The Old Crown

The Old Crown is a historic pub on High Street in Deritend, now generally considered part of Birmingham’s Digbeth district. The building is traditionally dated to 1368 and promoted as Birmingham’s oldest pub. However, architectural analysis by Historic England indicates that most, and possibly all, of the surviving structure is more likely to date from the early 16th century. It remains the last substantial timber-framed building in central Birmingham and is commonly described as the city’s oldest surviving secular building.

The property is traditionally believed to have originated as a guildhall and school associated with the Guild of St John the Baptist of Deritend. Its original layout included a large central hall, with smaller rooms and cellars serving the guild and local community. The earliest surviving documentary evidence identifying the building as an inn dates from 1626, while a document from 1666 records it as operating under the sign of the Crown. A separate local tradition claims that Queen Elizabeth I stayed in a chamber above the main entrance while travelling from Kenilworth Castle in 1575, although this has not been confirmed by contemporary documentation.

The building has a timber frame with plaster infill, a tiled roof and an upper storey projecting over the ground floor. Its street frontage is divided into five bays with several gables, including a central porch wing and carved horizontal timbers known as bressummers. The structure has been altered repeatedly, and many of its windows and internal divisions date from later centuries, but its surviving frame remains a rare example of the architecture that once characterised pre-industrial Birmingham.

The Old Crown stood within the area affected by the Battle of Birmingham on 3 April 1643 during the English Civil War. Birmingham supported Parliament and supplied weapons to Parliamentarian forces. When a Royalist army commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine attempted to pass through the town, local defenders and Parliamentarian soldiers resisted from makeshift barricades around Camp Hill and Deritend. The Royalists eventually broke through, plundered Birmingham and set fire to numerous houses before continuing towards Lichfield. The Old Crown survived the fighting and destruction and is now the only building remaining within the documented battlefield area.

During the 19th century, Birmingham’s expansion and road-improvement projects placed the building under repeated threat of demolition. Local antiquarian and campaigner Joshua Toulmin Smith played an important role in preserving it during the 1850s and 1860s. The Old Crown was formally designated a Grade II* listed building in 1952. After periods of alteration and deterioration, it underwent extensive restoration between the late 1990s and 2004, with work intended to stabilise the timber frame and preserve its surviving historic features.

The pub is also associated with several ghost stories. The best-known concerns a woman whose child is said to have fallen into an old well behind the building. According to the legend, the woman, known as The Lady in White, continues to search the rooms and passages for the missing child. The well is still to be found at The Old Crown. Other reported phenomena include white mist in the upper rooms, unexplained cold areas and objects moving without visible cause. No historical records have established the identity of the woman or confirmed a fatal accident involving the well, and the accounts remain part of the pub’s modern supernatural folklore.

The Old Crown continues to operate as a pub, restaurant, accommodation and events venue. The property includes guest rooms, indoor bars and a large courtyard and beer garden used for live music, comedy, festivals and other events.