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The Bull's Head, Birchfield Road

Barr_Beacon

Barr_Beacon

The Prodigal Brummie
I passed The Bull's Head every day on my work in Birmingham and I always said I'd go in for a pint, it was a traditional Victorian corner terrace pub. The pub has been closed for over twelve months because I assumed, for refurbishment.

The Birmingham Mail has recently reported that it will shortly be reopen, as........... a mosque.

All the building work was carried out without permission on probably what was a listed building. Birmingham City council said if they had known what the new owners had planned to do they would not have approved planning permission. It has only come to the attention of the council recently because the new owners have applied for retrospective planning permission for the building. The council reluctantly granted it explaining that it was better to have a full mosque than an empty pub.
 
yes jean as "the Star" was no. 90 birchfield rd (near chain walk) and "bulls head" was 101 birchfield rd.

i went out with a boy whose family ran the bulls head in the late 60`s. his name was david cooper. he would never take me home as he said he was ashamed. :rolleyes: i dont know if he was ashamed of the conditions in the pub or his mom and dad!
 
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Thanks for that Chris. I know somebody's brother who didn't take me home to meet his parents:rolleyes::rolleyes: but he did ask. Pete said he remembers years back they were both rough pubs and he only went a couple of times. Jean.
 
I knew the Williams family who kept The Bull's Head in the 1950's and early 1960's. I think they moved to The Kingstanding at some stage, probably around 1961-2. Keith Williams (who I was at school with) became as I recall the youngest licensee in Birmingham when he took on a pub in Wellington Road - sorry, I can't remember its name.

The Bull's Head was a pretty rough place even in the late fifties. Most nights there was a punch-up, but judging by his size and general demeanour Mr Williams was up to the task of keeping some semblance of order.

Big Gee
 
Wild horses wouldn't drag me into The Kingstanding these days, Jean, but back in the 1960's when I first embarked upon my career of, ahem, ale-sampling, it was all right-ish when Mr Williams ran it.

Strangely enough, the pubs in Summer Lane were safer than the large estate boozers which cropped up all around Brum.

Big Gee
 
My Dad was brought up in South Grove, off Fentham Road and my Grandad, by all accounts, used to spend pretty much every night in the Bulls Head.

Towards the end of his life my Grandad (still living in South Grove) claimed he used to go out less and less. I remember one Christmas my dad picking him up and taking us round to our house in Great Barr.

'What did you do last night, dad?', asked my dad

'Nothing, watched the telly and had a tin of beef broth'

We all feel suitably sympathetic.

Boxing Day my dad takes him back home and they go for a drink in the Bulls Head. There's photos on the wall from Christmas Eve, with grandad, hat on side of head, doing the conga.

'I thought you had a tin of beef broth?'


'I might have popped out for a couple!'
 
Big Gee said:
I knew the Williams family who kept The Bull's Head in the 1950's and early 1960's. I think they moved to The Kingstanding at some stage, probably around 1961-2. Keith Williams (who I was at school with) became as I recall the youngest licensee in Birmingham when he took on a pub in Wellington Road - sorry, I can't remember its name.

The Bull's Head was a pretty rough place even in the late fifties. Most nights there was a punch-up, but judging by his size and general demeanour Mr Williams was up to the task of keeping some semblance of order.

Big Gee
Click to expand...
Hello big gee just spotted your post and guess what I"m keith williams!! Who are you?
 
Shera said:
yes jean as "the Star" was no. 90 birchfield rd (near chain walk) and "bulls head" was 101 birchfield rd.

i went out with a boy whose family ran the bulls head in the late 60`s. his name was david cooper. he would never take me home as he said he was ashamed. :rolleyes: i dont know if he was ashamed of the conditions in the pub or his mom and dad!
Click to expand...
My dad sidny chilton was the last landlord of the Stat hotel and it was opersit the Bull. I can remember as a small child playing and looking out of the window and being taken to school via chain walk to alma Street school
 
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