Thread by @DrJACameron

As you've likely seen, The Glynne Arms, Himley, Staffordshire, widely known as The Crooked House - the wonkiest pub in the world - has burnt out, a week after it was sold by Marston's PLC to a private buyer.

built mid-18thc as a farmhouse (1765 mentioned a lot, cautious on that though as I can't find a direct source) it was a public house by the 1830s. Undermined by a nearby colliery going too far, the land on the S side sunk

first half of the 20thc its lean was quite renowned and it was widely called The Crooked House. the big brick buttresses had already been put on the S side.

1940 the property was sold to a Wolverhampton brewery (eventually amalgamated into Marston's) who commissioned a consolidation that put steel girders into the floor joists and roof. you can see the ties here on this c.1975 photo

and you can see the girders very clearly here

notice as well collapse of internal single-skin brick wall

Not sure if Marston's cleared out the chattel before the sale but this grandfather clock has been in the S side side bar since the '60s. Note it also had a severe burglary this July though that shut it down

i've gone absolutely bonkers trying to work out where this bar was in the building. I guess the floor was reset and why the first picture (presumably of George Glaze and his wife, the final true landlords) makes no sense with anything on the ground floor.

there's a full 360 thing on G by Virtually There Co. which has been a lot of fun and a great recording of the interior. Anyway you can see the rear side windows are smaller and have segmental arches

check it out at https://t.co/XLIGi6nxk7goo.gl/maps/3o1nW4K3r…

and here is the rear elevation showing they're original, c.1906. via as a lot of this is https://t.co/q0BLrcjwwUlowergornal.co.uk/p_glynnearms.h…

anyway. I'm still not sure where that bar is.

Bizarrely, despite the NBR being interested in it in the '40s, it wasn't listed. Yes it had no original interiors (it also had a fire on the N side in 1984) but still. I think it's a very interesting building even if it wasn't wonky

also Pevsner didn't mention it in 1974 which never helps a building's reputation. no excuse really as it didn't fall into the Warks Black Country gap

enjoying the rather eccentric bond pattern you can see on the N side on the annex to the loos

So this is my overlay of the new build estate by Keepmoat going up now on the old Himley Brick Works brownfield, and a map from Dudley council of landfill you don't really want to be building on.

Still don't get why you'd buy The Crooked House (circled) then burn it out

GE shows Stalling's Place estate being landscaped last year. Then after light industrial units, a natural ridge it's not so easy to build on. Honestly I can't see how this is destroying a barrier to some new-build masterplan?
They still need planning permission to demolish it.

anyway regardless someone clearly had it for this building as today someone's been in and demolished the whole thing. incredible. this would need heavy plant, surely? Dudley council should retrospectively list it and force the owners to rebuild it.
birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/…

not that it would be a perfect replacement, because it's an old structure made interesting by accidents of circumstance and place. but as it would cost an absolute fortune would be a good punishment for people who think they can treat historic buildings like this

big chunks of brick masonry are clearly the buttresses. the beer garden marquee is all that's left standing of this building that's around 250 years old
you cannot just knock down a building - any building - like this. even if it's been deemed unsafe, you need planning permission

i mean, by heavy plant, wouldn't take too long to bring in an decent-sized excavator (now the blocking has gone) with some nibbler attachments etc and pull the compromised structure down. it's just so uniquely brazen?!?

oh yeah by blocking I mean the mounds of dirt that were put on the only road down to the house before it was torched Saturday night. just incredible all round

i was almost going to do my amateur sleuthing: where was the fire started/did they use accelerant etc, glad I didn't now as it doesn't matter since they pulled down everything

Do like how with that 360 photo sequence you could force them to reproduce every odd header and queen closer in the masonry as built in (possibly) 1765

how does this not make it culturally significant?

and this a decade later

Footage of excavator destroying a uniquely weird 250-year-old building here

The demolition is done by two guys as rapidly as possible and extremely dangerously. Do seem to know what they're doing, although just using an excavator with a bucket rather than a nibbler. Flatten the outbuilding first then hammer in the facade from as far back as possible

I'll post this video in full as it's amazing how panicky and ridiculously rapid it is. The whole steel strengthening frame put in c.1960 at wall-plate comes out in one piece, big danger of it pulling the chimney stack onto the cab before the assistant runs in to point this out

Then it's just a case of hammering and pulling the other gable end down, it's clear the job is to totally flatten the every masonry wall (inc the extensions). Assistant keeps looking over his shoulder, not sure if he realises anyone's filming. Well done!
https://t.co/8wlC8Rvnrbfacebook.com/groups/8097827…

I know there's a lot of internet sleuthing going on here but this is not the excavator from the adjacent landfill site. completely different vehicle. It's labelled Lyndon Thomas, which is a plant hire company in Northamptonshire.

This is the important stuff. I do hope Historic England get the standing remains listed in retrospect and they have to rebuild it. It will only be a replica on a sloping concrete raft I guess, but whatever

https://t.co/IKLGR4Z8eosstaffs.gov.uk/news/2023/croo…

@JustsomeguyJohn also one other thing I wanted to be all tut tut elf and safety about is they're so desperate to get over the front single storey building remains at the end gable wall they're very close to tipping the whole machine

does make you think though, a bit of kit you can day-hire for like a bit over a hundred quid can just mash down an old masonry building in ten minutes. not as invulnerable and eternal as trads assume.

now if this was reinforced concrete, quite a different story!!

guardian has paid the land registry it seems. guess it is indeed next door wants to extend their landfill site. big money in landfill I guess

https://t.co/Lf24Z7MtYttheguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2…

That GE view with the excavator is apparently from March 2022 (don't trust GE's dating but initial landscaping on Stalling's Place site to S checks out. but it's def 2022). Could be they always hire plant at this landfill and this how they got it in so quickly and easily

It's also not road-worthy and there's no sign of a trailer that brought it in so yeah pretty convinced by this now: they planned to use the site for landfill

I must admit I am also an internet sleuth but I draw the line at paying the land registry (it's what, £3?!? i cant afford that sort of money)

reminder of active landfill site at the Oak Farm Quarry and the position of the Crooked House. it's not for property. to the S is the new housing development on the old Brick Works. where are they going to put the garbage when the site is full?

and as the mail have got info on, it's also about gaining ownership of the access road in make to shoving as much garbage into the ground as possible in their current site easier. that's who hates this building so much they spent half a million on it to torch it and knock it down

I'm pretty sure this case is cracked. now let's hope they have to rebuild it brick by brick. Even though its bond pattern is really quite weird. A reminder that the 360 sequence done Jan this year is a godsend as a record
https://t.co/i0h6Sy82CDgoo.gl/maps/afYibQteQ…

always fun when you can spot the kit eh