The Old Crown, Birmingham

There is an amusing old 1877 Punch cartoon showing Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli as a traveling salesman trying to convince Queen Victoria, a housewife, to swap her old crown for an exotic new one. It was a parody of the Act which made Victoria an empress rather than just a queen, so she was not outranked by her daughter, Vicky, wife of the future Emperor of Germany. She accepted the new, but without divesting herself of the old.

There is a grand old public house in Birmingham called the Old Crown. It is a contender for the nation’s oldest pub and claims to date to 1368, though some sources say that the current building is fifteenth and sixteenth century. For this title, it competes with establishments in Bolton, Norwich and Nottingham which claim an additional 100-200 years’ heritage. Nevertheless, the manner in which an old model of a crown is held aloft by a pole protruding from its walls almost seems like an offer or invitation. Even when Englishmen fought each other for the Crown, such as in the Roses Wars, it was not because each and every soldier or captain wished to wear it for himself but because they sided with one or two who did. Yet in Christ, the only King of kings, a crown is offered to all who will come to Him. With us, He shares His royalty and His grandeur; to those who seek Him, He bestows a regality and honour they would never otherwise attain. Truly, a crown is on offer, and it is the oldest there ever was.

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:8

A. D