Pubs in Birmingham, West Midlands*

The place to go for a lazy afternoon, pub quiz or last call

You can tell us more about Birmingham.

• The square peg - longest bar in uk!!, Scruffy Murphys and costermongers!
• brasshouse broad st
• crown inn digbeth
• Scruffies!!
• subway city has an abnormally youthful crowd... good place to go on friday nights...
• The Hill and Briar Rose, next to each other on one of those lil side streets have started being arsy with ID, you're now looking at clientelle up to about sixteen, and from about nineteen upwards provided you look well old or have ID. My advice: if you're actually close to legal (17 or 18), wear a low cut top, and have a back up plan.
• Gunmakers arms
• Rock/Alternative pubs in Birmingham: Coster Mongers (near Oasis indoor market) plays mainstream Rock and Metal. Scruffy Murphys (just up the road from the Academy) plays more credible metal and is a good starting point before heading to The Gallows pub, where most people go before going to Edwards No8 (aka Eddies)
• Tap and Spile off Broad street is nicer than anything on it. The Anchor in Digbeth is a good real ale pub. Generally, far too many characterless chain pubs
• If you are anywhere near Aston Uni then go to Gosta Green. A quality Scream (tm) (!!!) pub, they do exist, largely due to the fact that everyone behind the bar is @ Aston Uni, and Carling is £1.65 a pint!!!
• Jug of ale in moseley is great! pound a pint on sun and wed so get down there! the briar rose just off new street is good too and is a wetherspoons so cheap!
• The Jug of Ale, it's good if you look a little young and have forgot your ID. Mosely Road, Mosely.
• mason's and the barley mow in solihull attract a 'fresh-faced' crowd. ahem. as does the white swan in wythall.
• no-one's mentioned the sunflower lounge on smallbrook queensway. opening times are erratic but they play cool indie choonage(some of it's awfully obscure. if you like that sort of thing. i know i do). can get a bit mobbed tho and there aren't enough seats really. they also have bands playing downstairs occasionally.
• Lloyds bar - excellent place to drink if you've just finished work on a saturday night as its cheap and there's always a good atmosphere. Walkabout - busy, full of 'the older generation' and generally pretty cheesy music, especially as its the same every week. Promos on reef. Reflex - the 80s bar, love the revolving dancefloor, cheap drinks and a pole dancers pole...so many bruises! Merchants - dont know why it doesn't get busier. It not a Whetherspoons although many people think it is. Don't know why? Only busy really saturday night, sometimes friday and during the footie as has tvs. Rococo - changed from Bar 260, you can change the name and the decor but you can remove the trouble - last st George's day, so many police Sports Cafe - love the personal tvs in the booths, busy for footie, too expensive most of the time Wetherspoons - full of students after cheap drinks and old people! O Neils - dont see the appeal Springbok - weird place. Annoying door staff who have taken to ID checks for me every time I enter. Im 20, ive lost my ID, see the pain??? Brannigans -ewww! Old Orleans - nice, often gets missed out but do free food and cheap coktails on a friday evening Picassos - used to be Rat and Parrot but hasn't changed. Love the music but hate the touchy feely men in there. Waxy o connors - nice Revolution - the vodka bar, so many flavoured shots, so little time! Hard Rock Cafe - expensive but you have to go there the once Henry J. Beans - expensive cocktails even during happy hour but the June Bug is well nice.
• Any Whetherspoons pub (the Briar Rose, the Square Peg, the Figure of Eight) are all resonably priced and have comfortable atmospheres. Plus they aren't homophobic!
• Sunflower=name obviously extracted from the Weller song, cool music (60's R&B and Indie), shame about the quality of the pulled pints.
• Wetherspoons, Edwards, the one opposite Hunter Court and next to Ming's takeaway
• Factotum , Briar Rose , Jug of Ale , Walkabout , Soak in selly oak is nice 2.
• The Square Peg - Corporation St. Good meeting place, cheap (food as well), moving on to... Trocadero - Temple St (off New Street). Quiet in the week, lively at the weekend. Sometimes open to 12 on Fri/Sat night. Pit Stop - Gas Street (Behind the Convention Centre, on the same elevation(level) as the canal. Good Hip Hop / R'n'B night on friday, nice, friendly, mixed crowd. Avoid the cheesy saturday night pop night like the plague.
• FLAPPER AND FIRKIN ITS PROPBERLY A GOOD IDEA TO BE 18 CUZ I HAVE BEEN ASKED FOR 1D EACH TIME IM IN THERE AND YES I AM 18 AND HAVE HAD ID EACH TIME SO ITS BEEN KEW. THERES LOTS OF FRIENDLY PEOPLE IN THERE WHICH IS GOOD
• The Full Moon in Dudley
  any weatherspoons
  The Anchor in Cradley
  Costa Mongers
• Prince of Wales, Moseley. Patrick Kavanaghs, Moseley. Bulls Head, Moseley. Market Tavern, Digbeth.
• Gosta Green (by Aston University) - great student pub and rather pleasant female bar staff to boot!
• The Flapper, thats the one i mostly visit but they are strict on who they serve!
• Isobar, Arcadian, fun and the drink's flowin. Don't go there if you want a conversation though, the music's kinda loud.
• Flapper and firkin, (was) very lively full of the rock crowd. DJ upstairs on Fri/Sat. Bands downstairs on most nights, bands cost between £2 - £5. Drinks more expensive on weekends. Has been getting very strict on behaviour lately and a normally full pub has only been managing to accract about 50 customers compared with about 200 before.
• Kudos - trendy bar at 28 Horse Fair (Opposite the old Dome II. Mostly gay, cheap drinks, fun crowd
• The Old Joint Stock if for the building and decor alone.
• new weatherspoons Paradise Place small some nights crowded
• Sacks of Potatoes, Aston University Campus
• The flapper
• Tap and Spile on Gas Street/Broad Street is great for little traditional pub fgrub and beer - an individualist haven in a sea of mass-produced alcohol retail outlets. All Bar One (Brindley Place) isn't bad for a chain pub. White Swan Pub on Harborne Road in Edgbaston is a lovely old pub with a Toby restaurant out the back if you get big beer hunger.
• The malt house
• The Toreador no longer exists due to them gutting the Bullring!
• Slug and Lettuce, mention that it's full of rich, snobby 6th formers and students
• Old Joint Stock, 4 Temple Row (across from the cathedral). Very posh inside, lots of statues and mirrors and chandeliers. Good beer, too.
• Broad Street - lots of places to have a drink. Ministry of Sound Bar, Key Largo, Stoodi Bakers and Bar 2 Sixty are classy late licenced 'club-bars', the rest are more pub style but some open late. Walkabout (Aussie theme), Figure of 8 and Merchant Stores (both Wetherspoons so cheap), Tap and Spile (traditional pub - a rarity!) Rat and Parrot - all good. Also Brindley Place just off Broad St. - All Bar One, Cube, lots of plush bars and fountains for pissed-up shenanigans. Away from Broad St. try RSVP (towards Aston Uni.), Square Peg (wetherspoons), Flares (70's theme, near DNA). The Arcadian Centre (Hurst St.) has lots of classy bars like 52 degrees North, Sobar, Heroes and many more. That's also the Gay Village. Also the Hogshead in Moseley is good, and if you're a Birmingham Uni styowdent then try the Gun Barrels (just off campus), the Bristol Pear, the OVT (Farce and Firkin) the Brook or TC's (all off Bristol Road (A38) in Selly Oak). Another good bet is the Medicine Bar on Gibb St. in Digbeth, and while you're there try the Kerryman or one of the other genuine Irish pubs.
• Fiddle and Bone - by the canal by the NIA - crap music but good beer.
• This pub in the outer suburb of Handsworth is a particularly good place to start your evening. Well laid out with three pool tables and about 20 TV screens showing MTV or the video juke box it has a classy atmosphere, but rocks hard enough to get the evening off to a bang.

