#186 Keg & Grill, Birmingham : 2004 to 2015

Having lived here for over 30 years, whenever our canal trips have brought us into the centre of Birmingham, I have always tried to find new and different pubs for my crewmates to sample within easy walking distance of the canal. I'm also keen to find pubs I've not visited before.

This happened on the evening of Wednesday 1st September 2004 when we discovered the Gough Arms.

It was a pub that I didn't know existed and we only popped in for one pint. As I recall it was a fairly standard back-street boozer.

We didn't return, although on at least one occasion we went by and it was closed. It did seem that it was a terminal situation, but happily as I was in the area one afternoon I saw that it was open and completely rebranded.

This was on the afternoon of Wednesday 24th June 2015. It had undergone a complete transformation and, hopefully, with The Cube and The Mailbox nearby it may be a successful transformation.

To visit as it is now, here is the pub's website. Also, to see what the Gough Arms looked like in the 1950's you can see it here.

#086 Craven Arms, Birmingham : 2004 to 2011

As a long term resident of Birmingham, my regular challenge, whenever we visited the city on our canal trips, was to find pubs that we'd not entered before. Over the years this has become almost impossible, but back in 2004 we found this gem. The Craven Arms has been tastefully refurbished and, when we first found it, I was surprised to find such a pub just by The Mailbox.

This photo was taken on the evening of Wednesday 1st September 2004 at the start of a pub crawl that took us into previously unvisited parts of Birmingham near the city centre. It is a small back street pub and is the only building still standing on the corner. When we visited it had only recently reopened and was still shiny and new inside.

Our next visit was on the evening of Thursday 8th June 2006 and, as I recall there were no changes.

We didn't go back for a number of years until Friday 26th August 2011 at the start of our trip that would take us along the Caldon Canal.

At first glance the pub hasn't changed very much at all, but it is no longer a Banks's establishment and the England flags have been replaced by flowers in hanging baskets. Inside it was unchanged, but I'm constantly surprised that pubs as small inside as the Craven Arms can survive in this day and age. The other major change is in the background where the 2004 crane has been replaced by Birmingham's newest architectural masterpiece, The Cube.

There's little more to say about the Craven Arms, but if you are visiting Birmingham and you are in the vicinity of The Mailbox, you'd do a lot worse than this place!