Future uncertain for city pub after development plans fail

The Crown in Birmingham city centre was set to be restored as a live music venue, but plans by an arts organisation to buy the building and restore it have fallen through due to funding issues.

Birmingham Open Media (BOM) had been looking to give a new lease of life to the heritage pub, which was first built in 1881 and which has been closed and remained derelict since 2014 after being bought by a Japanese development company.

In its heyday, The Crown hosted other local acts that would go on to become household names, including Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and UB40, as well as welcoming big acts such as Status Quo.

BOM’s project would have been delivered in two stages through a centre for digital inclusion to help excluded and disadvantaged communities access digital technology and through a live music venue venue with a focus on young talent.

BOM said it had worked tirelessly, investing more than £100,000 in a bid to bring the pub back, but said that a mixture of Birmingham City Council's financial issues forcing it to retract an offer of a loan and the current owners wish to only sell the building along with an adjacent car park and apartments had left them exploring other opportunities.

A spokeswoman for BOM said: "Over the last four years, we’ve lobbied the authorities, fundraised, invested over £100,000 in feasibility and worked tirelessly to secure a future for The Crown to bring it back into cultural use.

"This has been an extremely complex piece of work, navigating turbulent political situations and commercial interests. However ultimately, we have been unable to secure The Crown.

"To provide some context, the current owner will only sell The Crown with the adjacent car park and Shaftesbury House apartments, making it a high-value transaction that requires public sector funding to get it over the line.

"The combined footprint of the buildings makes it an attractive offer for commercial redevelopment at a critical gateway to the city, and The Crown’s locally listed status is not enough in itself to protect it from commercial redevelopment.

"Having originally secured political support for the project under the previous Birmingham City Council Leader Ian Ward, Birmingham City Council’s S114 troubles saw the new regime retract their offer of loan funding which constituted 60 per cent of the money that we needed to buy the site.

"Whilst we tried to source alternative funding, a sticking point was getting funders to agree on the value of the site, which they would only consider in commercial redevelopment terms.

"Even demonstrating value and viability on a purely commercial basis backed up by two Government approved independent valuations, the overriding priority for decision-makers has kept coming back to the need to address the city’s housing crisis and a preference for commercial schemes."

"In the last few months, we have been pitted against a developer with a different vision to ours.

"We have no hard feelings towards this developer, they have been very open with us about the turn of events that ultimately led them to compete against us for funding and negotiate to purchase the site, whilst our own funding application was rejected based on not delivering enough housing units (this funding was critical to us after purchase, as it would enable us to invest in the apartments and rent them out to repay the loan).

"It has become clear that the support we need to drive this project is in favour of a different agenda.

"We don’t doubt that Birmingham’s housing needs are justified, and that bold interventions are needed.

"But there is a point where we have to accept that our vision for The Crown and belief in its cultural value is out of sorts with the way the city seems to be evolving.

"Therefore, whilst we are deeply disappointed and hold firm in our belief of The Crown’s huge cultural importance, we have had to begin exploring new opportunities and projects for our future growth."

The pub had been a busy one, based near to Birmingham New Street Station on Hill Street and right in the middle of the busy city centre nightlife.

While the pub had seen better days, it was still a place to get a cheap pint on a night out and join in the Friday evening karaoke sessions.

Jez Collins, founder of Birmingham Music Archive, said the venue carried a lot of historical resonance and said he wanted to do what he could to preserve it as it was as valuable to him as the Beatles home in Liverpool.

He said: "If we can keep it preserved and try to reopen it, then I think it would be an amazing culture centre for the city.

"It still has the floor from the 1960s from when Sabbath played on it and I think the venue has a really important contribution to music.

"I think it's as important to Birmingham as the Cavern Club is to Liverpool."