Red Lion, Erdington

Red Lion, Erdington

A public house built in 1899, designed by Wood and Kendrick for Mitchells and Butlers. The building is executed in a loosely Jacobean style and features a lavishly decorated ceramic bar front made by Craven Dunnill of Jackfield, Shropshire.

The building is constructed of red English bond brick with stone and terracotta dressings, beneath a slate roof with a timber and lead clock turret. It rises to two and three storeys and occupies a corner site. The plan comprises three angled portions of façade turning the corner, with a yard to the rear. The interior retains its large L-shaped public bar, which was formerly divided by a screen to form two separate bars. A further large bar room lies to the rear, now extended to include the area formerly occupied by a smoking room and the off-sales department. A function room occupies the first floor level.

The road frontage features an angled corner bay flanked by ranges of two and three storeys. Windows across the front are sashes with plate glass below and multi-pane lights above. Continuous string courses extend across the front at the level of the window sills and heads of both ground and first floor windows. The ground floor contains a series of recessed angled bow windows with etched lateral panes, several displaying rampant lions. At first floor level the walling shows alternating flush bands of brick and stone, with the first floor bays divided by shallow pilasters. A deep stone band extends between the floors from the tops of the ground floor windows to the sills of the first floor windows.

The angled corner bay contains a central doorway with an elaborate ashlar surround, including pilasters and deep brackets supporting a scrolled pediment with a lion on a shield in shallow relief at its centre. Above this is a single sash window. The bay rises above the parapet line to form a square clock tower with cartouches to three sides at second floor level and clock faces above, flanked by pilasters and with a pulvinated frieze below an ogee lead roof.

Either side of this bay are single recessed bows to the ground floor, corresponding with paired sashes at first floor level. Beyond, the roofline rises with an attic storey under hipped roofs. The southern angle facing Station Road has a central bowed oriel window at first floor level with stone mullions and transoms and a shaped parapet. Either side are tall first floor windows with basket-arched heads of alternating stone and brick voussoirs and shaped gables with ball finials. The lower plate glass panes have etched designs. The plainer ground floor has a door at the far right, formerly leading to the off-sales department, and a window to its left which appears to have been inserted in place of a wider doorway. The south-west facing angle toward Short Heath Road is plainer, with paired sashes to the first floor and triple-light windows to the attic with shaped gable heads. Ridge stacks feature flush bands of alternating stone and brick.

The yard front has two angled bay windows to the ground floor above which are three large windows lighting the function room at first floor level. The angled front otherwise has random fenestration and fire escape doors. A wall connects to the single-storey lavatory block and the two-storey stable block and wagon store.

The front bar is entered at the corner angle through a square lobby with timber sides and a stained glass domed roof. Doors either side formerly led to the two bar rooms but were closed when the rooms were joined by removing the screen attached to the lobby. A single central door now leads into the bar. The public bar room has a long bar with a rounded corner. The ceramic front has an upper body that bows outward, divided into panels by pilaster strips with a fluted frieze to the top featuring paterae. It is richly decorated with polychromatic stylized foliage and flowers. The bar top is mahogany. The bar back is also mahogany with inset etched mirrors and shelves with turned supports. The cornice above repeats the frieze motif of paterae and flutes in carved mahogany. A clock is inset to the curved corner. An encased column rises from the bar top to the ceiling with panels of etched mirror glass. Fitted benches line the walls with central heating pipes below. A sash service hatch connects the back of the public bar to the corridor leading to the first floor stairs.

The rear bar has been extended to include part of the off-sales area and the former smoking room, now connecting to the staircase hall. It retains the fixed benches of the smoke room, which have moulded ends with central heating pipes below, extending into two angled bays overlooking the rear yard. The bar back is original but was apparently moved here from another bar in the building. The bar front is of 20th century date. A large mural along the eastern wall shows the exterior of the pub at night with an Edwardian street scene.

The first floor function room has panelled walls and a panelled ceiling. Fixed benches run along the walls with bell pushes set into their back rails. Some benches appear to have been moved and adapted to fit. A mid to late 20th century bar is set in the south-west corner.