The Crown Hotel, Station Street, Birmingham

Summary

A late-C19 public house, probably by Thomson Plevins (1825-97).

Reasons for Designation

The Crown Hotel, Station Street, Birmingham, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it has a well-composed façade with good quality detailing, unusually curved to its corner plot, making it an attractive and prominent building;

* the separate external entrances are evidence of a time when drinking was segregated;

* overall, the building survives well, retainining internal architectural details including glass porches and the main bar, while upstairs are large public rooms.

Historic interest:

* for its importance in the 1960s folk music revival, and in the late 1960s as the venue where Black Sabbath created their sound which shaped a new internationally popular genre of music; heavy metal.

Group value:

* the Crown is a few doors away from the Grade II listed Old Repertory Theatre, with both buildings sharing patrons and jointly contributing to Birmingham’s cultural life.

History

The Crown Hotel, originally named the General Elliott, is thought to have opened in 1876. Kelly’s 1880 Directory of Birmingham lists the General Elliott as having a William Cutler as its publican, and the Crown was known locally as ‘Cutler’s’ at least into the 1960s. In the 1892 Kelly’s Directory the pub is still named the General Elliott with Cutler as landlord, but by the 1896 directory the name has changed to ‘The Crown’, with William Cutler now a William Butler. It is unclear if this is a misprint of Cutler, or is reference to the local brewer William Butler whose firm in 1898 went on to form Mitchells and Butlers, the brewery which owned the Crown throughout the C20. The pub appears as the General Elliott Hotel on the 1:500 Birmingham town plan of 1885-7, and the 1895 Goad fire plan identifies the attached southern building as a stable block.

The Crown has been attributed to the architect Thomson Plevins (1825-97), best known for the Grade II* Grand Hotel in Birmingham (National Heritage List for England: 1391246). Plevins worked extensively in this part of Birmingham in the late-C19 and was responsible for the two other pubs on Station Street; the Market Hotel and the Victoria. These three pubs share similarly detailed carving in their column capitals and on external panels.

The Crown’s location a few doors along from Birmingham’s Old Repertory Theatre (NHLE: 1034393, Grade II) and directly opposite an entrance to New Street Railway station meant that it was popular with those who worked on the railways and in the theatre. Boxing matches were held upstairs, though the pub is most famous for the musicians who performed there.

In the early 1960s Ian Campbell (1933-2012) ran the Jug of Punch club at the Crown; this was one of the leading clubs of the folk revival of the time. It is here in 1962 that the Ian Campbell Folk Group, which featured famous fiddler Dave Swarbrick (1941-2016), recorded ‘Ceilidh at the Crown’, thought to be the earliest vinyl release of a live recording from a folk club. In 1968 local musician Jim Simpson set up a blues club, ‘Henry’s Blueshouse’ at the Crown to provide exposure for a band he was managing; Bakerloo Blues Line. The club hosted performances by many American blues musicians, as well as British and Irish bands including famous names such as: Christine McVie, Jethro Tull, Judas Priest, John Bonham, Robert Plant, Rory Gallagher, Status Quo and Thin Lizzy.

It was in September 1968 that ‘Earth’, a Birmingham band featuring the four founding members of Black Sabbath (Terence ‘Geezer’ Butler, Tony Iommi, John ‘Ozzy’ Osbourne and Bill Ward) first played at the Henry’s Blueshouse club night at the Crown. Earth became regular performers at the club and Simpson was impressed enough by them to become their manager, a role which he continued through their 1969 name change to Black Sabbath and the release of their first two albums. Earth played on more occasions at the Crown than they did at any other venue, and were playing Black Sabbath material during this period; the song ‘Black Sabbath’ was first played on 1 August 1969 at the Pokey Hole Blues Club at the Robin Hood, Lichfield (demolished in 2000). The Crown was where in late 1969 and early 1970 Earth played some of their very first gigs as Black Sabbath, and where under Jim Simpson’s management, they refined and developed their sound and repertoire. The music that resulted went on to have worldwide cultural influence through shaping the nascent genre of heavy metal.

The Crown continued to host live music throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with UB40 (whose Campbell brothers are the sons of Ian), The Beat and punk band GBH amongst the notable names who played there. The Crown retains examples of graffiti dating from the late 1970s made by the punk clientele of that time.

New first-floor toilets were added in a small extension over the rear yard in the early-C20. A small courtyard between stable block and main building which is shown as open on historic mapping up until the Goad Fire plan surveyed in January 1966 is now roofed over. The venue ceased trading as a public house in 2014, and it has been vacant since then.

Details

A late-C19 public house, probably by Thomson Plevins (1825-97).

MATERIALS: brick walls behind render, slate roofs.

PLAN: The building is irregular in plan, sited in the corner plot between Station Street to the north and Hill Street to the west. The front elevation runs along Station Street from the adjoining number 63 in the north-east, then curves to the south-west around the corner to Hill Street where it ends in a south-east facing gable which is extended under a catslide to the north-east. A rectangular-plan former stable block with gable ends to north-east and south-west adjoins the rear of the Station Street section. The stable block’s south-western gable meets the catslide gable of the main building at right angles.

