Surf'n'Turf: The Mermaid reborn as Farro's

Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 5 Oct 2024

The Mermaid was a Victorian pub on a prominent triangular site in Sparkhill where the Warwick & Stratford Roads fork. Old photos show an edifice with a pair of octagonal spirelets, later replaced by the neoclassical building visible here, though its Victorian wings survive to either side. It had a parapet with a relief of a mermaid by the local artist William Bloye, which was sadly lost some time after the pub closed and was then gutted by fire in 2010. See the Lost Pubs Project site https://www.closedpubs.co.uk/warwickshire/birmingham_b11_mermaid.html , which mentions the important role this pub played for the Irish community in Birmingham in the mid 20th century as a place where men could meet and find work, including unregistered labouring jobs 'on the lump'. Richard Vinen discusses this in his chapter on the Birmingham Irish in 'Second City: Birmingham and the Forging of Modern Britain', Allen Lane, 2022. On the Mermaid's 1980s life as a music venue, a hub of anarcho-punk, metal and emerging grindcore, see Sarah Lafford's post at the Historic England blog https://heritagecalling.com/2024/08/30/at-the-mermaid-punk-metal-and-grindcore-in-1980s-birmingham/ , also Harry Sword at the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/11/the-brummie-pub-that-birthed-grindcore-the-mermaid-sparkhill and the BBC site https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgw45204wwo.amp .

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