Hockley and Birmingham Pub Crawl

Another fine day out in Birmingham, in which we covered Heritage pubs, a desi pub, a brewery tap, Black Country Ales, and a foolishly strong craft beer as a nightcap before the train home.
Now that's what I call a good bit of variety.
Here's the route we took, nicely clocking up the mileage throughout the day...

We started in the Jewellery Quarter at a pub that I've stood and photographed before, but never set foot in...

Rose Villa Tavern (172 Warstone Lane, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 6JW)
The Rose Villa Tavern was built for Mitchells & Butler in 1919 by architects Wood and Kendrick for the princely sum of £15,000.  It's not as un-spoilt as some of the other red-bricked gems in the city, but can boast some pretty stunning windows and decorative tiling within.

I'm really sad to see the Barton's Arms (visited on my last pub crawl around this neck of the woods) has recently shut it's doors again.  There's a plethora of pubs on the Birmingham heritage list with red 'currently closed' notices under their entries. 
It briefly looked like the Rose Villa may join them when it closed at the end of 2021, but Star Taverns rapidly installed new tenants and opened the doors after a bit of a spruce up.

It was doing a roaring trade for just gone midday when we visited, the main bar busy and loud with most tables taken.  Too loud for me - Michael Jackson and Abba not my lunchtime music of choice. 
I took my Timothy Taylor 'Landlord' (the sole cask option, hidden to the side of the bar) through to the quiet room behind the servery, which also happens to be the best place to admire the spectacular tiling.

 

The Rose Villa Tavern provided a nice pit-stop in our trek north of the city centre.
We had another 20 minutes ahead of us past Gib Heath Park, dodgy housing estates, light industrial units, and some depressingly prolific fly-tipping.
Would it be worth the effort for lunch in a desi pub?  Oh yes!

Soho Tavern (407 Park Road, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 5SR)
At one point the Soho Tavern was on a steady downhill slope to closure.  There's a picture on the Lost Pubs Project, showing it with cream tiles on the lower half, impenetrable thick bottle glass windows, and a proper old school M&B pub sign.

The current owners took over in 2014, introduced Indian food, and saw a whole new customer base rock up through the door.  It's been enough of a success to see them open several more venues of the same name throughout the West Midlands.

It's now very shiny and modern.  I'd love to know what it used to look like, but I'll guarantee it's unrecognizable today, with the possible exception of the not so shiny and modern WC's.

There was no real ale available, but keg options Blue Moon or 'Jute' from Salt seemed a safe bet with your lunchtime curry.  As was the MB keg Mild that I picked, then went back for more of.

We'd ventured into West Brom territory here.  The Soho Tavern was pretty full with supporters getting a pre-match drink and bite to eat prior to the local derby against Birmingham City.  The tattooed chap with curry-induced sweaty brow at the next table checked if we were here for the footy and if we were 'blue noses'.  Having found a mix of both sets of fans on the next table there was no ire for the visitors from across town, both seeming to share a distaste for Villa instead.

We didn't have far to go to our next pub.
The Heritage-listed Black Eagle is little more than 50 meters down the road.
And the pub sign has to be up there with the best I've seen...

Black Eagle (16 Factory Road, Hockley, B18 5JU)

Re-built in 1895, it feels as though not a great deal has changed since then.  This is a cracking proper pub with four rooms around a central bar where the staff can shuffle between counters looking out onto three of the drinking spaces.

The tap room was the busiest, the two hand pumps serving up Wye Valley 'Butty Bach' or 'HPA'.
"What's yours love?", asked the cheery lady behind the bar.
As the chap in front was carrying away three pints of freshly poured foaming HPA I opted for the same.  £4.00 for a quite superb pint that I'm beginning to think may have been worthy of more than the 4* I gave it on the CAMRA scoring thingy. 

The pub quietened down a little towards the end of our visit, many of the punters obviously heading off to the Hawthorns.

We had a 25-minute walk ahead of us, willing the drizzle not to develop into proper rain and soak us between pubs (I have a habit of getting soaked between pubs in Birmingham).
Burning Soul wasn't going to quite match the heritage pubs as far as the photos are concerned...

