The sale price of the historic former King George V pub in Northfield has been dropped to attract potential buyers.
The Grade II listed building at the corner of Tessall Lane and Bristol Road South was originally listed for £1.25 million – a year on and interested parties will now have to stump up £1.15 million to purchase the iconic building.
King George V Pub
The King George V public house was built un 1935 for Mitchell and Butlers, designed by John Burgess Surman in a Jacobean domestic revival style. Rendered in brick with ashlar plinths, mullion windows, gables and arched doorways, the public house was Grade II listed in 2001 due to its features.
As well as the building’s exterior, the interior still had some interesting original features at the time of listing, especially on the first floor. These include a timber queen-post roof with curved braces and mouldings, wall-panelling, a barrel-vaulted ceiling and original stone fireplaces – one even having a moulded plaster heraldic lion and dog above.
When listed, The King George V was described as: “a good example of a large Birmingham road house.”
The Emerald
After the turn of the millennium, with ‘The George’ no longer a pub, the building was used as as a popular Chinese restaurant, and is still referred to by many as “The Emerald”.
King Khan controversy
Most recently the building was the King Khan’s Indian restaurant, with the owner causing controversy in 2014 after failing to reach an agreement to continue to be home to the King George V Bowling club, which had been based at the site since it was opened in 1937. This affected the popularity of the restaurant and it rebranded as the Old King George Balti House in 2016. However, the building was out of use by the beginning of 2017.
Recent planning applications
Since the restaurant’s closure, owners have submitted three applications for change of use to a care home – all of which were withdrawn before being put before planning committee.
In February 2019, submitted plans for a KFC drive thru restaurant were also withdrawn after a KFC outlet opened nearby in Longbridge town centre at the beginning of January.
For sale
The 1.17 acre (4,743 sq m) site and buildings is listed freehold for £1.15 million.
Interested parties can find out more and arrange to view by visiting the AMT Commercial website.
The photograph of the pub might have been more representative had it been taken from Tessall Lane: it would have shown the collapsed fence, overgrown former bowling green, 20m run of rubbish feeding the local rat population, racist graffiti on the main rear wall, broken and missing windows, and generalized vandalism to a Grade II listed building. The issue is not the revised sale price, but why what should be a community asset is being allowed to deteriorate as a result of lack of any planning enforcement.
It’s no longer on the AMT website and all the signage relating to it being for sale has gone. Has it been sold and if so who to?
I have checked the Council Planning Department website and there is an application submitted early October to convert it into 13 apartments.
Go the planning website https://eplanning.birmingham.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/GeneralSearch.aspx
and look for application 2020/07752/PA.
Don’t know who actually owns it and has ultimately submitted the plans.