The Sportsman, Birmingham

This is a detached Victorian pub, with rear patio area. It is amazing that this pub survives, considering all about it has been lost. Around 1900, the pub would have had a theatre to one side, a Congregational chapel to the other, the Saltley brewery behind, and over the road was the Saltley coke works - scene of the miners' 1972 'Battle of Saltley Gate'. The pub has a white painted brick upper, with sash windows and dog-tooth cornice. The flat lower frontage is a blue and white pilastered one, with central entrance. That entrance was the former outdoor passage, with rooms off to the left and right. To the right is the lounge, which I didn't really see. The bar is to the left. It looks like it may have been two rooms originally, but now, at least, is one. It is in red and white, with a brick chimney breast that has a burner fire. There is a pool table. A few photos of the locals are on the walls. The service was friendly and I had a good chat to the lady behind the bar about the changes (and loss of pubs) in the area since I used to know it in the 80s. The clientele were locals. There was music from the jukebox at a decent level - I didn't see a TV. Beer; no real ale, no MILD - just basic keg choice with a better range of cider. I enjoyed returning to a past stomping-ground, it is just sad to see how much it has changed. I think this once appeared on a TV programme on the hardest pubs in Britain. Nothing for the real ale fan.