The Crooked House

The Crooked House was a pub in South Staffordshire, England. Its name and distinctive appearance were the result of 19th-century mining subsidence which caused one side of the building to be approximately 4 feet (1.2 m) lower than the other. It was known as "Britain's wonkiest pub", and optical illusions inside the building made objects appear to roll uphill.

For other uses, see Crooked House (disambiguation).

The Crooked House
The Crooked House (April 2023)
Location in Staffordshire
Former namesGlynne Arms
General information
TypePub
AddressCoppice Mill
Himley
Staffordshire
DY3 4DA
Coordinates52.5151°N 2.1524°W / 52.5151; -2.1524
Completed1765
Openedc. 1830 (as pub)
Closed2023
Demolished7 August 2023 by Arson
Website
thecrooked-house.co.uk

Located in Himley in England's Black Country, the building was originally an 18th-century farmhouse before it was converted into a pub in the 1830s. It was sold in July 2023, and on 5 August was gutted in a fire; two days later it was demolished. Police are treating the fire as arson, and investigations are ongoing to establish the circumstances of the fire and the lawfulness of the demolition.

History

The Crooked House in the Black Country[1] in Himley, Staffordshire,[lower-alpha 1] was built in 1765 and was originally a farmhouse on Oak Farm.[4][5] During the early 19th century coal mines were established in the Black Country, and the Earl of Dudley owned the substantial Himley colliery in the area surrounding the pub.[6][2] Mining beneath the building caused one side of the building to begin gradually sinking until one end of the building was 4 feet (1.2 m) lower than the other,[7][8] leaning at an angle of 15 degrees.[9]

A 1904 postcard of the building

The building was turned into a pub in c. 1830 and was originally named the Glynne Arms, after the Glynne baronets who owned the estate on which it was situated.[10][11] It was known locally as the "Siden House" ("siden" meaning "crooked" in the Black Country dialect).[12] In 2002 the pub was officially renamed the Crooked House,[11] which had been its long-standing colloquial name.[13][14]

Although strengthened by buttresses by the mid-1910s,[15] the building was condemned as unsafe in the 1940s and was scheduled for demolition.[lower-alpha 2][11] Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries purchased the pub and in 1957 made the structure safe using steel tie rods and strengthening the buttresses,[8][17] investing £10,000 (equivalent to £256,495 in 2021) in doing so.[11]

In 1986, the pub was damaged by a fire which affected the first floor and the roof. The following year, the brewery spent £360,000 (equivalent to £1,077,275 in 2021) on renovations.[11]

2023 sale

The building, known as "Britain's wonkiest pub",[8] was put up for sale for £675,000 in March 2023 as a going concern.[18][19][20] On 25 June, it was the subject of a burglary causing over £10,000 worth of damage to the bar, kitchen, and toilet areas.[21][22]

In July 2023, Historic England received a request to grant the building listed status.[23] The Georgian Group also began to examine the suitability of the site for listed status.[24]

The sale of the pub was completed on 27 July 2023,[25] with neither the purchase price nor buyer disclosed,[20] although it was reported that the building was sold "for alternative use" and was unlikely to reopen as a pub.[8] Media investigations have since revealed that the Crooked House building and land had been purchased by ATE Farms, a property firm with the same registered address in Bedworth, Warwickshire as the quarrying and landfill business adjacent to the pub, and of AT Contracting and Plant Hire Ltd, an equipment rental firm.[25][26][27]

2023 fire and demolition

On the evening of 5 August 2023, a fire gutted the pub's interior and destroyed part of the structure including the roof.[28][17] No people were reported injured in the fire.[29][30]

Crews from Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service and the West Midlands Fire Service attended the fire after first receiving an emergency call at 21:58 BST.[28][31][32] Access to the premises was hindered by an 8-foot (2.4 m) mound of earth blocking the only lane leading to the building, so approximately 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) of hose were used to pump water to the fire.[33][34] Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service and Staffordshire Police launched a joint investigation to ascertain the cause of the fire.[29][33] South Staffordshire Council (SSC) visited the site after the fire, and discussed a plan of works with a representative of the landowner.[20] The agreed programme included removing parts of the first floor of the pub's front elevation, to remove the risk of weakened parts of the structure falling, but council officers did not deem it necessary to have the whole structure demolished.[35]

