BRITANNIC ASSURANCE

THE BRITANNIC ASSURANCE NEW CHIEF OFFICE

The Britannic Assurance started in Birmingham in 1866 as the British

Workmen’s and General Insurance, changing its name in the early 1900s at about the time that its chief office was built at Broad Street Corner in Birmingham (1904). This office was closed in 1962 and moved to the recreation ground of Moor Green House, a thirteen-acre estate enclosed by the current Moor Green Lane and Yew Tree Road. All the recreational facilities there were retained including cricket, football and tennis along with surrounding lawns, gardens and wellestablished trees. Work on site started on 1 June 1959 and building operations were in their final stages in April 1962 with furniture being installed and visits to the site arranged

for March and April. On 21 March 1963, the chairman and manager realised a 30-year-old dream when he formally opened the new head office at Moor Green in the presence of the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Alderman EW Horton, JP, and other Birmingham personalities. A plaque in the main entrance hall was unveiled, luncheon was served to some 200 guests and a tour of the building followed (details sourced from The Britannic Magazine, 17:3, Special ‘Gold’ Edition of August 1963).

Sports ground

The new chief office of Britannic Assurance was a modern structure with five floors and two wings with cream travertine marble exterior walls, window frames of Burma teak and a central feature of green Westmorland slate. The grounds extended over thirteen acres and included the sports grounds with football

and hockey pitches and ‘one of the finest cricket squares in the Midlands’. On the east side there was scope for landscape gardening, including a rockery, a small bed and a shrubbery. There were about 350 trees edging the site. The Britannic Assurance Chief Office block was converted into luxury private flats, Britannic Park Apartments, in 1999. There are 113 apartments, set in lovely landscaped gardens and accessed from Yew Tree Road.

Central entrance hall

-Janet Berry

If you have any memories of Britannic’s Chief Office, Moor Green, or the new flats, please contact us on moseleyhistory@ gmail.com . See our website for more information on Britannic Assurance: moseley-society/ local-history.org.uk