The Market Tavern Public House

The Market Tavern is a public house dating from 1899 to 1900, originally designed by Jones and Lister Lea for the Holt Brewery Company. It is located on a prominent corner site in Moseley Street, Birmingham, and was later known as The Dog and Partridge Public House from 1829 to 1984.

The building is constructed of red brick with terracotta detailing, believed to have been supplied by the Hathern Station Brick and Terracotta Company of Loughborough, and has a slate roof with coped gables and brick axial stacks. The plan includes a main entrance to the public bar at the corner, with further access points to Moseley Street and Birchall Street for a passage, outdoor sales, a hall and a smoke room.

The architecture is eclectic, incorporating Flemish and Art Nouveau details. The building is three storeys high, with 1:1:1:1 bays facing Moseley Street and 1:2 bays facing Birchall Street. Steeply-pitched gables project slightly, and the corner features a canted shape with a louvred octagonal cupola above an angled oriel window above a semi-circular arch-headed doorway. The terracotta-faced ground floors of the side elevations have segmental arch-headed windows and doorways with raised voussoirs and pilaster shafts, a fascia, and a dentilled cornice above. The ground floor windows feature leaded panes and stained glass. Gabled bays have 3-light windows to the first floor, with entablatures featuring arabesques and cartouches within semi-circular pediments, a narrow semi-window with a pedimented surround, and large lunettes within the gables, all with raised voussoirs. Pilasters extend from key blocks up to gable finials. Strapwork aprons are situated below each lunette.

The interior retains Minton tiled floors and a frieze in the public bar, passages, smoke room and stairs. The public bar has a contemporary bar with an arcaded bar-back, a balustrade, clocks above, and mirrored panels behind, with the entrance lobby lined with Lincrusta paper. The smoke room features a contemporary fireplace and decorative glass in the rear window. A staircase has moulded balusters and ornate newels. The first and second floors were refurbished after fire damage in 1984.

The Market Tavern is a well-detailed and imposing example of a turn-of-the-century Birmingham public house, designed by an important local architectural practice that specialized in public house design.