Sunny Selly Oak under Shutdown

Since the 'lockdown' started, I've grasped the opportunity to take pictures during my permitted daily exercise. 

Selly Oak is probably my next nearest suburb with pubs (Bournville is nearer, but publess!). I've also recently updated the previous Selly Oak pub entries on this blog.

So here we go with a wider view of Studentville Selly Oak.

Bristol Road, Selly Oak - April 2020

This is the classic picture postcard view of Selly Oak from the middle of the Bristol Road outside Selly Oak Station. It was about 2pm and you can see how little traffic there was, enabling me to get exactly the view I wanted (without much chance of getting run over!). Sadly, in reality, the bridge is sporting lots of grafitti that I've 'painted over' to give the view as it should be.

As I'm not a regular visitor, pretty much all of what I know about Selly Oak is the pubs, three of which I've reported on earlier.

Bristol Pear, Selly Oak - April 2020

This is the view from under Selly Oak Railway Bridge and shows the last pub I had a pint in before the lockdown. The Bristol Pear is a pub we pop into on the odd occasions when we're having a few drinks in Selly Oak, but it was on our last visit when I noticed this, directly opposite the pub, for the very first time!

Selly Oak Library - April 2020

Selly Oak Library (currently closed) is a replica of Stirchley Library (operational before the lockdown) and was built in 1909 (four years after Stirchley's). It is a Carnegie Library, has it's own Wikipedia entry and is Grade II listed.

Moving further down the Bristol Road towards town, we come across a 'new' pub that we had the chance on our most recent visit of going into for a pint, but we decided against!

The S'oak, Bristol Road - April 2020

Back in the late 70's when I was a student this was a row of shops, one of which was a very good secondhand bookshop. When The S'oak first opened (and I don't remember exactly when that was!) it only really occupied the corner part of the building, but has expanded over the years to occupy the whole ground floor.

As I was searching for details about the history of the pub, I came across this review on Pubs Galore by the late, pubman extraordinaire, Alan Winfield: -

"The S'oak looks like a modern pub that is housed in an old building,this was one of my Sons locals when he was at Birmingham University a few years back.
Once inside there is a very large single room with the bar in the middle area,the floor is bare boarded,the seating is tall tables and chairs and normal tables and chairs,there is a pool table to the rear right,the TVs were showing the FA Cup Final.
There were two real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Daleside G&P which went down well,the other real ale was GK Radio X Amplified.
I thought this was a decent enough pub to have a drink in."

Next door is the third of the 'student' pubs on the main drag of the Bristol Road.

Goose at the OVT, Selly Oak - April 2020

In the years that I've known this pub it has had four names (Bournbrook Hotel, Farce & Firkin, Old Varsity Tavern, Goose at the OVT) and been transformed, from a quite rambling multiroom pub, into something of a 'beer barn', originally, as M&B's answer to Wetherspoon's.

There is just one more pub on the Bristol Road and it is in the other direction. The Bear & Staff has an interesting back story!

Bear & Staff, Selly Oak - April 2020

Back in the day, near the junction of Bristol Road and Oak Tree Lane stood The Oak pub which was demolished in 1983 to make way for road widening. It was replaced by the Great Oak in 1985. A shiny new pub which I visited on the opening night. Less than 10 years later it was demolished to make way for Sainsbury's to expand their carpark in 1994! (see details here on this and the rest of Selly Oak's lost pubs!)

This was when the Bear & Staff came into existence, about 100 yards from where the Great Oak stood. It wasn't a new build. Much to our frustration this was, apparently, one of the best Italian restaurants in Birmingham (according to a taxi driver we met who regularly ferried people from BBC Pebble Mill to the restaurant!). Right on our doorstep and we never knew!

It is now a fairly bog-standard Marston's pub which was recently refurbished.

Finally, we come to the one Selly Oak entry not on the Bristol Road...and no prizes for guessing which pub it is...I give you the Country Girl!

Country Girl, Raddlebarn Road - April 2020

I've written plenty about what is, essentially, my local. So, I'll leave you with an image of it on a bright, sunny, early Spring day during the lockdown of 2020.  