A police cordon was in place on the morning of 7 August while investigations were undertaken, but officers were stood down because of concerns that the building was structurally unsafe.[34] The site was subsequently overseen by the landowner.[20] That day, the building was demolished with an excavator.[36] The owner of the plant hire company that supplied the excavator stated it had been on dry hire to an existing customer and that the supplier had no connection to nor foreknowledge of the pub's demolition.[37] It was later understood that AT Contracting and Plant Hire Ltd had rented the digger a week before the pub fire.[27]

Roger Lees, the leader of South Staffordshire Council, described the demolition as "completely unacceptable and contrary to instructions provided by [council] officers", and stated that the case had been passed to the council planning enforcement department to see if the demolition was lawful under the Town and Country Planning Act and the Building Act.[20] Breaches of legislation during the demolition were referred to the Health and Safety Executive.[36] Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands called for the pub to be rebuilt "brick by brick" and urged SSC to block any attempted change of use.[38] Dudley North MP Marco Longhi said he was "completely devastated and angry at what had taken place".[39]

On 9 August, Staffordshire Police announced that while investigations with the fire service were still ongoing to identify the cause of the fire, they were treating the circumstances as arson.[40] On 16 August, it was revealed that AT Contracting and Plant Hire Ltd had experienced a previous major fire in August 2018 at their landfill site in Finmere, Buckinghamshire. The cause was never established.[27]

Members of the public formed the "Save the Crooked House (Let's Get It Re-Built)" group to campaign for the pub's rebuilding.[41] After a speight of bricks being taken from the site and sold on social media, the group had the remaining reclaimed bricks locked in secure storage.[42]

Between August and October, Staffordshire Police arrested and bailed six people on charges including suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life.[43]

Optical illusions
View from interior, April 2023

The building's leaning walls gave rise to optical illusions, as with a gravity hill. These included objects seemingly rolling uphill along the pub's dado rails and bottles appearing to roll upwards along tables.[8][33] Furniture and fixtures appeared not to hang plumb, including the grandfather clock and the chandelier.[16] In the 1970s, the landlord claimed that the novelty of the pub brought visitors from as far afield as China, Russia, Japan, the United States, and Canada.[16]

Footnotes
  1. When built, the building and its environs were located entirely within the county of Staffordshire,[2] but the establishment of the county of West Midlands in 1974 resulted in some of the pub's property being located across the county border[3]
  2. In a 1975 interview, Mrs Love (who ran the pub with her husband Arthur) stated that it was condemned in 1950;[16] other sources give the date as "the 1940s"[4]

