Old Council House, Solihull
Old Council House, Solihull
LocationPoplar Road, Solihull
Coordinates52°24′53″N 1°46′42″W / 52.4146°N 1.7784°W / 52.4146; -1.7784
Built1876
ArchitectJ. A. Chatwin
Architectural style(s)Italianate style
Old Council House, Solihull is located in West Midlands county
Old Council House, Solihull
Shown in West Midlands

The Old Council House is a former municipal building in Poplar Road, Solihull, West Midlands, England. The town hall, which was the meeting place of Solihull Borough Council, is now a public house.

History

The first town hall in Solihull was on The Square on a site which had previously been part of St Alphege's Churchyard and was completed in 1848.[1][lower-alpha 1] In the early 1870s a small group of local businessmen formed a private company to erect and operate a more substantial public hall: the site they selected was on the east side of what was then a connecting road between Warwick Road and the High Street.[3][4]

The new building was designed by the Birmingham architect, J. A. Chatwin, in the Italianate style, built in red brick with stone dressings by a local builder, a Mr Deebank, and completed in 1876.[3] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto Poplar Road; the central bay featured an arched doorway on the ground floor with a stone balcony above; there were seven gothic windows which were decorated with bar tracery with cusped circles (with bars radiating from the centre),[lower-alpha 2] flanked by Corinthian order colonettes, forming an arcade on the first floor and there were seven narrow dormer windows at attic level. Internally, the principal rooms were a courthouse on the ground floor and an assembly room on the first floor.[3]

After an increase in the population, largely associated with the town's increasing importance as a residential area for the people working in Birmingham, the area became an urban district in 1932.[6] There was a significant increase in the amount of casework in the courts in the 1930s, which led to the magistrates moving to a dedicated courthouse facility at Warwick Road in 1935.[1] This in turn allowed the new urban district council to convert the old courtroom into a council chamber and to adopt the building in Poplar Road as its council house.[1] After announcing the town's advancement to the status of a municipal borough, Princess Margaret waved to the crowds from the balcony of the council house and then signed the visitors' book on 11 March 1954.[7]

The building continued to serve as the council house for the borough until a purpose-built modern civic centre was completed in Manor Square in 1967.[1][8] The old council house was subsequently used as a public venue for concerts and other performances until it was converted by Wetherspoons into a public house known as the "Assembly Rooms" in 2008.[9] After being sold to the Stonegate Pub Company in 2016, it was rebranded as Yates Solihull.[10][11]

Notes

  1. ↑ The aging first town hall was demolished in 1879.[2]
  2. ↑ The style of tracery is derived from that employed at Reims Cathedral.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Solihull Magistrates' Courts". Solihull Life. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  2. ↑ Woodall, Joy (19 March 2018). "Rev. Charles Evans, Rector of Solihull". Solihull Local History Circle. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 New Public Hall. Vol. 6. British Architect. 1 July 1876. p. 269.
  4. ↑ "Ordnance Survey Map". 1888. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  5. ↑ Tracery at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  6. ↑ "Solihull CB/UD/MB". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  7. ↑ "Local History - Charter Day". Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. Archived from the original on 22 February 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  8. ↑ "Remember when Solihull looked like this? Archive pictures show town centre in the days before Touchwood". Birmingham Mail. 1 April 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  9. ↑ "Assembly Rooms, Poplar Street, Solihull". Birmingham Mail. 12 November 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  10. ↑ "Yates". What Pub. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  11. ↑ "Solihull Town Centre Heritage Trail" (PDF). Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. p. 3. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
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