Rose & Crown, Walsall

Built in 1901 by C.W.N.Johnson for Highgate Brewery as a small hotel and sympathetically refurbished in 1999 by Highgate Brewery. Down the centre of the pub through a full height screen with a 'Smoke Room and Outdoor Dept.' etched panel is a splendid drinking passage with a multi-coloured Victorian tiled dado round most of it and a hatch to the back of the bar. On the left a door with a Tap Room BHW & Co No. 2’ etched and frosted window leads to the sizeable public bar which incorporates the former jug and bottle as indicated by the window glass. The original bar-back, counter and fixed seating remain as does a tiled frieze around four-fifths of the room incorporating Acanthus leaves. It is not clear why the frieze does not run all around the room. The counter front has a series of panels featuring three colourful tiles all along it. Above the disused corner vestibule entrance (which looks more modern than Victorian) is a clock from the front end of a train! The fireplace has an old surround and new brick infill and there are both original and new (H W B Co) windows.

On the right side of the passage are two rooms where doorways were cut between them possibly in the 1970s and then as part of the 1999 refurbishment a small piece of new fixed seating was added to match the original remaining benches in the front room to block off one of the doorways. There are no original fittings in the rear room. The 'BHW Co. windows relate to the Highgate Brewery company set up in the late 1990s. There is a function room upstairs with modern fittings and derelict old stables at the rear.