#101 The Patrick Kavanagh, Moseley : 1996 to 2020 (Revisited)

As our restrictions continue, I thought that I'd visit Moseley to catch up on some more relatively local boozers to see how they'd changed in the past eight years. This is what I wrote about The Patrick Kavanagh Bar in 2012 - 

I've known this pub from the days I was a student here in Birmingham. Back then it was The Trafalgar and for a few years my friends lived in the house next door (on Trafalgar Road). It was a lovely, cosy pub with several rooms including a bar, lounge and a small 'snug' room. That was in the early 80's and, as with many things, it gradually went into decline.

Some time later it was refurbished in an attempt to bring it back to life, which was successful in the short term, but it also destroyed the intimate character it previously had. This is the first photo I took of The Trafalgar.

We were on our Spring canal trip and, because of a delay at the Shirley Drawbridge, we'd not made it into Birmingham and so we moored up in King's Heath and caught the bus to Moseley for an evening of nostalgia. This was on Saturday 25th May 1996 and it was still called The Trafalgar.

It was a couple of years before we returned and the name had been changed to The Patrick Kavanagh Bar.

I'm not sure exactly when this was taken, but I do remember the visit which was some time in 1998. We walked in one early evening to be confronted with this scene - there were no bar staff to be seen, but there were two rather large Alsatians wandering about and a man lying on the floor, unconscious! We turned around and left quite quickly!

We didn't return again until Saturday 29th May 2010. This time we'd moored up at Bournville and after a visit to my local, the Country Girl in Selly Oak, we'd caught a taxi and gone to Moseley for yet another trip down memory lane.

This time it was a much more welcoming experience and the pub was quite lively...a vast improvement over the experience 12 years previously! (Still not as good as 30 years ago...but then again, what is?)

Finally, here is my latest photo, taken on Sunday 11th November 2012 on a stroll around Moseley to catch up on the pubs of my youth!

The Patrick Kavanagh Bar had yet another external coat of paint...and a new satellite dish. If you're in Moseley and on a pub crawl, this is another one to add to the list of potential venues.

The next time I was in Moseley with my camera was on the afternoon of Tuesday 12th April 2016 and there was little change...except that the large satellite dish had gone!

I happened to be passing by again eighteen months later and there had been a complete exterior redecoration.

This was on the afternoon of Tuesday 31st October 2017. As well as the redecoration, the name had changed subtly to just The Patrick Kavanagh (still known colloquially as Pat Kav's) and it was now advertising a beer garden (plus cask ales and craft beers!)

It was a couple of weeks ago that I thought I'd have a stroll around Moseley and take some pictures of the pubs for old times sake. In actual fact, I was on my way home from visiting my dentist. One of my (many) crowns had fallen out the night before and, although my dentist couldn't actually do any work on my mouth, she did provide a prescription for antibiotics should I need it. This was passed through the letterbox to me. So, I took a slight detour through Moseley to get home!

This was on the morning of Friday 17th April 2020. Very little had changed, except that upstairs is now home to the Fat Penguin Comedy Club, which is closed at present.

I deliberately took a slightly wider shot of The Patrick Kavanagh so that you can see the house that my friends lived in when they were doing their PhD's as mentioned in the openeing of my earlier piece. Just to bring everything full circle, on my last craft market of 2019 a woman bought my Photo Digital Art picture of Pat Kav's, purely because her house was in the picture - we had quite a chat about it! 

#212 Prince of Wales, Moseley, Birmingham : 2002 to 2017

As a long time resident of Birmingham and previously a student here, my first ever visit to the Prince of Wales in Moseley would have been in the late 1970's. Back in those days it was a small, vibrant proper pub with three rooms and a corridor (seating was always at a premium!).

Over subsequent years I've been an infrequent visitor and my first ever canal related visit was on the evening of Wednesday 14th August 2002. We'd taken the boat out for a week to do some painting so we didn't stray too far from Birmingham allowing us to revisit some old haunts.

The outside had changed somewhat, but inside it was still as we remembered it, albeit with a bit of redecoration!

Our next canal related visit was on the evening of Saturday 29th May 2010. We'd planned on being in the centre of Birmingham for the evening, but only got as far as Bournville and so decided on another walk down 'memory lane' with a trip to Moseley.

A complete redecoration of the exterior and inside it still maintained the same three room format, but now with an added large beer garden which we didn't investigate. Fortunately, the rather ugly office/retail block next door had been demolished and the site acquired for redevelopment.

The subsequent pictures are from non-drinking visits to the Prince of Wales, but I have been back inside as well since 2010.

