Seven Stars, Oldswinford

The Seven Stars was built for Mitchells & Butlers' brewery (architect William Jenkins) and opened in January 1905. Of red brick, it is situated close to Stourbridge Junction station. It has an outstanding collection of M&B etched and painted windows and there is lots of Maw & Co wall tiling. The original layout survives with some alterations. The main entrance is into a hall with a restaurant on the left and public bar and rear smoke room to the right. The hallway has large amounts of light blue and cream dado tiling and this extends up the stairs and into the public bar. A hatch in the hallway shows that the servery has been slightly truncated. The public has its original bar counter and a magnificent, ornately-carved four-bay bar-back with mirrors and a central pediment with (replica) clock. Beneath the pediment, the hatch to the smoke room was recently reopened and has a lovely piece of M&B coloured glass above. The right-hand external door once accessed an off-sales but this was incorporated into the bar many years ago. The former smoke room rear-right has been modernised, but unused bell-pushes survive above the benches as do the etched windows proclaiming 'Smoking Room'. The restaurant area occupies the former lounge bar but has been refurbished in café bar style and greatly extended at the left hand side; a couple of etched windows are the only items of interest.

Historic details courtesy of Pevsner Architectural Guides: Birmingham and the Black Country', by Andy Foster, Nikolaus Pevsner and Alexandraa Wedgwood. Yale University Press, forthcoming (2022).