Burning Soul Brewery (Unit 1 Mott Street Industrial, Hockley, B19 1HE)
With limited opening on Friday and Saturday only, this tap room has always eluded me when I've been in the vicinity.
It's a pretty down to earth tap room, with a handful of beer-fest style benches and a couple of sofas that I can attest are hard to get out of once you've sunk into them.  The brewing kit lies in the back section beyond the bar counter, a small group getting a tour whilst we were there.

Burning Soul was set up by enthusiastic home brewers who decided to procure some proper kit and make their concoctions commercially available.  They moved into this industrial unit in 2016 after it had been vacated by Two Towers Brewery - who were themselves moving to the Gunmakers Arms.

The beer board advertised 11 choices, 10 on the taps and one cask ale which I opted for - a most enjoyable 'Mild Obsession'.

Next up, a bit of a diversion from the straight-forward route back to the city.  My central Birmingham beer guide ticks were missing the Prince of Wales, tucked between a couple of tower blocks and the International Convention Centre.

The Prince of Wales (84 Cambridge Street, Birmingham, B1 2NP)
This dates back to 1854 and is the last standing of what was once a row of three storey buildings along Cambridge Street.
The pub has been in the hands of the ever-reliable Black Country Ales since 2022. 
So you know there will be a long run of cask ales to pick from...

Beers came from Beowulf, Wantsum, Silhill, Salopian, an M&B Brew XI, and the four regular Black Country Ales offerings.
I picked the Silhill 'North Star', a jet black smooth chocolatey porter.
We got the last available table right at the far end of the single room.  It's Six Nations time again and a fair amount of the customers in the Prince of Wales were glued to the screens.

Right...almost there.  The final leg of our route took us close to Snow Hill Station and to the magnificent-looking Old Contemptibles...

The Old Contemptibles (176 Edmund Street, Birmingham, B3 2HB)
Originally an 18th century pub, this was redeveloped as the Albion Hotel in the 1880's with a nod toward the gin palaces which were popular at the time.  It was renamed in 1953 in honour of a British Expeditionary Force who fought in France in the First World War and later made the pub a regular meeting place.

There's just the one sprawling, long, room with high ceilings and impressive big windows.

A relatively familiar Nicholson's beer range was on offer, including 'London Pride', Nicholsons 'Pale ale', 'Doom Bar', 'Old Peculiar' and 'Plum Porter'.
I did raise a quizzical eyebrow and question the £9.15 price tag for a pint of Plum Porter and a half of Old Peculiar.  Strewth.

Sitting in the corner of the pub, sipping our beers, we checked train times for our return journey and discovered we had a fair bit of time to spare thanks to a cancelled train.
Which provided Mrs PropUptheBar the opportunity for a last-gasp Craft Beer Diversion in time added on.

Kilder (5 Shaw's Passage, Digbeth, B5 5JG)
I had no idea there was a craft beer bar in the arches underneath Moor Street station and perhaps this is a dangerous bit of knowledge for future Birmingham trips!
Kilder is a stylish railway arch, with a range of seating, including comfy leather padded benches at the sides, and moody lighting.

The tap list provided us with 14 options: lagers from Verdant and Duration; stouts from Siren and Porterhouse; continental brews from La Trappe and Weihenstephan.
But, of course, I went for the strongest - a Gamma 'You Sure About That' 10% TIPA.
"You sure about that?" asked Mrs PropUptheBar, rightly predicting that I'd fall asleep on the train on the way home. 

The West Midlands had come up trumps again with a great set of places for us to visit on this day out.
And I'll be back, as I still have plenty more Birmingham heritage pubs, brewery taps, and desi pubs on my 'to do' list.

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! 🍻

A Spotted Dog, White Swan and an Anchor

Digbeth Part 2 - Proper Pubs

In which we follow up the taprooms with a bit of West Midlands pub heritage around Digbeth way.
It's taken me an awful long time between reporting on the brewery taps and the pubs.  Perhaps I've just been holding off to tie-in with the return of Peaky Blinders to our screens...

