It was already the best-looking pub on Broad Street thanks to its Art Deco frontage – as well as having multiple hanging baskets and the largest ‘secret’ beer garden in the city centre tucked away at the back.
Now Wetherspoon’s The Figure of Eight has temporarily disappeared behind scaffolding to facilitate a £130,000 makeover.
Even regular Broad Street visitors were surprised to see the scaffolding after it was erected at night once the overhead electric cables for the West Midlands Metro tram lines had been switched off.
A Wetherspoon spokesman told Westside BID: “As well as the scaffolding itself, we also had to pay for the installation team to attend special health and safety training as it was so close to electrified cables for the trams.
“The scaffolding was then installed overnight when the trams had finished and power switched off.”
A sign in the pub window reassures customers: “We are open as usual but are currently undergoing external repair works. We apologise for any inconvenience.”
The Wetherspoon spokesman added: “The current works are required for painting render, refurbishing existing signage and changing from neon to LED light.
“There are also some planned health and safety checks, removal of high-level planting brackets and some work on window frames and CCTV.
The site began as a car showroom in 1932 before becoming a Top Q clothing warehouse that was decimated by fire in 1986.
JD Wetherspoon launched The Figure of Eight at the time of the 1996 Euros at Wembley, with the name chosen to reflect the shape of the local canal network.
In keeping with Wetherspoon pubs, the walls are decorated with framed images of local achievers through history, with The Figure of Eight’s roll of honour including Thomas Attwood, one of the city’s first two MPs, plus Lord Nelson, whose Birmingham visit led to the city’s first public statue in his memory (it’s now in the Bullring).
Before and after pictures of The Figure of Eight by Graham Young.
