The Kingstanding pub and its great arch, 1936 (postcard)
Postmarked 10 August 1936 · Kingstanding Road
“The Kingstanding”, the Mitchells & Butlers pub at the Circle, on a postcard postmarked 10 August 1936.
The entrance to The Kingstanding pub, seen through the wrought-iron arch that spanned its forecourt. The arch carries the brewery's name, Mitchells & Butlers, and above it hangs the inn sign: a rider on a white horse. The building behind has Dutch gables, tall chimneys and striped brick gate piers topped with obelisks. A few people stand by the doors.
Notes
The postcard is printed “The Kingstanding . Kingstanding”. It was reproduced in a local history book whose caption gives the postmark as 10 August 1936, calls the style “1930s Mock Baronial” and suggests the rider on the sign was meant to be King Charles I, linking to the legend of the king's standing. The book's own caption has been trimmed off this copy..
About this place: The Kingstanding pub
In Voices: “Pigeons, bowls and the number 29 bus” (Barry Gater)
Local memories
What people who knew this place have said about it, in their own words. These are memories, not checked facts.
“The kingstanding pub was a beautiful building with large chimneys and a big frontage. It was quite impressive really. The entrance had two pillars with wrought iron work gates. Then there was a big grass area and front drive. It was a big pub.”
“The Kingstanding pub took up the whole corner of the road (Kingstanding Road to King’s road) where the library is. It had a brick arch on the front. It had loads of rooms, smoke rooms, and bars. There were loads of rooms; rooms galore! … The busses from town stopped (terminated) at the pub like the old no. 29.”
“Both my father and my mother were bowlers and played in the pub teams. … At the Kingstanding the green was off to one side, near the King’s Road. The men’s and women’s team were separated unlike today when they are mostly mixed. They played crown bowls.”
“I remember as a kid during the summer we used to ride our bikes to the Kingstanding pub … and scrounge chewing gum and candy (as they called sweets) from the American soldiers that used to sit on the grass in-front of the pub having a drink”
“My parents were in the bowls teams of the Kingstanding Pub, and I remember summer evenings at the green playing with my cousins, while our parents were busy on the green! I thought it was a great pity when the old building was knocked down and replaced with an inferior modern one.”
“I remember as a child my grandad Frank Jew who was a local plumber and decorater, taking me there on my bike, he would have a quiet pint of beer whilst i wizzed round on the slabbed paths.The Kingstanding Pub looked so big to me…. Happy days….”
“my friends and I used to drink at the kingstanding pub. we used to go in the bar where we could play darts, dominoes or sing our heads off. there was a guy named Bimbo who loved to get up and stand in the centre of the floor and sing out loud. He was a great character”
“I was born in Coleshill Hospital 1954, my parents Val and Ken Robinson were living at the time with my grandparents Frank and Doris Robinson the Licensees of the Kingstanding Pub . They moved later to the Bromford Pub near the racecourse. My memories of back then were that the pubs were huge like hotels, lots of ground and both had quality bowling greens. Great memories.”
“l was a bar man in the Kingstanding pub in 1960-1963 ,l worked in the Officers Lounge ,7 nghts a week , the landlord was a very large guy a,d his wife was only about 5ft 5in but no customer crossed her path ,she ruled the pub with a fist of iron. But was great with all the staff.”
“Mike Williams I worked in Eddington and longstanding 1966 -67 as site engineer and remember surveying the bowling green before its redevelopment as “shopping prevent” the turf was sold for 2/6 p per yard. Cheers”
Additional historical information courtesy of Chris Hillcox and Voices of Kingstanding.
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