Gooch Street North to Bromsgrove Street

From the corner of the Kent Street Baths site we are now going to make our way up Gooch Street North to Bromsgrove Street. As we turn the corner here to the right we pass the head office of the well known bookstore chain Peter’s who are (to quote their website): “The UK’s leading specialist supplier of children’s books and furniture to schools, academies, public libraries and multi-academy trusts, and we’re passionate about inspiring children and young people to read. ”

Then we will pass a cleared patch of land awaiting development and within a few more paces we find ourselves at the door of another pub! Well, it once was a pub. This building looks as if it is abandoned and it is boarded up. What we see was Unity House standing at the corner of Lower Essex Street.

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As a pub it would have been built around 200 years ago and it was called the The Rose & Crown. As the houses in the area were demolished or taken over for business purposes and the population decreased, the need for a pub diminished and in 1958 it closed. It was taken over by a company called Shapero, a firm of wholesalers specialising in tailors trimmings, trouser pocket material, tape measures and ribbons. By the 1980s a selection of smaller trades unions had their offices in the building including metalworkers’ unions and the Society of Lithographers, Designers and Engravers. The building was given the name of Unity House. By 2011 it was empty and awaits the development of part of the block for housing where the outer walls will form a striking feature looking along Bromsgrove Street to Hurst Street.

If we now cross Lower Essex Street and carry on for about 75 yards we will find ourselves back at Hurst Street. If we stand on the corner we will be underneath the Rhinestone Rhino and if we look across Bromsgrove Street, to the north we will see a branch of Tesco Express. We’ll take a brief look at this corner in the past before we move on.