Taken on the afternoon of Sunday 11th November 2012. Pub largely unchanged, but a new sign next door with the appearance that developments might be imminent.

No change in this photo from Friday 5th July 2013.

The old building next door was demolished some time prior to 2010, but planning permission to build 46 flats on that land were only approved in 2016. The owners of the Prince of Wales are concerned that once these residential spaces are occupied they will receive noise pollution complaints from their new neighbours. A flavour of this potential problem can be found here.

I did visit the Prince of Wales in 2016 and finally ventured into the (massive) beer garden/cocktail lounge/cigar bar which must accommodate twice as many people as can get into the traditional part of the pub!

Meanwhile, this is what it looked like on the afternoon of Thursday 16th February 2017.

Next door, construction work has commenced and new street art decorates the surrounding boards including the final Facebook post of Alex Keogh who worked in the Prince of Wales and sadly died over the Christmas period in 2016. More details here. Also depictions of Muhammad Ali, Donald Trump and a tribute to murdered MP Jo Cox (not in photo) have appeared.

And finally...my Photo Digital Art interpretation of the scene above.

Birmingham Pubs in the Doghouse (Part One)

Doghouse - The British Pub Magazine is a relatively new publication and Issue #5 dropped through my letterbox a few days ago and what an enjoyable read it was. (I'm indebted to The Pub Curmudgeon for bringing it to my attention)

Let me start out, though, with a criticism, albeit a minor one, unless you live in or near HARBORNE. Throughout the magazine the Birmingham suburb comes with an added 'u' which is unwelcome and extremely irritating to pedants like me!

That said, I could find no other fault with an excellent publication. This issue of Doghouse visited many Birmingham pubs, several of which I am familiar with.

First stop was the Bell Inn in Harborne. This is a pub I haven't been to for quite a few years, but from the description in Doghouse, it hasn't changed much...thankfully. It is one of the few pubs in Brum that feels like a proper village pub, and long may that continue.

Here's a picture I took earlier this year in the snow.

The next stop on their pub crawl was a pub that I have eulogised about in previous posts - The British Oak in Stirchley - and this is what they thought:

"I must say I was slightly underwhelmed by it all at first, though on reflection I must admit it's a remarkable establishment - above and beyond its period design and fixtures; and mostly to do with the fact that this roadside monster is still standing."

I can't disagree with any of that. I'm glad that it has survived largely intact and is thriving, but I don't go as often as I did 25 - 30 years ago and its not quite the same as it was!

Here it is from earlier this year.

Next on the list was the Prince of Wales in Moseley. This is another pub that I haven't been to for a few years, but frequented a lot about 30 years ago. It certainly didn't have a 'cocktail lounge' in those days, but the write up does make me want to go back and see what it is like now!

Then it was into town for a couple of the lauded city centre pubs. First, the Old Joint Stock, which I visited only a few days ago! It has an impressive interior and considering it is only 16 years old it is a fine addition to Birmingham's collection of pubs. Next was The Wellington, Birmingham's first (I think, in the 'modern' era) pub dedicated to Real Ale. Now as a lager drinker, I'm a bit biased, but as a lover of pubs I've never been impressed with the place - and neither was Doghouse, who put it much more eloquently than I ever could:

"- with the building's lack of character and a weird air of transience that doesn't quite weld you to your seat for longevity. It is perhaps a great beer ticking venue, but much else has to be found elsewhere."

The Doghouse pub crawl then moved on to The Old Contemptibles, another fine example of how tasteful refurbishment can produce a great pub. I also learned from the article that it was originally called The Adelphi Wine Vaults and then the Albion Hotel. I always wondered how it came by its current name and Doghouse didn't disappoint.

They then walked to the Barton's Arms which is a feat in itself as it is quite a stroll from The Old Contemptibles! I've only ever driven past the Barton's Arms and it is a magnificent building that I intend to photograph in the near future.

That was the end of Day One of the Birmingham pub crawl and I'll review the other entries soon. However, I'll just finish with a pub that wasn't visited, but is only just around the corner from The Old Contemptibles and is a place I'm quite fond of.

The Old Royal is one of the most photogenic pubs I know and inside it is still a proper pub. It hasn't been extensively refurbished and does feel like stepping back a few years to how pubs used to be (with added wide-screen TV's!). Hopefully, when the Doghouse team are back in Brum, they can pass their eye over the Old Royal. 

#118 The Junction, Moseley, Birmingham : 1998 to 2012

This is a strange one! Back in the late 70's when I was a student in Birmingham, The Junction in Moseley didn't exist! I'm not sure exactly when it became a pub, but back in 1998 it was called The Hogshead.