#003 Goose at the OVT, Selly Oak : 1996 to 2020 (Revisited)

The lockdown continues and you find me, still in Selly Oak, with another pub that has changed it's name, several times, over the years. This is what I wrote in 2011: -

This is a strange one! When I first visited this pub as a student in the late 70's it was called The Bournbrook Hotel. It was usually full of students (no surprise) and was made up of several different rooms. It was a long time ago and I don't remember it too clearly!

Some years later it was refurbished (keeping many of the interior features) and renamed the Old Varsity Tavern. It was still popular with students and usually quite busy. Then (and I don't know when) it became the Farce & Firkin at the same time as quite a few other Birmingham pubs were rebranded as Firkin pubs. This picture is from 1996 as we did a pub crawl of Selly Oak on one of our canal trips!

At some stage it became the Farce & Firkin at the OVT, but this isn't shown on the pub in this picture.

As I live not too far away, I occasionally enter this establishment, but I can't say it is one of my favourite venues. Sometime later (again, I don't know when) it was refurbished and rebranded as the Goose at the OVT which is Mitchells & Butlers attempt to match Wetherspoon's. The pub is now a 'beer barn' selling cheap beer to any and all who can't afford to pay the inflated prices in other pubs!

This is how it looks now. Like many, it looks pretty much the same as ever on the outside, but inside its very different from 'the good old days'! I don't think they make use of the two upper floors (which is a waste) and notice the buddleia growing in the upstairs window. Still, I shouldn't complain too much at least it has survived the 'cull' of Selly Oak pubs which has taken away The Brook, Dog & Partridge, Great Oak and others that I never really knew!

(Since 2011, The Gunbarrels has also bitten the dust!)

The Goose at the OVT still isn't a place we visit very often, but here is how it looked in June 2014.

In the intervening years it had undergone a subtle exterior refurbishment, probably the first as a Stonegate pub (part of a deal that saw 333 pubs sold by Mitchells & Butlers in 2010). This has revealed the original embossed stonework saying 'Holt Brewery Co Ltd' and 'BOURNBROOK HOTEL' over the entrance.

And so we move on to my recent stroll up and down the Bristol Road in Selly Oak (April 2020).

It has undergone another exterior redecoration in one of the typical (for this current era) pastel shades, which I prefer to the previous scheme. For the first time in a while I was accosted whilst taking the photo by a man who crossed the road to ask what I was taking pictures of and why! It was the pub gaffer, who just happened to be returning home, and he was happy when I explained what I do.

It is a magnificent building and I do hope it survives as a pub for many years to come.

#003 Goose at the OVT, Selly Oak : 1996 to 2011

This is a strange one! When I first visited this pub as a student in the late 70's it was called The Bournbrook Hotel. It was usually full of students (no surprise) and was made up of several different rooms. It was a long time ago and I don't remember it too clearly!

Some years later it was refurbished (keeping many of the interior features) and renamed the Old Varsity Tavern. It was still popular with students and usually quite busy. Then (and I don't know when) it became the Farce & Firkin at the same time as quite a few other Birmingham pubs were rebranded as Firkin pubs. This picture is from 1996 as we did a pub crawl of Selly Oak on one of our canal trips!

At some stage it became the Farce & Firkin at the OVT, but this isn't shown on the pub in this picture.

As I live not too far away, I occasionally enter this establishment, but I can't say it is one of my favourite venues. Sometime later (again, I don't know when) it was refurbished and rebranded as the Goose at the OVT which is Mitchells & Butlers attempt to match Wetherspoon's. The pub is now a 'beer barn' selling cheap beer to any and all who can't afford to pay the inflated prices in other pubs!

This is how it looks now. Like many, it looks pretty much the same as ever on the outside, but inside its very different from 'the good old days'! I don't think they make use of the two upper floors (which is a waste) and notice the buddleia growing in the upstairs window. Still, I shouldn't complain too much at least it has survived the 'cull' of Selly Oak pubs which has taken away The Brook, Dog & Partridge, Great Oak and others that I never really knew!