Somehow, I didn’t know this place existed until a colleague mentioned it.
An ex bank, right in the city centre near the cathedral, it’s rare in being a Fullers pub in the Midlands. The beer is excellent, the building magnificent, and the food looks good, if not the cheapest. There’s a nice atmosphere too. It also must be the only pub with a theatre…
One of two Shakespeare pubs I know of around Birmingham City Centre, this is the one just off New St. It’s a handy escape from the shopping hordes.
It was one of the first smoke-free pubs too, doing so well before the ban, with some seating outside on the pavement to cater for the smokers. There’s decent beer, music you can talk over, and OK food (standard pub food, but well priced), but that does mean it gets busy at lunchtimes and immediately after work. It’s very obviously part of a chain (the menu is the giveaway), but still feels like a proper pub.
Tucked away in what is now a backsteet but used to be the main road to Birmingham, The Wheatsheaf won Walsall CAMRA pub of the year 2008. It’s had a variable past, but is now a nice friendly pub with good beer. About the only disadvantage is that it’s not far from the University of Wolverhampton’s Walsall campus, so there’s a good few students at times. Still, despite that, it’s still a nice place.
The top of the three oaks in Brownhills, and enough of a landmark that the nearby A452/A461 junction shares it’s name, which originates from the tree that used to stand at the site.
It’s a long climb up to it from Walsall Wood (not that far, but it’s steep), but it’s a pleasant pub with decent enough beer (there’s usually a guest beer, even if the one on this occasion wasn’t to my taste), and OK if unexceptional food too. The pub is big enough that it has a bar, lounge, and a semi-seperate area to eat.
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A revisit 15/5/2010 merits this edit. The food is now pretty good, but the beer and the welcome from the landlord is exceptional.
A lovely canalside pub near to Park Lime Pits in Rushall. Described by Stu as having the “shortest bar in the world”, this is probably the nicest pub nearby. The others are OK though.
Good food, good beer, nice beer garden, and a nature reserve nearby. This pub also is sometimes claimed to be very old, like the Black Country Arms, but most of it is 18th century, and it did not become a pub until Victorian times. It’s still full of character though.
This pub is part of the Ember Inn chain. It’s got a prominent position on Walsall’s Sutton Rd, and is also handily close to the Rushall Canal and the Arboretum Extension, so it made a handy spot for lunch today.
It’s perfectly fine, for a chain pub, and of course, Ember Inns have one advantage: No Kids. Food is OK, beer OK too, but neither is cheap. There is, however, a good amount of outside seating.
Arguably the best pub in Pelsall: a friendly landlord, decent beer, good value food and a commonside location together with traditional pub atmosphere- this has been a infrequent but regular haunt for 20 years now. I’ve never seen this place quiet, plus it’s the only pub in Pelsall open at 12 on the dot on Christmas Day :-). It gets the name from the railway that used to run just behind it, but as per usual, got killed off by Beeching.
AKA The Royal Oak, this sits handily alongside the Canal at the north end of Pelsall. It was the Royal Oak for years, until a previous landlord met a nasty end after a robbery. It was refurbished and relaunched as The Fingerpost, at first pitching itself a little high for the locality, but now represents a fairly OK chain pub with Ok food and beer and a great canalside patio for the summer.
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It’s also free from 2010 World Cup Football. That’s worth a few points…
A 1930s rebuild of an old Walsall Wood/Brownhills pub. The ‘Middle Oak’ of 3- Shire Oak (Top Oak), this, and The Anchor, all on the A452 Chester Road.
It’s an unusual building, and the inside has been restored in 1930s style. Decent beer (Landlord and Abbot), usually decent food, and a pleasant landlord make for a pretty good experience.
Stockton, Warwickshire.
Pleasant local pub. Nothing remarkable, but nice enough.