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The Hope & Anchor

  • Thread starter Thread starter O.C.
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O.C.

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Anyone that knows anything about the Hope & Anchor Inn in Navigation Street knows the proprietor Mr Robert Edmunds spent most of his life in the Inn from the age of three, taking over the Inn at the age of 16 till well into his 70’s. The Midland Railway Company purchased it in 1886. Mr Edmunds died a few months after it was demolished.
The Hope & Anchor was well know for its political debates and music nights and some of Birmingham’s well know politicians such as Chamberlain, Bright and Muntz frequently held meetings in the large rooms at the back of the Inn. But what the Hope & Anchor is best remembered for is the sick- club and charities it ran and it was Mr Edmunds who started the working men’s collections for the hospitals and started the ‘Artisans’ Penny Fund on behalf of the Queens Hospital plus the patriotic fund for the soldiers fighting in the Crimean War
 

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Hi, very interested to read this, I'm researching my husband's family tree, and Robert Edmunds was his 3x Great Grandfather. We keep finding publicans in our past but I think he is the most distinguished so far!
 
Anyone that knows anything about the Hope & Anchor Inn in Navigation Street knows the proprietor Mr Robert Edmunds spent most of his life in the Inn from the age of three, taking over the Inn at the age of 16 till well into his 70’s. The Midland Railway Company purchased it in 1886. Mr Edmunds died a few months after it was demolished.
The Hope & Anchor was well know for its political debates and music nights and some of Birmingham’s well know politicians such as Chamberlain, Bright and Muntz frequently held meetings in the large rooms at the back of the Inn. But what the Hope & Anchor is best remembered for is the sick- club and charities it ran and it was Mr Edmunds who started the working men’s collections for the hospitals and started the ‘Artisans’ Penny Fund on behalf of the Queens Hospital plus the patriotic fund for the soldiers fighting in the Crimean War
 
I remember it well. I spent much of my grant to attend The Birmingham College of Art between 1956 and 60 in there and The Woodman, round the corner. Wonderful pubs, I was 16 when I first drank there and no one questioned me. Wonderful memories. The Birmingham council philistines should have been banished for pulling it down and the damage they did to the city.
so many great pubs in Birmingham in those days. A few remain.
 
Hi Arthur,

Surely this is a different pub, - aren't you thinking of the Hope and Anchor
in Edmund St?

Kind regards
Dave
 
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