A Fine Day Out in Birmingham

As a last hurrah of the Easter holidays, Midlands pub specialist Life After Football organised an excursion to a pub or two in central Birmingham. 

Taking in the elegant Barton Arms (above), this seemed like a fine day out and a grand reason for me to arrange a day off work and hop aboard a northbound train.

I should point out that attendees on the day included Paul Baily and Retired Martin, as well as Life After Football himself.  All of whom probably remember more than I do and have written/will write great blog posts about it.

I'm just here to provide the supplementary pictures and spelling mistakes.

Here's the route we ended up taking...

The meeting place was the London & North Western, a recently opened Wetherspoon's located on the concourse of New Street Station.

Despite arriving in the city centre with enough time to grab a cup of coffee and browse in the bookstore, I was still late getting to Spoons.  Turns out I haven't mastered the multiple entrances to New Street after all.

Just time for me to have a swift Exmoor 'Southern Brown Ale' before we set off for the Post Office Vaults.

Post Office Vaults (84 New Street, Birmingham, B2 4BA - web)
This subterranean bar is a next door neighbour to Birmingham post office and many years ago was a Mitchells & Butlers pub named The Royal Mail.  It's had several incarnations since, opening in its current guise as a real ale hotspot in 2011.

You're pretty much guaranteed to find some good milds in the West Midlands and we would get the chance to try several throughout the day.  Hobsons 'The Champion', a 3.2% nutty mild, is a regular fixture in the Post Office Vaults and made for a fabulous lunchtime pint.

This was a bar that used to be packed to the rafters whenever I visited years ago, but it's been quiet the last couple of times I've called in.  At least we managed to find them one more customer, as Paul Bailey joined us having made the longest journey of us all from sunny Kent.

Stafford Paul counts out the coins to buy t'other Paul a pint of mild

It was a 10-minute walk past the cathedral and onto Steelhouse Lane, a street which features the Birmingham Children's Hospital, Magistrate's Court, and one-time police station and lock-up (now an interesting looking museum which I must get to one day).
Our destination was the Queen's Head...

Queen's Head (28 Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham, B4 6BJ - web)
It seems this pub has had a few different names and been painted a few different colours over the years.
I went searching for a bit of info on the pub and found this on a Birmingham history forum...
"Remember the lock ins and the juke box...I know many of the staff from around the law courts and the general hospital were regulars there...Anyone remember the story of the woman buried in the wall?"
A woman buried in the wall - now you've got my attention!

 

After spending 12 years as the Jekyll and Hyde, it was refurbished and reopened with its original name by the resurrected Davenports Brewery in 2022.  They've made it all very smart and shiny with lots of tiles and some nice old brewery adverts in frames on the wall.  

Davenport's ales on the bar were 'Original', 'Gold', 'IPA', and 'Mild' - all with fantastic retro pump clips. I went for a second mild in a row - a smooth dark and easy-to-drink beer.

The Queens Head provided the return of Mild smut in the Gents WC... 

Moving on, we set out on our longest walk of the day - 1.2 miles northward on the A34 - not a contender for one of Birmingham's most picturesque walks.
But the pub at the end of it is very picturesque.

Making our way in, there's a vestibule with mosaic floor bearing the pub name and two doors both leading to the same place.  Many of the dividers which would have created many more separate areas were removed at the end of the sixties.

Barton Arms (144 High Street, Newtown, B6 4UP - web)
Two hand pumps on the bar dispensed Oakham 'Citra', reportedly on very good form, and - my pick -  a Titanic 'Cherry Porter'.  

Life After Football speculated that when Mitchells & Butlers built this as a flagship pub in 1901 it would have been in the heart of Ansell's Brewery territory - a grand statement to the rivals.  He tried his best to act as informative tour guide for the day...
"Martin, are you interested in a bit of history?".
"Not if it's more than 10-minutes ago, no."

So, whilst Martin is busy signing the visitor book on our behalf, I'll get distracted by a bit of history.

Architects James and Lister Lea were responsible for building the pub in 1901.  Their work can be seen on several other pubs in the city, including the Woodman, The Anchor and the White Swan.
But this is the real gem, with multiple rooms over two floors and intricate features throughout, from etched glass to snob screens and elaborate staircases.