This was taken some time over the Easter Weekend of 1998 and, as I recall, we only had one pint and left quickly. It was typical of the Hogshead chain; busy, noisy and unattractively designed.

I've never been back, but now it has been reborn as The Junction.

This photo was taken on Sunday 11th November 2012 and it seems that The Junction is thriving.

#112 The Horseshoe, Kings Heath, Birmingham : 1987 to 2012

I'm not sure whether I'd visited The Horseshoe before, but this is the first picture I took.

This was on the lunchtime of Saturday 4th July 1987 at the start of a two-week trip that took us down to Worcester, up to Middlewich and included my first trip through Harecastle Tunnel.

We didn't return for another nine years, largely because Emma Jane was moored 'oop north' and then 'darn sarf' for the intervening years!

This was on the evening of Saturday 25th May 1996 and it wasn't our intended destination for the night, but because of a delay at the Shirley Drawbridge, we couldn't make it all the way into Birmingham before nightfall. We only had one pint here before going into Moseley for a pub crawl. In those days The Horseshoe was a small friendly local with two rooms. They did good lunchtime food, but it was never an ideal overnight stop.

Next year and we were there TWICE!

Friday 30th May 1997 (Lunchtime)

Thursday 4th September 1997 (Lunchtime)

Both of these visits were the final lunchtime stops of our holiday, leaving us a four hour journey back to our moorings.

We were back again a couple of years later and there were more changes to the exterior of the pub.

Another lunchtime stop at the end of another canal trip, this time to Leek on the Caldon Canal - Thursday 9th September 1999. The Horseshoe had been extensively refurbished and was now no longer a Bass pub.

Our final canal visit was a year later at the end of a trip that had taken us to Manchester.

This was on Friday 8th September 2000. In subsequent years, we stopped visiting The Horseshoe for a couple of reasons. The first is that the moorings became increasingly difficult as the bank became more and more overgrown. The second reason was that we were getting there too early and The Drawbridge at Shirley became our final lunchtime stop of choice.

Although we didn't stop there again, I've got a couple of photos taken in passing.

This is the view from the canal and was taken on Friday 25th May 2009. At this time The Horseshoe looked to be closed.

However, when I was driving by last year, I found that The Horseshoe is alive and well!

This was on the afternoon of Monday 3rd December 2012 as I was testing out my new camera. It appears that The Horseshoe has been refurbished again, but I've not set foot inside since 2000 so I can't comment on the interior!

#107 Bull's Head, Moseley, Birmingham : 1998 to 2012

The Bull's Head in Moseley was always at the bottom of the list of pubs we used to visit in Moseley when I was a student...but we did still go there quite a lot!! Back in those days (the late 70's), the Bull's Head was one of the pubs that was swapped and became a Courage pub in a ploy to give Midlanders more choice other than the M&B/Ansell's near monopoly in Birmingham.

I don't have a picture from those days, but I do have this one from some years later.

This picture was taken some time over the Easter Weekend in 1998 when we'd been thwarted by the elements in our attempts to get to Stratford on the canal. I don't remember too much about it, though I think the inside was relatively unchanged from previous years!

It was another four years before we returned to Moseley.

This was taken on Wednesday 15th August 2002 during an evening tour around the delights of Moseley. The Bull's Head was completely transformed. From the outside you can see that the entrance door had been moved (to what looks like it's original location) and the ground floor windows have been replaced. Inside was a complete revelation...not necessarily in a good way...the room had become open plan with lots of 'leather' sofas and armchairs - very modern. It no longer felt like a pub and the beer prices were noticeably higher than in the other nearby pubs. But, although it wasn't to my taste, it was good to see it reopened and under new ownership as it had been closed for a while.

I haven't been back for a drink for quite a few years now, but I took this photo on Sunday 11th November 2012.

As far as I can tell, the Bull's Head was almost completely unchanged, apart from the small advertising boards either side of the doors. I didn't go inside, so can't comment on the interior décor, however judging from the Bull's Head website, I'd guess that it has changed a bit, but it hasn't gone back to being a traditional boozer! Still, it is good to see it thriving which is the main thing! 

#101 The Patrick Kavanagh Bar, Moseley, Birmingham : 1996 to 2012

I've known this pub from the days I was a student here in Birmingham. Back then it was The Trafalgar and for a few years my friends lived in the house next door (on Trafalgar Road). It was a lovely, cosy pub with several rooms including a bar, lounge and a small 'snug' room. That was in the early 80's and, as with many things, it gradually went into decline.

