What’s it like to step inside the lost pubs on Beacon Street, Lichfield

The Beehive at 204 Beacon Street … one of the lost pubs of Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

On my regular walks along Beacon Street, between the Hedgehog and the centre of Lichfield, I often wonder about the old pubs that have disappeared from this street in Lichfield.

When I was writing about the lost pubs of Lichfield last year in a blog posting during the pandemic lockdown, I referred to Little George at 60 Beacon Street, on the south side of the corner with Anson Avenue, with the Cathedral Hotel on the north side of the corner.

‘Little George’ closed as a pub in 1956, and its licence was transferred to a new pub, the Windmill on Wheel Lane. It then became a three-bedroom house. I noticed last week that it is still on the market through Bill Tandy Estate Agents of Bore Street, Lichfield, with an asking price that is now put at of £460,000.

A more discreet presence on Beacon Street is the Beehive at No 204. This was one of the short-lived pubs on Beacon Street that had disappeared by the early 20th century.

This too is now a private house, but once again last week I smiled as I read the discreet yet intriguing plaque above the front door that quotes John Nicholls, the landlord in 1848:

Within these walls we’re all alive,
good liquor makes us funny,
if you’re dry then step inside,
and taste the flavour of our honey.

‘If you’re dry then step inside, and taste the flavour of our honey’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Additional reading:

John Shaw, The Old Pubs of Lichfield (Lichfield: George Lane Publishing, 2001/2007).

Neil Coley, Lichfield Pubs (Stroud: Amberley, 2016).