It was popular with performers from the (now demolished) Aston Hippodrome, most famously Laurel & Hardy who rested here between performances during their final UK tour in 1954.
Somewhere upstairs (out-of-bounds on our visit) are two rooms, one of which was once a billiards room where 15-time world snooker champion Joe Davis used to practice.

The pub was threatened with demolition in 1969, then closed between 2000 and 2003 after failing to attract enough custom.  The back two rooms are now set up for dining with Thai cuisine on offer, hopefully giving a few more folk a reason to make the trip here.
I was blown away by this majestic pub.

How on earth could Life After Football follow that up on the day's itinerary?

Life After Football's Big Brand Lager and Shisha Diversion:

You'll be surprised to hear this one's not on the Heritage Pub List

Big Smoke Steakhouse & Bar (97 High Street, Newtown, B6 4HG)
Well, this was somewhere a little different.  The two Paul's made the decision to swerve this stop, staying a little longer in the Barton's, popping their heads in on the way past and frowning at us, then getting to the Bull before the heavy rain started.  Hmmm..who made the right choice?
With a stylishly red-lit bar, the Big Smoke consisted of one simple room and a shisha yard out back. 

I made a poor decision of picking one of the mass-produced lagers from the taps, whilst thinking Martin had been exceptionally wise with his order for an espresso.  Until his interest was piqued by small dumpy bottles of Jamaican 16.5% wine.

We exited the Smoke House to discover it had started to rain heavily.
And proceeded to get quite wet on the 10-minute walk to the Bull.

This cracking pub is a revisit for me, so all I'll do here is commend a marvelous half pint of Church End Brewery 'Grave Digger's Ale' and bemoan my failure to take a quality pub cat picture.

 

"Are you alright?", the landlady asked me, which suggested that my tipsy enthusiasm for cat photography was making me look suspicious and that I shouldn't have helped Martin finish the Jamaican cough medicine wine.

We moved on to the Hen & Chickens, a desi pub on the edge of the Jewellery Quarter.

Hen & Chickens (27 Constitution Hill, Hockley, B19 3LE)
A grand street-corner boozer with a cask and curry sign above the door, the Hen & Chickens was the busiest place of the day: drinkers propping up the bar and groups having mouth-watering platters of food delivered to their tables.

The sole cask on the offer was a Wadworth 'Horizon' - not really a beer I'd come all the way to Birmingham to drink, but on reasonable form.
It was nice to have our numbers bolstered by Leon at this point, who'd finished his days work and caught up with us.

Time was fast running out and the rain was becoming wetter and more persistent.
No way we were making it around Life After Football's suggested 10 pubs, so the last point of call for the day appeared to be the Rock and Roll Brewhouse.

Rock and Roll Brewhouse (19 Hall Street, Hockley, B18 6BS)
This is another revisit for me as I included it in a short Jewellery Quarter tour in 2022.  But it was a delight to return, with the vibe quite different on a Friday evening with moody lighting and a decent number of punters.
There's some disgraceful behavior in the picture below that would never be allowed in a Sam Smith's house...people glued to their phones, and pesky pub photographers...

Three beers brewed onsite were available on the bar, with my pick being the enjoyable 'Instant Calmer' pale ale - extra points for the 7" vinyl pump clip...

We headed back into the evening gloom and rain to make our way back to train stations for homeward-bound journeys.

At which point I foolishly asked for directions to the Good Intent and whizzed off in a different direction without saying polite goodbyes. 
Sorry!  I'm only socially inept at the end of an excursion around eight pubs!

Prop Up the Bar's Unnecessary Supplementary Pub:

The Good Intent (32-33 Great Western Arcade, Birmingham, BH2 5HU)
I was keen to get to the only central Birmingham beer guide pub that I hadn't previosuly visited.
Close to Snow Hill station, this is a converted shop unit in the smart Great Western Arcade.
Run by Craddock's Brewery, they have an admirable 'not for profit' model, with donations being made to local charities and good causes - hence the pub name.

Six hand pumps on the bar dispensed local ales from Craddock's, Holdens and Green Duck.  A great choice from which I picked Craddock's 'Crazy Sheep', an easy-to-drink pale ale.

Handy giant clock on the wall.  Cripes, it's time to drink up and catch my own train home.

It was brilliant to see everyone who attended this day out, and a big thanks goes to Life After Football for putting the itinerary together and not getting us too lost in the wild streets north of the city centre.
Cheers! 🍻