Marlborough Public House

The Marlborough Public House

A public house dating from 1900, designed by William Jenkins of James and Lister Lea for Mitchels and Butlers Brewery. The building is constructed in red brick with steel reinforcements and terracotta detailing, under a grey slate roof. The clock tower has a lead roof.

The main range stands on an irregular corner plot on Anderton Road and Montgomery Street. It comprises three storeys plus cellar. The Anderton Road elevation has five bays with two double-storey bow windows flanking a front door. Above the bows, second-floor windows have elliptical brick arches beneath dentilled gable ends. The principal Montgomery Street elevation is four-bay with a narrower bay containing a ground-floor entrance and cellar window in the left bay. Ground-floor windows are proportionally larger than those above. Upper-floor and rear windows are timber sashes, many featuring etched glass. The road elevations are decorated with terracotta pilasters, particularly around doorways and the corner elevation below the clock tower. The clock, dome and weather vane stand above roof height. Heavy brick stacks augment the roof. An additional plainer red brick range of variable three/two/single-storey height adjoins Montgomery Street.

The principal entrance from Anderton Road leads to a lobby and corridor with dado tiling, floor tiles and coloured-glass windows. To the right, the large Public Bar contains an original servery with carved mahogany bar back including mirrored panels and tiling, a bar counter with match strikers, and modern bar top. Ground-floor rooms feature high corniced ceilings with visible steel reinforcement. The Lounge has original fixed seating with ornate armrests and an original chimneypiece. A hatchway provides service to the Lounge. The off-sales area to the north retains its unfurnished space with original screening and glazing visible from the Public Bar, though its service hatchway is sealed. The Smoke Room retains some original fixed seating. The corridor dado is prominently tiled, with patterned tiling continuing up the dog-leg stairs to the second floor. The stairs feature original heavy newels, handrails and turned balusters. The first-floor hallway and stair dado to a small second-floor storage room match the ground-floor tiling. The Club Room and Dining Room retain their original proportions, with a complete ceiling cornice in the Club Room and a partially complete cornice in the Dining Room. The back stairs date from 1900. The rear accommodation wing is plainer, though it contains some etched-glass windows. Access to the bell tower is via a ladder and hatchway with hanging counterweight in the east corner room of the second floor. Original etched windows include examples inscribed 'CLUB ROOM' and 'DINING ROOM', floral designs, and 'MITCHELLS & BUTLERS LIMITED' in a roundel around a central crown illustration.

The Marlborough was built on a prominent corner site that previously held a building shown on the 1890 Ordnance Survey Map. The existing building appears on the 1904 Second Edition on a similar footprint to its current plan, with terraced houses attached to the west. The site occupied what was the industrial edge of Birmingham in 1890, still containing farmland, but which was replaced with factories and working-class terraces by 1904. William Jenkins and James and Lister Lea were the foremost designers of public houses in Birmingham in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mitchells and Butlers was a brewery formed in 1898 by the merger of two Smethwick brewers; the company owned and operated a great number of licensed premises before subsequently merging with larger concerns. The pub remained relatively unaltered during the 20th century, though some internal reordering occurred to the ground-floor public conveniences and to the first and second floors. In the late 20th century, the terraced housing adjacent to the pub was demolished and replaced with a surface car park. The Marlborough has remained in its original use throughout its history.