Wrestling Heritage

The city centre venue of Digbeth City Hall hosted events to entertain the people of Birmingham for a quarter of a century. Fairport Convention, The Pogues, the Sex Pistols and the Moody Blues appeared on posters alongside the names of Kellett, McManus and Nagasaki. 

The hall, formerly known as Digbeth Institute, opened in 1908 as a church attached to the Carrs Lane Congregational Church. Birmingham City Council bought the hall for £65,000 in 1955 and turned it into the Civic Hall for letting.

The name “Digbeth Institute” was carved in stone above the doorway.  If it hadn’t been for every other wrestling fan walking in the same direction the place would easily have been missed.

It was the most unassuming public hall anywhere, just a couple of doors in the middle of a terrace. Strangely enough, though, if you stepped across the road and looked up at the large, grandiose windows set in the stone walls you could easily imagine it was a grand country house.

The country house theme was continued when you went through the single set of double doors. It was like standing in the hallway of a very big home, with a tiny window to buy the tickets! Stairs swept up to the balcony, which went around three sides of the hall. As the centre for the punk rock activity in Birmingham the place gained a reputation for the place where fans jumped from the balcony, sometimes with serious consequences.  

Through the hallway and  up the stairs into the arena. The wrestling ring seemed huge and dominated the entire hall, which was quite small. The balcony loomed above, and gave an appearance of crashing down on those below! Climbing the stairs again and sitting in the balcony the ring seemed very, very close.

Nagasaki’s Number One Fan, writing in the British Wrestling Archive said:

“Wrestlers on the stage could virtually reach up to people who where leaning over the balcony as proved once when someone dropped an ice cream on to John Quinns' forehead.”

The place always seemed to be packed. The atmosphere was terrific, likened to a bear pit by some fans.

In the 1960s the promoter was Lew Phillips. He put on some cracking shows, but most of the wrestlers had never been seen on tv. There was Bronco Jack Cassidy, an American called Klondyke Bill, Pedro the Gypsy and a host of colourful characters. Judo Pat Roach was another regular at Digbeth when he was just starting out, years before he became a big name. Things got a bit heated sometimes, and it wasn’t unknown for the wrestlers to fight outside the ring.

The local police station was a couple of doors away, and it wasn’t uncommon to see a few of the local bobbies coming into the hall to keep a eye on things, or more likely just have a free night out at the wrestling. One night they had to send for reinforcements when a few fans became a bit over enthusiastic.

In the early 1970s Lew Phillips stopped promoting and one of the big promoters took over. Suddenly we had the chance to see the big names  that we’d seen on tv. Pat Roach came back, because he was a star now. It seemed great at first, but the magic started to go. The wrestling was good, but it just didn’t seem as exciting  as in the old days.

Oh well, nothing is forever. Except the memories.