#036 Cleary's, Highgate, Birmingham : 1998 to 2021

This pub is something of an outlier as it stands isolated away from the main centre of Digbeth, but, nonetheless, Cleary's appears to be successful to date (pre-pandemic). This is what I wrote in 2011: -

"Back in 1998 this pub was called the Brewer's Arms. It's not a place I'd ever visited, but looked typical of the many back street pubs in Birmingham.

Fast forward to 2011 and it has been transformed into the Yellow and Green establishment that is now Cleary's! (2021 edit - for a period sometime between 1998 and 2011 this was the Hen & Chickens!)

Unfortunately, beacuse of the building works behind me, I wasn't able to get far enough back to give the same view as in 1998. I've still not been in the building and I'm assuming that it is run by the same people who ran the Cleary's that took over from the Pall Mall which was #011 in this series.

It would appear that it is a successful establishment by the number of friends on their Facebook page. This is the sixteenth in my 'Birmingham Eastside' series."

 

My next tour around the area was in 2018 and very little appeared to have changed.

The hanging baskets of flowers have been replaced by the window boxes above...I'm assuming that they're less trouble with merry revellers!

 

And so, finally to 2021...is Cleary's still there...or...has it succumbed to the major developments that are taking place in the vicinity?

Good news! Cleary's has survived and has been redecorated in a more vivid shade of green since my last visit! Unfortunately, it faces an uncertain future, not from pandemic related issues, but because of the large residential development to the right hand side of the pub. (Details here)

 

I still haven't set foot inside Cleary's, but I hope to be able to in the coming year. Their Facebook page will have more details in the coming weeks.