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The Market Tavern was situated at 210-212 Moseley Street. This grade-II listed Victorian tile and terracotta pub was built in 1899/1900 and is on the CAMRA list of historic pub interiors. It was also known as The Dog & Partridge.

in 1984 the pub was set fire to by the landlord. He lived in the flat above. The pub was closed on a Saturday night, which was unusual, as the landlord and his wife attended a family function. The multiple seats of fire, the fact that there were no spirits in the optics and the family dog was staying with a family member all alerted suspicions. The landlord was convicted of arson and went to prison. As the pub was owned by Ansell’s and they have a very good insurance policy the listed pub was rebuilt and restored to a high standard and reopened as the Market Tavern. In the 2000’s it held music events in the function rooms upstairs renamed the Minerva Suite. When Joseph Ash Galvanising works across the road closed the Charles Henry Street site the pub followed as they lost all the lunch time trade and early evening trade the plant brought. It was brought by a local property developer and mothballed to this day and has a caretaker living in the flat at the very top. Being such a timeless pub and retaining its full fixtures and fittings it has been used for filming on many occasions, including Danny the Human Zoo, a movie about Lenny Henrys life, WPC 56 a drama set in Birmingham in 1950’s, more recently in Silent Witness. It has been used in other filming. It was designed by James & Lister Lea, not Jones & Lister Lea, who carried on as a firm of estate agents rather than architects in later years.

Andrew Smith (May 2026)

Listed building details:

Public house. 1899-1900, with minor late C20 alterations. By Jones and Lister Lea for the Holt Brewery Company. Red brick with terracotta detailing (the terracotta thought to have been supplied by the Hathern Station Brick and Terracotta Company of Loughborough). Slate roof with coped gables. Brick axial stacks. PLAN: Prominent corner site with main entrance (to public bar) at the angle of the 2 elevations, passage doorway to Moseley Street (left) and doorways to outdoor sales, hall and rear smoke room to Birchall Street (right). Eclectic style with Flemish and Art Nouveau detailing. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, 1:1:1:1 bays to Moseley Street and 1:2 bays to Birchall Street, each elevation with steeply-pitched gables to slightly advanced bays, and with canted corner with louvred octagonal cupola above an angled oriel above a semi-circular arch-headed doorway. Terracotta-faced ground floors to left and right elevations have segmental arch-headed windows and semi-circular arch headed doorways with raised voussoirs and pilaster shafts between, and fascia and dentilled cornice above. Ground floor windows have leaded panes and stained glass. Gabled bays break forward with 3-light windows to first floor, the entablatures with arabesques and a cartouche in semi-circular pediments; narrow semi-window pedimented window between and large lunette in the gables above with raised voussoirs. Above, a pilaster extends from each key block through the gable to a finial above. Below each lunette is a strapwork apron. INTERIOR: Minton tiled interior with frieze in public bar, passages, smoke room and stairs. Public bar has contemporary bar and arcaded bar-back with balustrade and clocks above, and mirrored panels behind. Entrance lobby to public bar, which has ceiling lined in Lincrusta paper. Smoke-room has contemporary fireplace, and decorative glass in rear window. Staircase with moulded balusters and ornate newels. First and second floors refurbished following fire damage in 1984.The building was known as the Dog and Partridge Public House from 1829 to 1984. A well-detailed and prominently sited example of an imposing turn-of-the-century Birmingham public house by an important local architectural practice specialising in public house design.

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Other Photos

Picture source: David Gray