Wolverhampton Pub Wandering

It's been a fair few years since I was last in Wolverhampton, visiting the city centre pubs pre-football at Molineux.  This time around, on a grey Tuesday in August with no footy to worry about, I planned to visit a handful of suggestions from the Good Beer Guide.

Starting with the Hogshead, handily close to the train station and open conveniently early.

Hogshead (186 Stafford Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1NA - web)
Every bit the city centre boozer that I imagine gets quite lively on a weekend, at first glance it's not the most obvious choice for the beer-guide selection panel.
Ah, but they do have a long run of hand pumps offering a whopping choice of 10 ales.

Being there at 11:30am, there were couple of coffee drinkers and one old boy on the Carlsberg, so none of those hand pumps had seen much action by this point.
I randomly picked the nearest one to me - Newbridge 'Solaris' which took a while to pour and can diplomatically be described as 'okay'.

I quite liked the Hogshead - a real mix of styles, offering something for everyone, from the craft ale wall to the gin shelf and cocktail menu.
My US-style booth had it's own little sports TV screen at the end of it.  Great for match-day - less exciting on Tuesday morning with news that Tammy Abraham had been sold for a whole lot of money being repeated on a loop.

Just around the corner from the Hogshead was a music wall, allowing you to scan the discs to listen to key tracks celebrating the musical heritage of Wolverhampton.
Hang on, no 'Spaceman' by Babylon Zoo?!

Onward to the pub, in this case heritage listed, with a fine attractive frontage...

Posada (48 Lichfield Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1DG)

We missed this pub on my previous visit to the city, when it had been packed to the rafters with Wolves supporters.

It couldn't have been much different on a Tuesday afternoon - just three other punters made their way in whilst I was there, with the landlord spending most of his time at a stool on the customer side of the bar.

With a 'coming soon' sign on the Salopian and another pump clip turned around, the only ale option was a Holden's 'Golden Glow'.  Which I was happy with - a decent, local pint.
I took this through the archway to the attractive rear room, with it's leather cushioned bench seating either side of the fireplace.

Not for the first time in a heritage pub, the music didn't quite fit the historic surroundings... 
Miguel Rios 'Song of Joy', followed by Royal House 'Can You Party'.
Things got a little more mainstream after, but that was some of the oddest pub music of the year so far.  Shazam was involved - I'm not that good at identifying music.

Wolverhampton has three micro pubs listed in the current beer guide, but my quandaries about which to fit into my itinerary were solved by two of them being shut at the beginning of the week.
It was a couple of hours later that I made the walk south of the ring-road to visit the one micro open on a Tuesday, The Starting Gate.

Good to see Gremlins not forgotten in 2021... 

It took me around 20-minutes to get to Penn Fields, although that includes the time taken to try and find the right exit from the ring road underpass.

The Starting Gate (134 Birches Barn Road, Penn Fields, WV3 7BG - web)
'Micro pub' works well as a description to differentiate trad pubs from those that have been transformed from one-time shops, offices, or in this case, banks.
But 'micro' doesn't work quite so well as far as size is concerned.  The Starting Gate was bigger than the Posada, extending beyond the front room, past a spiral staircase, and into a back room with more seating.  Bars on the windows in this room reflect the building's previous use.

Most of the customers occupied the front room, decorated with horse racing memorabilia.  The bar was manned by the kind of gaffer who can start pouring a Proper Job for one of his regulars with the merest nod of the head and not a word spoken.
Other ale choices were Goffs 'Cheltenham Gold' or a Backyard 'Blonde', the latter of which was my pick of the three.

I timed my departure just right to hop on a bus just around the corner from the pub which whisked me back to the centre.

I then trekked out West, past the shiny modern Marston's offices and Banks's brewery. 
In this residential area there was a nice little triangle of three Beer Guide pubs to try. 
The first of which was the Combermere Arms which turned out to be a bit of a gem...

Combermere Arms (90 Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton, WV3 0TY)
Nice lamp-post in the front garden.
Attractive old building, dating back to 1860. 
Comfortable no-nonsense basic pub rooms to the right of the central corridor.
But you don't need to know any of that.
All you need to know is that they've got a tree growing in the gents toilets!

As covered by local newspaper the Express and Star - "Hap-pee days!  Pub's loo tree continues to flourish".  (Bit of a news shortage that week, I suspect)

Picture of the pub landlord and tree
borrowed from the local paper.
Cos asking random strangers if they can take a 
picture of you in the gents is inadvisable.

I finished a nice pint of AJ's 'Beertrice' in the Combermere Arms, then made the short walk along Merrivale Road to reach the next pub...

The Chindit (113 Merridale Road, Wolverhampton, WV3 9SE)
I have to admit the unusual name was puzzling me until I looked it up. The Chindits were a special-ops regiment which operated behind enemy lines in Burma in the second world war, for whom the first landlord of the pub served.

Two real ales were on offer, both from West Yorkshire's Ossett Brewery.
I un-sociably took my 'White Rat' (in top condition) through to the empty front room, which contains a stage area for live music and a Wurlitzer jukebox.

And on to the last of the three pubs...

The Royal Oak (70 Compton Road, Wolverhampton, WV3 9PH)
The Royal Oak had the most bustling and lively atmosphere of all the pubs I'd visited during this day.
It's a traditional stand-alone street corner boozer, welcoming and inviting, with various areas within partitioned to provide plenty of cosy seating.  The improved weather of the evening had also drawn a decent crowd to the garden at one side.
A Marston's house, I had my chance to try a beer from the local brewing giants - a Banks's Mild, which may just have been my unpredictable best beer of the day.

And after that, I called it a night.
I must have worn myself out - I walked straight past the Great Western on the way to my hotel without being tempted.

Next up, after a good nights sleep: Wetherspoon's in Wednesbury on Wednesday.