References
  1. Poulton-Smith, Anthony (3 May 2018). Origins of English Pub Names: A fascinating and informative look into their origins and meanings. Andrews UK Limited. ISBN 9781911476405. A pub near Himley, in the Black Country, where subsidence has resulted in a building that lives up to its name
  2. "Staffordshire" (Map). Staffordshire LXVII.10. 25 inch. Cartography by Ordnance Survey. National Library of Scotland. 1903.
  3. "Election Maps" (Map). Ordnance Survey VectorMap. Cartography by Ordnance Survey. National Library of Scotland. 2023.
  4. AAA Best Pubs and Inns of Britain 2002. AAA Publishing. 2002. p. 398. ISBN 9781562516871.
  5. Parsons, Harold (1986). Portrait of the Black Country. Hale. p. 162. ISBN 9780709025740.
  6. Harwood, Helen (2023). Illustrated Tales of Staffordshire. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 9781398107779.
  7. Aird, Alisdair; Stapley, Fiona (4 September 2014). The Good Pub Guide 2015. Random House. p. 709. ISBN 9780091958084.
  8. "Britain's 'wonkiest pub' - as it was in 1974". BBC News. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  9. Hopkinson, Frank (2013). The Joy of Pubs. Portico. ISBN 9781909396586.
  10. Homer, Andrew (2018). A-Z of The Black Country. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 9781445684840.
  11. "The Glynne Arms, Crooked House, Himley, Staffordshire". lowergornal.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  12. Clark, Urszula; Asprey, Esther (2013). West Midlands English: Birmingham and the Black Country. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748685820.
  13. Long, David (2015). Bizarre England. Michael O'Mara Books. ISBN 9781782433774.
  14. Dictionary of Pub Names. Wordsworth Editions. 2006. p. 100. ISBN 9781840222661.
  15. Andrews, Mark (29 July 2023). "The Crooked House: Former farmhouse that gave its owner a sinking feeling". www.expressandstar.com. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  16. "ATV Today: 05.12.1975: Crooked House". MACE Archive. Associated Television. 23 June 2017. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  17. Murray, Jessica (6 August 2023). "Fire engulfs historic pub famed for being wonkiest in Britain". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  18. "Crooked House pub near Dudley 'unlikely to reopen'". BBC News. 28 July 2023. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  19. "The Crooked House: Britain's 'wonkiest pub' to be sold". BBC News. 10 March 2023. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  20. "Demolition of Crooked House pub unacceptable – council". BBC News. 8 August 2023. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  21. Hardiman, Deborah (9 July 2023). "Crooked House pub forced to close after burglar wrecks bar, kitchen and bathrooms". www.expressandstar.com. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
  22. Jenkins, Paul (6 August 2023). "Crooked House fire: Heavy police presence on scene after Black Country pub blaze". www.expressandstar.com. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
  23. Simpson, Craig (7 August 2023). "Britain's wonkiest pub was set to be listed before it burnt down". The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 August 2023. One week before the fire on Aug 5, Historic England received a submission from experts requesting that the pub – built in 1765 – be given protection as a listed building.
  24. Simpson, Craig (7 August 2023). "Britain's wonkiest pub was set to be listed before it burnt down". The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 August 2023. The Georgian Group, a campaign organisation of which the King is patron, was also examining the suitability of the site for listed status prior to the 'suspicious' fire currently being investigated by police. It is understood the group [...] may assess if Crooked House can be protected following the fire and if there are any alternatives to it being 'left as a ruin'.
  25. Murray, Jessica (8 August 2023). "'You will be missed': locals seek answers to destruction of Crooked House pub". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  26. "Crooked House: Meeting over future of 'wonkiest' pub site". BBC News. 10 August 2023. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  27. "Crooked House owners' links to previous major fire". BBC News. 16 August 2023. Archived from the original on 15 August 2023. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  28. Flash, Oprah (6 August 2023). "The Crooked House: Fire rips through famed 'wonky' pub". BBC News. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
  29. "Investigation into former pub fire continues". Staffordshire Police. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  30. Evans, Holly (11 August 2023). "History of Britain's wonkiest pub as 'major questions' remain over Crooked House fire". The Independent. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  31. Stubbings, David (5 August 2023). "Fire engulfs The Crooked House pub – flames and smoke seen pouring out of iconic building". www.expressandstar.com. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
  32. Murray, Jessica (7 August 2023). "Police 'reviewing all evidence' on cause of Crooked House pub fire". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  33. "'Questions need answering' over Crooked House fire". BBC News. 7 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  34. Murray, Jessica (8 August 2023). "'It's gobsmacking': locals demand answers to demolition of Crooked House pub". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  35. "Crooked House demolition: Council statement". sstaffs.gov.uk. South Staffordshire Council. 8 August 2023. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  36. Cooper, Matthew; Gregory, Andy (8 August 2023). "New Crooked House investigation as burned out pub demolished without council approval". The Independent. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  37. Marrs, Colin (9 August 2023). "Crooked House demolition plant hire owner: "I've done nothing wrong"". Construction News. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  38. "Landmark 'wonky' Crooked House demolished". BBC News. 7 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  39. Cooper, Matthew (8 August 2023). "Council probing potential breaches of law after demolition of landmark pub". Evening Standard. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  40. "Update on Crooked House fire". staffordshire.police.uk. Staffordshire Police. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  41. "The campaigners working 24/7 to save the Crooked House". BBC News. 24 August 2023. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  42. Zakir-Hussain, Maryam (3 September 2023). "Crooked House pub bricks locked away after being 'sold for £50 on Facebook'". The Independent. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  43. "New arrest in Crooked House pub fire investigation". BBC News. 4 October 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
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