Villa Tavern

Villa Tavern is a public house rebuilt between 1924 and 1925 by Matthew J. Butcher of Birmingham for Ansells Brewery Ltd. It is constructed of red brick with buff terracotta detailing, and has a cement tiled roof with ridge and eaves stacks. The building occupies a corner site and has a roughly L-shaped plan, comprising a public bar, club room, and a small smoke room. The frontages are six bays to Holborn Hill, three bays to Nechells Park Road, and a corner entrance below a shallow semi-circular canopy. The Nechells Park Road elevation has a canted bay window and two entrance doors, while the Holborn Hill elevation features paired doorways and 2, 3 and 2-light windows. The first floor has flat pilasters, brick and terracotta detailing, terracotta head and sill bands, a cornice, and a deep plain parapet with segmental pediments above each frontage and a chimney gablet to the Holborn Hill elevation. Internally, the plan has seen little alteration, retaining three public rooms with fixed wall seating, fire surrounds, and a contemporary public bar counter with round arches and mirror glass. Half-glazed panelled doors with rectangular overlights are throughout, with etched glass indicating their function. Tiled flooring is present in the entrance lobbies and hall, with a green and buff tiled dado in the Holborn Hill entrance lobby. Bell-pushes are in the smoke and club rooms, and raised bands of ceiling decoration follow the shape of the rooms in the bar, smoke room, and hall. The public house is notable for retaining its 1925 plan and contemporary fittings, exhibiting a simpler architectural style associated with post-First World War public houses, but with internal arrangements reminiscent of smaller Victorian pubs rather than the inter-war “improved” variety.