birmingham for 6 days before I came home again, and while there I found three days work by hanging around the front yard of the Mermaid waiting to see if a sub contractor or "subbie" would pick me up for work, at £4 for an 8 hour day. On the first day, a thursday, there were about 20 men waiting there in the cold and most of them got collected by regular subbie gangs, leaving about 5 of us who gave up at about 09:00 and waited in a nearby cafe and got to know each other, and a nice little Irish guy called Chris, with long straight black hair and some front teeth missing advised that one subbie yet might come along and sure enough, a tall serious chap with a big black coat and curly hair and strong accent soon poked his head around the door and asked who could "drive" a shovel. I though he meant a JCB but it was just a metaphor for a bit of hard digging and Chris told me to put up my hand anyway and he took all 5 of us in his grey Consul Classic about 7-8 miles out to a housing estate under construction.
One day driving home he had 9 of us in that car in the pouring rain, and the wipers had bust, but he got us home without hitting anybody, using a technique of hitting the brakes when the red lights of the car in front got brighter, as that was all you could see. I can't remember his name, but he had a mate about the same height with curly red hair, whom we called "Red".
All sorts of funny things would go wrong, especially things like service pipes and border markings getting buried and lost by accident, and our group of hand shovellers had to dig them up again!

This was life on the "lump" as this kind of work was called, and I spent another three mornings at the Mermaid front yard, and on friday evening to get paid, I went inside where the subbie had set up his pay station actually inside the pub!

I seem to remember in those days the "Mermaid" featured a prominent and colourful statue of a mermaid, right in the top centre of the main frontage, in the style of a ship's figurehead. However I can't find any photographic evidence, all that shows in photos is a bas relief. Is my mind playing tricks on me?

The subbie activity at the Mermaid was featured a few months later in a TV "expose" about tax avoidance, but nothing illegal was done at the time. They were nice guys to work with and paid you promptly. I had to go home without the last two days pay but went back several months later and the subbie still had it waiting for me and wrote me a cheque on Allied Irish Banks.

One website implies that all the Mermaid subbies actually only worked for the J J Gallagher construction firm, can anyone back this up?

By Ben McDonnell
 
You are right, my father in law at the time used to wait outside hoping to be picked by a a company called 'Commando' I always seemed to end up at the Longbridge motor works scraping paint off the floors in the ovens ..
 
hi
Hi there Ben,
there was more than one subbie there outside the mermaid taking on men it was not only gallie
there was the JJ Gallagher ,the doyles and the murthys and of course Mc Alpines
and there was the joyces the Browns and Mc veighs
they was the subbies gangers
but they came in at a later stages they was the gangers
Murphys main yard was at the top of park road hockley on the corner of factory road
Murphy was the higher payer conpared to gallie
gallie paid low rates but he always bought his lads a breakfast as part of the deal and give them afew bob
Murthy would give his men a daily rate of 25 quid if they wanted it but his men would buy there breakfast
before they got to be picked up and they would fry there bacon and eggs on a large shovel
over a fire
but asking for the sub every day at the end of the shift they was always in debt to the gaffer
and they meant to turn out for work every day as they owed the gaffer
when the men got dropped off and got there shillings in there hand off they went to there varius pubs
depending where they came from
stratford road was either the black horse the queens head Mc veighs own pub or the bear
small heath the monic pub , the george and dragon opersite the small heath park
The small heath was another pick up point at the hay mills taveren my ex brother inlaw
bi frank brown was the driver when they was building the exhibition centre at the birmingham air port
but back in the early years it was the old jig saw club on alum rock jst up from the gate pub
and the golden gloves , they was alway jammed packed
The mcveighs owned there own pubs ,and so did Doyles , and browns
The Oconors was there huge truck contactors , they ended up with numerous pubs
Best wishes Astonian,,,,,
 
I never knew Mandy Rice Davies personally but often saw her driving in Solihull in a powder blue convertible.
One of her close friends (female) worked with me at Wilmot Breeden's Research labs at Umberslade Park.

OldBrummie.
 
Back
Top