Fox & Grapes dates back over 200 years

THE first Directory of Birmingham was published by Sketchley and Adams in 1770 and it recorded a number of manufacturers in Freeman Street, including William Redding, a gilder operating from number 16.

This was on the corner with Park Street and would become the Fox & Grapes.

By Wrightson’s Directory of 1815, Freeman Street continued to be a centre of small-scale businesses but now one of them was that of James Grove, who was a victualler and maltster. As the term victualler usually referred to innkeepers, it may well be that he operated from number 16.

Grove was mentioned again in Wrightson’s Directory for 1823; then six years later a James Burton was given as a victualler in the street.

This time a number was included – and it was 16.

Thus it can be stated that a public house has been on the site of the ‘Fox and Grapes’ since at least 1829 and probably from at least 1815.

By 1849, the victualler at number 16 was John Aspinall, according to White’s Directory; while the Post Office of the same year named the premises as the “Fox & Grapes”.

It was an unusual name and remained so, for in a survey of pub names in 2011 there were only nine so called.

By the later 19th century, the era of the publican brewer in Birmingham was fast drawing to an end, overwhelmed by the rise of the large common breweries that were buying up pubs and beerhouses so as to have outlets for their beers.

Among them was Smith’s Brewery who would take over the Fox & Grapes.