#046 Queens Arms, Highgate, Birmingham : 1998 to 2021 (RIP)

Continuing with my review of pubs in the Eastside of Birmingham and, at the risk of becoming like another blog (the excellent Closed Pubs), I'll continue to record the demise of more pubs!

This time it is the turn of the Queen's Arms and this is what I wrote in 2011: -

"In 1998 the Queen's Arms on Barford Street was a pub I'd never been in, but had passed many times to and from work.

A few years after this picture was taken I did actually venture in to the Queen's Arms one evening. Inside it was a simple, basic pub with a handful of drinkers in the bar. The room on the right was the only bar that was open and I was concerned at the time about the prospects for its survival as this was a Saturday night.

However, it was the site of a curious meeting. Sitting at the bar was a bloke who said to me, "Don't you do the quiz at the Colebrook?" I didn't recognise him (one of the 'curses' of being a quiz master - they all know your name, but there are too many of them to possibly remember their's!) but he'd been a regular quizgoer until he moved to this side of the city. It is less than 10 miles between the two pubs, but in a city the size of Birmingham what are the chances of such a meeting?

Moving on to 2011 and it looks like the demise of the Queen's Arms is almost complete.

Still attractively painted on the outside, it is currently closed and has been this way for quite some time." 

At that time it was difficult to know whether the Queen's Arms would be resurrected. A drive past in 2018 didn't really resolve the situation.

More boarded up than before and the lanterns had been removed, but also some repainting had been done!

Finally, we come to 2021 and I think it is safe to say the the Queen's Arms is no more, despite the fact that it is still there and largely unchanged!
 

The 'For Sale' sign is a bit of a giveaway, but it is being offered on the basis of -  "We are of the opinion that the property is suitable to be utilised on the basis of a variety of uses, including a shisha lounge, restaurant, public house or multi occupancy residential." and all for the small sum of £440,000 for the freehold - details here.

Somehow, I don't think this will be a pub again any time soon!