Just across the road from the Peaky Blinder mural, sitting on a lonely corner, with some quality foliage on it's frontage, is the Spotted Dog.Spotted Dog (104 Warwick Street, Digbeth, B12 0NH - web)
At it's peak, Digbeth had a thriving Irish community and many of the pubs reflect this.  At the Spotted Dog you'll find Irish flags and bric-a-brac and some choice newspaper clippings about the national rugby team getting the better of their rivals.

Oakham 'Citra', Castle Rock 'Harvest Pale' and a cask cider were available, but I went straight for a pint of the Holden's 'Black Country Mild'.  Mild being on trend and me perpetually trying to be trendy.
A fine pint, supped next to the fire in the quiet side room pictured, accompanied by the unusual pub find of a vegetarian Scotch egg.

There's an outdoor space to the side which would be a winner in warmer weather.  Full of odd decorations...

Is Power Folk a hip new genre?
Can't keep up since they stopped publishing Melody Maker.

And spotted dogs on windows...

Digbeth used to be a thoroughly run-down area which had the ability to petrify unsuspecting long-distance bus travelers who found themselves deposited at the dreary coach station.
Once the most central of Birmingham's industrial regions, the factories gradually closed, the spray paint enthusiasts had a field day, and the area fell into disrepair.  But more recently it's seen a revival with old buildings housing music venues, bars and art spaces.  Plans are afoot for the big old Typhoo Tea factory to be transformed into urban apartments, and I suspect gentrified Digbeth will be unrecognisable in a few years time.  And I'll complain that I liked it better when it was run-down.

Back when the factories were open, workers could take their pick of 20 pubs along Bradford Street.  Now just two remain - both on the itinerary today.

I'm betting if I come back in a few years time this pub will be dwarfed by shiny new buildings on either side of it

White Swan (276 Bradford Street, Digbeth, B12 0QY)
Built at the very end of the 19th century, the White Swan is a West Midlands heritage gem which recently looked like it may be lost forever.  It was in a sorry state with the doors and windows boarded up and graffiti plastered over the red brick facade.
After a 2-year closure, it re-opened in the second half of 2021, overseen and restored to it's former glory by the folks behind the Woodman and Post Office Vaults.

We stepped through the door on the corner into the narrow L-shaped room with an impressive long bar stretching it's length, stools and bench seating lining the walls.  Served quickly, I ordered something from Sheffield with 'Biscuit' in the title, only to be disappointed when it was declared 'off' mid-pour.  I settled for an American Pale Ale from Stourbridge's Green Duck Brewery (other choices were from Fixed Wheel and Ossett).
This was taken through the spectacularly tiled corridor into the quiet lounge behind the bar.

Just a few minutes further down the road was Victorian red-brick and terracotta corner pub number two: the Anchor.

The Anchor (308 Bradford Street, Digbeth, B5 6ET - web)
I first squeezed into a bustling Anchor on my way to St Andrew's on match day and loved it.  Being a good traditional boozer, a little off the beaten track, and a real ale haven, I used to always make a revisit whenever I found myself in Birmingham.  That said, it's been a fair while since I've been here and on this revisit I was a little underwhelmed.
Perhaps initially put off by having to wait while both bar staff were busily concocting cocktails (never a good sign, in my humble opinion).  

Perhaps because there was a shortage of comfy places to sit - the back room was dark and gloomy with some dubious characters in it; the charming little snug to the side closed with stools stacked on top of tables.
But probably just because it's the kind of pub that's much better when it's packed full of punters.

The ales were local - they could probably have rolled the barrels along the pavement from Halton Turner, whose tap room under the Victorian railway viaduct we'd visited earlier.
With a choice of tropical pale or porter, I picked the dark stuff with another pint of the 'Blindspot', in great condition.

The Anchor brought to a close our Saturday afternoon wander around Digbeth, as we drank up and made our way back to Moor Street station for a sensibly early train home.

There are a couple of other good places nearby which we didn't have time for today, but we'll be back - there's still a lot of pub ticking to do in Birmingham.