Former White Lion Public House, Nechells, Birmingham

Summary

A public house of 1896 by James and Lister Lea with attached late-C18 building to the north.

Description

A public house of 1896 by James and Lister Lea with attached late-C18 building to the north.

MATERIALS: both buildings are constructed of brick, 34 has limestone dressings with iron railings under a slate roof; 36 is without stone dressings and has a tiled roof.

PLAN: number 34 is rectangular with a canted corner to front both Horse Fair and Thorp Street. Number 36 continues to the north along Horse Fair. Both buildings have large, single-storey flat-roofed extensions to the rear which have infilled former courtyards, these later buildings are not included.

EXTERIOR: the main public house is constructed in an Elizabethan Revival style with the brick facades punctuated by limestone plat bands. The building is three storeys with a central entrance door at its corner with clock, spirelet and iron weathervane above. On the first and second stories of the corner bay are central two-light mullioned windows with fluted pilasters; the first floor windows have two transoms. To either side are additional, single-light windows with curved glass to follow both roads around the corner of the plot. The first floor window on the right hand side appears to have leaded glass while the lead on the left hand example has been lost. On the second storey is a balcony with decorative wrought iron railings, which continues to the windows to either side to curve around the corner of the building.

To the left of the corner, fronting Horse Fair, the building continues with giant fluted Corinthian pilasters and central shaped gable with carved panel with the initials J D & S for John Davenport and Sons Brewery. This façade has a roughly symmetrical composition, with a wide central bay with a double-height Renaissance-arched architrave containing the windows on the first and second floors. On the first floor is a four-light mullioned and transomed opening with the central mullion carved as a column with foliate capital appearing to support the second storey oriel balcony above. The balcony has decorative wrought iron railings and four-light mullion window. The central mullion on this storey continues the illusion of the column and supports a keystone at its top. To the left (north) the building continues with an additional pilaster and a window to the first and second stories, the first storey window with a transom.

To the right of the corner (east) the public house continues along Thorp Street. Directly to the right of the spirelet is a bay with additional shaped gable with mouldings and carved date stone of 1896. Beneath the gable is a further oriel balcony with railings matching the one on Horse Fair, though of slightly smaller proportions with only three-light windows to the first and second stories. Further to the right (east) is an additional mullioned and transomed window on the first floor with limestone dressings, with two single-pane sash windows above. The eastern end of this façade is separated by a brick pilaster with sash stair window to the left with rubbed brick arch and limestone keystone. To the right are two further timber sash windows with those on the first storey also having rubbed brick aches and keystones. The ground floor of this eastern end of the facade is not covered by the timber frontage and is brick with two small casement leaded windows. Further to the east is a late-C20 single-storey flat roofed extension, fronting Thorp Street (not included).

34 Horse Fair has greater spacing between floor plates than number 36, and though both buildings have three storeys, number 34 is significantly taller. Number 36 has a pitched roof and a series of four, four-light, horned sashes at first-floor level and four four-light casements at second floor. The façade is symmetrical and its origin as two separate buildings is clearly legible. A central scar in the brickwork shows that the north end of the facade has been rebuilt, with only the south end of the building retaining original brick segmental arches above the first-floor windows. At ground floor the façade has been enclosed by the C21 frontage of the gentleman’s club, though some elements of the original frontage appear to survive beneath. The right-hand bay of the building now forms the principal entrance.

INTERIOR: the ground floor level of numbers 34 and 36 are mostly open-plan and have seen considerable alteration to form a large, open bar space which continues through to the C20 extension to the rear (not included). Some internal joinery in the bar area appears to survive including dado rails and cornicing, though some sections and the applied panelling are later additions in a design intended to match. The principal bar is located to the south-east side of the building and is also a later insertion with applied panelling. The back bar with deeply moulded cornice has been altered but may be original. Brick steps lead from the ground floor to the basement which contains the pub’s services including a surviving barrel chute accessed via Thorp Street.

The upper floors of number 34 are accessed by the late-C19 newel post stair. The stair has a fluted post with heavy moulding and foliate carving on the ground floor, with the posts becoming plainer in design as they continue up the building. The open-string stair has curved tread ends and pendant with two balusters to each tread. An arch opening at first floor level is legible but is now partly infilled and leads to a large, smart function room occupying the southern and western end of the building, overlooking Horse Fair. At the northern end of the room an elegant late- C19 fireplace surround with egg and dart cornice survives, though C20 tiling has been inserted to the interior. Original cornicing and moulded window architraves survive as does the skirting. A dado rail features decorative indentation above and below the moulded string. Lincrusta wallpaper is in situ below the dado and remnants of a gas lamp are attached to the wall above the entrance door. The remainder of the first floor has been subdivided to accommodate cloakroom facilities, though original cornicing has been left in situ. A further room, likely to have been an office, survives to the very rear of number 34, with built-in cupboards.

The second floor of number 34 retains both of its decorative cast-iron fireplaces and though the space has been altered and adapted to create a self-contained flat, much of the original joinery survives, including four-panelled doors, skirting and moulded window architraves.

The first floor of number 36 has been removed to create a double-height space while the second storey is now only accessible via the roof of the C20 extension and contain spaces in use as storage and a C20 timber roof structure.

The flat-roofed C20 extensions to the rear of numbers 34-36 are not included and do not form part of the listing.

History

A public house is shown on the corner of Horse Fair and Thorp Street on the first edition Ordnance Survey map published in 1890. At the end of the C19, architectural practice James and Lister Lea were commissioned by John Davenport and Sons Brewery to update the pub, with the building largely rebuilt at that time. The new public house was completed in 1896 with the spire at the corner of the building inspired by Burghley House in Lincolnshire.

By the late-C20 the building was still in use as a public house, occupying the address 34 Horse Fair, with neighbouring late-C18 buildings to the north depicted on historic maps as 35 and 36 Horse Fair, in use as shops. By 1978 numbers 35 and 36 had been amalgamated and in the late-C20 these two buildings became part of the expanding public house to the south with the whole of the ground floor of the buildings knocked through to accommodate additional bar space.

During the late-C20 the upper floors of number 34 were altered to provide some accommodation and additional toilet facilities, with some subdivision of the spaces taking place. The upper floors of numbers 35 and 36 (now known as 36 Horse Fair) were adapted to provide storage space with the roof structure and the north end of the principal facade on the upper floors rebuilt at this time.

By the early-C21 the public house had become a gentleman’s club with the entire ground floor exterior enclosed in a new timber frontage without window openings. It is not known whether any of the earlier frontage survives beneath, recent investigations (2021) have revealed areas of C20 mosaic tiling beneath the frontage. Additional refurbishment of the bar area took place at this time including the installation of a new bar and a decorative scheme with applied panelling. In 2014 images show that the building underwent some further refurbishment to the exterior which saw the removal of the two pediments above the façade’s moulded gables.

Reasons for Listing

The former White Lion public house, of 1896 by James and Lister Lea, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the public house is a particularly good example of James and Lister Lea’s work, with elaborate exterior with limestone dressings, oriel balconies and decorative railings;
* despite alteration to the ground floor interior the building retains some good late-C19 features and fittings with newel post stair, fireplaces and remarkably complete function room on the first floor.

Historic interest:

* as a late-C19 example of a public house designed by the architectural firm James and Lister Lea, the renowned public house builders of the era working in the Birmingham area.

External Links

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