#013 Carpenter's Arms, Digbeth : 1998 to 2018 (Revisited)

First off, here's what I wrote in 2011: -

Back in 1998 I went around the Digbeth/Deritend/Highgate area of Birmingham taking photos of all the pubs I could find. It was my intention to return in 10 years to see how the Birmingham Eastside development had affected these pubs. I didn't find the time in 2008 and so, finally, I revisited the area this year with my camera and these are the results.  This is the fourth in my 'Eastside' series.

  This is another pub that I've never set foot in, but it was a pleasant surprise to find another attractive looking 'local'. That was 1998, but I've kept an eye out for this pub when I've been passing over the years. I was concerned that when I came back it wouldn't be there any more as it was boarded up and there was a lot of demolition work going on in the vicinity. When I went back this year it was transformed into something that I would never even have thought about in 1998!

So, here we are in 2011 and the pub has become Moon Shisha Lounge. These types of establishment had started to appear around Birmingham, but I thought the smoking ban had put paid to them...obviously not! (Although, this venue was prosecuted by Birmingham City Council for a wrongly designed outside smoking area!) I know next to nothing about Shisha, so here is a link (Broken) to help you as well. Anyway, if a pub isn't viable then it is good to see it being put to use rather than being erased from the landscape.

 I went back again in 2014 to find that it was apparently closed.

Finally, we get to 2018 and this is what now occupies the space.

It is now a vape store which has opening hours that any pub would be proud of - 11 am to 2 am! As far as I can gather from the website it has morphed into a coffee and vaping shop where you can buy your favourite vaping product and chill out with a coffee and a vape at the same time. Sounds very civilised to me, if that's your sort of thing.