John Inshaw's Steam Clock - by Chris Upton

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Date:1859

Description:At one time, believe it or not, the way to run a successful pub was to make it different from every other one, rather than the same. Some little gimmick or talking point that made customers come there, rather then go round the corner to the next one. A case in point were the premises at the corner of Morville Street and Sherborne Street in Ladywood. A businessman called John Inshaw took possession of the place in 1859, with the intention of turning it into the most talked about tavern in town. That was going to take some effort, since this part of Ladywood was still semi-rural and way off the map for most night-lifers. But Mr Inshaw was a hobbyist, and felt sure that his hobby would be of interest to the population of an industrial town. He made models. Not just models that sat on the mantlepiece and did nothing, but working models, driven by anything from steam and gas to the latest source of power, electricity. Whether it was a small locomotive engine, or a steam-driven carriage, or a boat, or an electric car, Mr Inshaw had one. 100 years of new technology and all in one room. But most famous of all Inshaw’s models was his steam clock, a completely ridiculous idea and therefore all the more worth seeing. Batteries, as they say, were not included. A small boiler made steam; the steam condensed into droplets of water that fell on a plate at regular intervals, and the plate then drove the mechanism. Victorian Birmingham was full of public houses, but none, you could be sure, had a steam clock. (Whether it was ten minutes fast, like most pub clocks, I do not know.) And so the “Steam Clock Tavern” was born. It took Mr Inshaw some time to get a licence, but once he did, the pub in Morville Street did a roaring trade, so much so that it converted to a music hall in the early 1880s. Accommodation inside was, by all accounts, fairly rough and ready, and the entertainment was the usual mixture of performing dogs, facial contortionists and topical singers, but at least the clock over the door was worth coming for. It was almost a pleasure to get thrown out at closing time.

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Image courtesy of: Birmingham Libraries

Donor ref:Birmingham Libraries (66/7666)

Source: Birmingham Libraries ,  Woodview Primary School

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