  Watch out for the nearby 'Memoirs of Kashmir' restaraunt for a great takeaway curry.

  Also check the nearby 'Old Crown' for good live music on a Saturday.

  Get the 52 bus from Arundel Gate or Castle Market.

• Bars: Brum's glitterati favour trendy bars like The Medicine Bar (Custard Factory) and Circo (Smallbrook Queensway). Quo Vadis at the Citadel and All Bar One in Hockley cater to older but still fashionable crowds. Others include the Green Room Cafe Bar, StoodiBakers, Bar Sputnik, West End, and the luscious canalside Via Vita
• Bars: Bar Coast, The Arcadian, Hurst Street. Carpe Diem, Great Charles Street Queensway. Marco Polo's, Ladywell Walk, Chinatown. Bar Mellow, Broad Street. The Slug and Lettuce, Chinatown. Primitivo, Barwick Street - trendy restaurant serving French/Italian influenced food turns into a bar in the evening with DJs.
• central park is crap but very cheap, all drinks a pound hadleys has wicked very loud music but is a bit dodgy
• - New Bar! - 'Gallery Bar' (opposite Exile) - vibrant atmosphere, top DJ's - Mark Jarman etc. every Saturday
• Austrailian Bar - Broad Street, good atmosphere every night of the week, but get there early on fridays and saturdays (before 8pm) or you'll have to queue
• For a quality,traditional pub try the Seventh Trap on the Walsall Rd, Perry Bar(according to Nigel in the office).Willy's Bar on Summer Row is good if the sun is out.
• The Rock Cafe (opposite snobs), the foundry (nr edwards) scruffy murpheys (nr ToysRus) and oneils (china town)
• The Toreador, opposite the Rag Market, City Centre, has a wild Goth night every Saturday.
• Cleary's in Cheapside. Authentic Irish pub (owned by Mr Cleary!) - get in before 10.00pm and stay till 2.00am.
• O'Neills near the arcadian - loud, live irish music. staff sometimes dance on tables. table service! NO dress code figure of eight, broad st. NO dress code, almost unique in the area. always a few v. cheap beers, quick service, mixed crowd. no music, good place to start.

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Last updated: 2008-10-14