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The Crown (Hill Street - Station Street)

T

tracey.anita

New Member
i'm looking for any information on the history of Crown Pub, Hill Street / Station Street, I've searched the internet but can't find anything from before the 1970s apart from one picture which i stumbled across by accident. If anyone could help I would be grateful.

Thanks :)
 

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hi tracy
I can only say it was abit of a celebity of a pub year ago in time gone bye filled with alsorts from the thearter as it was close bye
also freqented by the railway porters
there was actresses and dancers and alsorts of top personality would quite frequnt the place for a qiuck gin and tonic and freuented by loney rich women
this was up until the early sixtys just before along the way there was a bar hotel i think it was called the midland hotel bar just behind the old new street
and i think it was the old cinephone jacy picture house it used to have a brllient front of the bulding with figurines indivisional in elkhole
above the frontage of the cinema thats where it stod afew yards from the old crown pub as we know of it today
wel some of these thearter people whichwould be tody a clased old time actors and world known i shall not name any because of a time issue
but thats what the place was about a ver thrivng public house and meals serving and this was up until the sixty period when things changed
sadly it got to a down turn in regards of the customes and that is because they built the ALBANY HOTEL JUST MORE OR LESS ABOUT A 1 hundred yards on the other corner from the crown pub the thearter people changed tack and started to book in at the plough and harow hotel on hagley rd and the new one sky high
the albany so that left the rail way porters filling up the place and then the other guys respectle joe blocks and single men of the wrong type i will say
In the mid sixtys the gather and his son whom i knew very well from the free house on summer hill took the crown pub on and rebuilt it with customes
there wa of course upstairs rom where you could have your meals in the hey day of the toftsbut when the other gather took it on and bult trade back
he would put bands on upstairs rock bands some heavvy ones andthen the punk came and went and of course the rott came in
meaning the drugies and the hig way robbers theifes trying to sell goods it got worst but out side in the middle of the rd wa a male toilets
and that where the buck stopped it went onfor years male prostitution solicting by the homesexal s and young guys would get pickd by these older men
the police and the council was aweare of it and then they decided to closed it down i think it was mid seventys that they filled the whole unde ground in
from the deepest part of the ground right up to street level and by then the crown had sunk only the street wise crims freqented it but very few
by then the new part of the city was redezigned with new pubs and clubs around and the albany kept all there dear old rich and lonel women coming
in and siting at the bar for some good loking young man or for a rich client of proffession sorry i do not have any picts but some parts you can get
some one if they have time to shift through the archives of the old pictures and of the story of the solicting public and the pictures of the tolets down below and filled in as the fnished product but i will say in that period of closing and filling in id not detour the male prostitutes as they kept themselves in the shadows and sights of the older guy
whom was looking for the fit young ones for money and i can say aroundthat time there was a well known detective series i the seventys which was a weekly programe
was caught there and prosecuted and his series was stopped these publi toilets was cottages to the weirdos and this guy could always been seen attendingthecottages [ the public toiltes ] out side on the corner of aberdeen street and dudley rd hospital which is now city hospital best wishes Astonian;;
 
It first appears in Kellys directory in 1896, which probably means 1895 as 1896 is year of publication. However previously (Kellys 1896) The General Elliot was on the site, and it may not have been a new building, only a new name. However work on the building next door causing partial collapse of the Elliott gave rise to a court case in 1891, and this may have eventually resulted in rebuilding, though it was still in business in December 1892.. At first it was a William Butler house, and is allegedly designed by Thomas Plevins.
 
Took a picture of The Crown, Hill Street/ Station Street yesterday. Everything was boarded up with coloured panels. "Ozzy woz here" as graffiti on one. Never saw him there, but happy memories of The Grey Cock Folk Club 1977-1980s held there. Peggy Seeger, A. L. Lloyd, Charles Parker (BBC producer Singing the Fishing etc). Ewan MacColl, Red Banner Theatre who staged The Battle of Saltley Gate with black and white photographs of the struggle. MacColl asked 'Did we win?' He got the answer 'I think the police won.' Musical performers included Charles Causley.IMG_2067.jpeg
 
Hopefully is the word, I see that the headline is the pub building, but the first thing is building on the Car park, which should cause no planning problem. The historic building is stage 2, but so often developers do the quick easy bits after they own the site and then say that the rest is too expensive, not practicable, or whatever and likely the main emphasis of the original publicity disappears from view
 
Posted today on the Birmingham Music Archive FB page confirming the Crown should be retained as a listed building at Grade 2 - we will have to see what happens next in Station Street! ....

The contempt & disregard @toyokoinn_japan
have for The Crown & Birmingham is exemplified in their attempt to overturn the @historicengland
& @dcmsgovuk decision to list The Crown. I’m so happy their appeal has been dismissed out of hand. We need to bring this building back to life so we can celebrate the incredible musical history and heritage that has happened here and to inspire the musical history and heritage to come by new generations of Brummies! #music #heavymetal #blacksabbath #birmingham #history #heritage #culture
 
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