Restoration of 16th Century pub a step closer

Scaffolding has been removed from a Grade II listed timber-framed pub in Birmingham for the first time in three decades.

The Golden Lion was built in the 16th Century, but was relocated to the city's Cannon Hill Park in the early 20th Century and in recent years fell into disrepair.

Irene DeBoo, from Birmingham Conservation Trust, said no-one had seen the building properly in 30 years, with scaffolding covering it since 1996.

"People are stopping and pointing, they can't believe it, because the building was just hidden for so long," she said.

"The Golden Lion reflects a very important bit of Birmingham history [and] how normal people lived."

Birmingham City Council previously said the repairs would stabilise and protect the structure. It wanted further funding to "support its future use as a valued heritage asset".

It originally stood in Deritend High Street and had to be rebuilt between 1616 and 1644, after it was believed to have been damaged during a Royalist attack on Birmingham in the English Civil War.

The Golden Lion was dismantled by the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society in 1911, before it was rebuilt at its current location in Cannon Hill Park, where it was used as a cricket pavilion.

"It was the first building in Birmingham to be moved to be saved in that way... the first real conservation effort... timber by timber," DeBoo said.

The repair work included fixing the roof, chimneys, walls, floors, windows and doors, as well as adding French doors to the rear.

As well as serving as a pub, it was used as a culler's house, six small homes, a scrap shop and a rangers' hut, the Birmingham Conservation Trust said.

During the votes for women protests, it was badly damaged in an arson attack carried out by suffragettes in 1912.

Despite the many lives it has lived, DeBoo said the building was being prepared to be used once again.

"In the next phase, we are looking towards how to fit it out more and how to make it more usable in a way," she said.

"We have secured some further funding for that, and we will do some more interior fit out."

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