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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not work) :
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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.
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 Himley, Staffordshire,[a] was built in 1765 and was originally a farmhouse on Oak Farm.[3][4] 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.[5][1] 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,[6][7] leaning at an angle of 15 degrees.[8]
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.[9][10] It was known locally as the "Siden House" ("siden" meaning "crooked" in the Black Country dialect).[11] In 2002 the pub was officially renamed the Crooked House,[10] which had been its long-standing colloquial name.[12][13]
Although strengthened by buttresses by the mid-1910s,[14] the building was condemned as unsafe in the 1940s and was scheduled for demolition.[b][10] Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries purchased the pub and in 1957 made the structure safe using steel tie rods and strengthening the buttresses,[7][16] investing £10,000 (equivalent to £256,495 in 2021) in doing so.[10]
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.[10]
2023 sale
The building, known as "Britain's wonkiest pub",[7] was put up for sale for £675,000 in March 2023 as a going concern.[17][18][19] On 25 June, it was the subject of a burglary causing over £10,000 worth of damage to the bar, kitchen, and toilet areas.[20][21]
In July 2023, Historic England received a request to grant the building listed status.[22] The Georgian Group also began to examine the suitability of the site for listed status.[23]
The sale of the pub was completed on 27 July 2023,[24] with neither the purchase price nor buyer disclosed,[19] although it was reported that the building was sold "for alternative use" and was unlikely to reopen as a pub.[7] 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.[24][25][26]
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.[27][16] No people were reported injured in the fire.[28][29]
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.[27][30][31] 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.[32][32][33] Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service and Staffordshire Police launched a joint investigation to ascertain the cause of the fire.[28][32] South Staffordshire Council (SSC) visited the site after the fire, and discussed a plan of works with a representative of the landowner.[19] 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.[34]
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.[33] The site was subsequently overseen by the landowner.[19] That day, the building was demolished with an excavator.[35] 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.[36] It was later understood that AT Contracting and Plant Hire Ltd had rented the digger a week before the pub fire.[26]
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.[19] Breaches of legislation during the demolition were referred to the Health and Safety Executive.[35] 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.[37] Dudley North MP Marco Longhi said he was "completely devastated and angry at what had taken place".[38]
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.[39] 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.[26]