Rose Villa Tavern Public House

The Rose Villa Tavern Public House is a public house dating from 1919-20, constructed by Wood & Kendrick for Mitchells & Butlers Ltd at a cost of £15,000. It is located on a prominent street corner in Birmingham. The building is constructed of red brick with buff terracotta dressings, white glazed brick to a rear wing, and has a Welsh slate roof with end and eaves stacks.

The plan includes a central servery and surrounding bars, with the main bar axial to Warstone Lane. The building is two storeys and an attic. The ground floor facing Warstone Lane features a single doorway, two windows, and three further doorways, all under a shallow, dentilled cornice. The doorways have square heads with traceried overlights, and the windows have flat heads with broad, semi-circular tracery. The Vyse Street elevation mirrors this detail, with a doorway, a bay window (with transom), another doorway, and a window. The shallow cornice is repeated. Two-storey projecting wings are located at the rear, separated by a one-storey link with a skylight over a rear bar. The first floor has single and triple windows, and minimal pedimented detail to a gable on Vyse Street.

The interior features a servery with an island bar-back displaying rich Classical detailing and a panelled bar counter. Richly-decorated tilework by Carter’s of Poole, dated 1920, is present in the corridor from Warstone Lane, the rear bar, the Vyse Street end of the main bar, and to the walls flanking the staircase. The decoration varies between areas, with rich swags in the corridor, stair, and back bar areas, primarily using green and buff tiles below. A tiled Arcadian scene is displayed above the fireplace in the rear bar. Pictorial tiles depicting girls in rustic settings are found in the southerly entrance corridor from Vyse Street and the Vyse Street end of the main bar, all with multi-coloured tiled surrounds. A dumb waiter is located in the servery area. There's a notable display of stained glass, particularly in the main windows with designs of galleons and flowing foliage. The building represents an early and substantially complete example of an inter-War public house, demonstrating a transition from the late Victorian style to the "improved" public house characterized by restrained architecture and richly-decorated interiors.