The Manor Tavern, Birmingham

This is a first.... after walking the gauntlet of dead Grade II listed Victorian pubs along Lichfield Road, I found this to be sort of open. The front windows had been put through by rampaging Cardiff fans the week before. It was the glazier who told me the pub was open. The landlady looked less keen, pointing out the health and saftey impacts. Would be amazed if this is here for much longer.

An odd throwback to an earlier age, the 1970s perhaps, it’s a two bar corner pub. To the left of the vestibule is a small corridor like public while to the left a slightly larger lounge with a pool table in a room beyond. No casks just a selection of kegs mostly in the lounge with just a cider in the public. No one in the lounge on my visit but a group of friendly, merry, sweary old lads in the public, the bar still smelled of smoking, told you it was the seventies in here. Corrie on the television, I did seem to be intruding a little on a private club but it’s their pub, their rules. Furnished in keeping with the era, banquette and cast iron based tables. Decor is largely Aston Villa related.