EXTERIOR: the main building is three stories under a pitched roof. It is served by six brick chimney stacks, with end stacks through the ridge against the gable wall of the adjoining number 63 Station Street and within the south-east gable to Hill Street. The catslide section to the rear has two stacks at its north-west and south-east ends. The stable block is two stories and an attic with a single external chimney to its south-west gable, south of the ridge.

The ground floor of the curving front elevation consists of a series of pilasters with Corinthian capitals which support a frieze with a dentilled cornice. Above the capitals of the two end pilasters are console brackets embellished with carved fruit and foliage, and above these a capping piece with further carving. Between the pilasters and beneath the cornice are mullioned windows with rectangular leaded-lights under an opening toplight. Beneath the windows is a stallriser, then a plinth of varying height in accordance with the ground level which lowers toward the apex of the curve, then rises again once past it. There are four doors: two to Station Street, one at the apex of the curve, and one on Hill Street. The doors are panelled, with a leaded-light transom window, then a larger leaded-light window above that to meet the frieze. A C20 lantern on a scrolled iron bracket is over the south-western Station Street door.

The first and second floors are lit by alternating triple and single windows, with the openings of both upper floors in alignment. The openings in the ground floor don’t align with those above with the exception of the doorway in the curve which is centred on the middle of the triple window groupings of the upper floors. The first-floor windows are C20 replacements, the second-floor windows are one-over-one or two-over-two sashes and are lower in height than windows to the first floor. To both upper floors the triple windows are arranged so that a wider central window is divided from two narrower flanking windows by vertical panels carved with flowers within a lattice. On the first floor, each three-window group has a continuous lintel over it which rises to a round arch over the centre to give the impression of a Venetian window. The first-floor single windows have a triangular pediment over them. At second-floor level the extents of the windows are picked out by console brackets enclosing embossed concentric circles on a frieze board under the eaves.

The rear, south-east facing elevation has the gable end of the pitched roof from the main block to the west end, then the rear of the stable block to the east.

INTERIOR: generally, joinery such as dado and picture rails, skirting and door frames survive, as do some three and four-panelled doors. The public bar rooms have coving to the ceilings. Embossed Lincrusta or Anaglypta style wall and ceiling coverings are visible in some areas. The pub retains some original fireplaces, though others have been removed. Below ground the pub has extensive cellars and storage spaces. A stair with barrel skids leads up to a beer drop in the rear yard to the south-east.

The main entrance is at the corner of Station Street and Hill Street, and opens into a hall-corridor with the main bar to the left, and to the right, two smaller rooms (kitchen and office) with a Victorian open string staircase with slim iron balusters running up between them. The main bar is the principal space on this floor, retaining its Victorian bar and bar back. Rectangular columns support a long beam running the length of the ceiling, and windows look out to Station Street. On the Station Street side of the room is a hexagonal glazed internal porch to an external door. There are various toilets in the former stable block.

The staircase on the right-hand side of the entrance hall rises to a first-floor landing, straight across which is the large front room above the main bar. This front room has windows to Station Street, and large metal ducts raised over the floor. It is one of the two upstairs in which bands played and formerly had a stage to its east end. A hatch in the south wall allows a view into the void which was originally a small open courtyard to the stable block but was roofed over in the late-C20. West of the main room within the curve to the front of the building is a snug bar which has a plaster covered ceiling beam decorated with linear mouldings. Across the landing from the snug is a room used as a dressing room by performers. The rear part of the first floor is the former stable block, which is one open room, and was the other performance space used for live music. A small living room retaining a Victorian fireplace is to the right of the stairs. Behind the stairs are toilets, an early-C20 addition which retains its original tiling. The stairs turn 180 degrees in a ‘U’ shape and continue up to second floor where there is further accommodation, originally bedrooms for the hotel.

Sources

Books and journals
Foster, A, Pevsner Architectural Guides: Birmingham (2016), 18, 206

Websites
Early Black Sabbath tour dates from Black Sabbath Online, accessed 25 September 2023 from https://www.black-sabbath.com/tourdates/1960s_tour/
Oral history of the Crown from Tom Pickering, son of the landlord of the Crown throughout the 1960s, accessed 9 Oct 2023 from http://houndofhecate.blogspot.com/2019/11/spirit-of-place-crown-station-street.html
List of bands who played at Henry's Blueshouse from Jim Simpson's record label website, accessed 25 September 2023 from http://www.bigbearmusic.com/henrys-blueshouse-bands/
Jim Simpson's memories, accessed 25 September 2023 from http://blueshouse.bigbearmusic.com/blog/from-earth-to-black-sabbath-part-i/
'I met Black Sabbath’s first manager Jim Simpson & he remembers the first day he met Ozzy & the band'. Richard Gullick 18 February 2023. BirminghamWorld website, accessed 25 September 2023 from https://www.birminghamworld.uk/news/black-sabbath-manager-jim-simpson-4029773

Other
Goad Fire plan of Birmingham, 1895
Ordnance Survey 1:500 town plan, Birmingham, published 1885-7
Kelly’s Directory of Birmingham, Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire, Part 1, Birmingham 1880
Kelly’s Directory of Birmingham, Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire, Part 1, Birmingham 1896

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