Some time later it was refurbished in an attempt to bring it back to life, which was successful in the short term, but it also destroyed the intimate character it previously had. This is the first photo I took of The Trafalgar.

We were on our Spring canal trip and, because of a delay at the Shirley Drawbridge, we'd not made it into Birmingham and so we moored up in King's Heath and caught the bus to Moseley for an evening of nostalgia. This was on Saturday 25th May 1996 and it was still called The Trafalgar.

It was a couple of years before we returned and the name had been changed to The Patrick Kavanagh Bar.

I'm not sure exactly when this was taken, but I do remember the visit which was some time in 1998. We walked in one early evening to be confronted with this scene - there were no bar staff to be seen, but there were two rather large Alsatians wandering about and a man lying on the floor, unconscious! We turned around and left quite quickly!

We didn't return again until Saturday 29th May 2010. This time we'd moored up at Bournville and after a visit to my local, the Country Girl in Selly Oak, we'd caught a taxi and gone to Moseley for yet another trip down memory lane.

This time it was a much more welcoming experience and the pub was quite lively...a vast improvement over the experience 12 years previously! (Still not as good as 30 years ago...but then again, what is?)

Finally, here is my latest photo, taken on Sunday 11th November 2012 on a stroll around Moseley to catch up on the pubs of my youth!

The Patrick Kavanagh Bar had yet another external coat of paint...and a new satellite dish. The pub's website is here and, if you're in Moseley and on a pub crawl, this is another one to add to the list of potential venues.

#091 The Fighting Cocks, Moseley, Birmingham : 1996 to 2012

Back in the days when I was a student, The Fighting Cocks was a vibrant pub that was always full and it was often difficult to get a seat. As I recall (and this is going back 30 ish years!) the front bar was split into two, one being self contained and the other half leading to the 'Lounge'. In those days it was an Ansells pub.

Fast forward now, to 1996.

If you're thinking, "I didn't realise Moseley was on the canal", you'd be correct. This picture was taken on the evening of Saturday 25th May 1996 at the start of a week long canal trip around the Midlands. Our aim had been to get into the centre of Birmingham and moor at Gas Street Basin, but the Drawbridge at Shirley had been inoperative when we arrived and the delay, when British Waterways finally fixed it, meant that we could only get as far as The Horsehoe on the outskirts of Kings Heath. So, after a pint there, we headed off to Moseley to revisit the 'dens of iniquity' of our youth!

I don't recall what it was like inside, but it was now called the Fieldmouse & Firkin at The Fighting Cocks.

We returned again in 1998, but I'm not sure of the exact date, however I do know that it was the Easter weekend. We had planned to take our 'traditional' canal trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, but things conspired to prevent us setting off. Firstly, the battery on Emma Jane was flat when we got there (almost certainly because I'd forgotten to charge it!), but this shouldn't have been a problem. We set it to charge and went to the pub for a long lunch. When we got back to the boat it appeared as though it was still charging, so we had a little nap to make sure it became fully charged. A couple of hours later, it was still charging (or so I thought), it was still pouring down outside and we were cold.

We took the decision to 'abandon boat' and went back to my place with a view to setting off the next day. However, when we saw the News at Six, it became obvious that we'd had a lucky escape as there was extensive flooding throughout the Midlands including the places we'd planned on going. So, Plan B came into operation. Spend the weekend at my house and visit some of our old haunts around Birmingham.

 Two years on and the Fighting Cocks was still a Firkin pub and, I think, unchanged inside.

We didn't return again for another four years. This time we'd taken a week to do some painting of the outside of Emma Jane and also visit some parts of the Midlands we'd not been to before. At that time I was presenting quiz nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we couldn't go too far. This picture was taken on Wednesday 14th August 2002.

It was no longer a Firkin pub; it had become the Goose at the Fighting Cocks. Inside it had become one large room and there was no atmosphere. The 'Goose' chain of pubs was M&B's attempt to match what Wetherspoons were doing - basic pubs selling cheap booze, the only discernible difference being that Goose pubs did play music. The Fighting Cocks in 2002 was a perfect example of how to ruin a pub!

I haven't been back inside since then, but I took this photo on Sunday 11th November 2012 as I walked around Moseley to take up-to-date snaps of the pubs.

I was pleased to see that it is now back to being just The Fighting Cocks again and still unchanged outside, apart from the signage. Having looked at their website, it appears as though they've tried to recreate the look of the old front bar, but the whole 'feel' seems to be somewhat upmarket compared to my days as a student. It is still part of M&B, and is one of their Metro Professionals pubs.