The Red Lion, Monmore Green, Wolverhampton

This is a detached Banks's house with rear patio area. It is of cottage style, a central (rounded) doorway flanked by bay windows which is in white render, with a glazed brick lower frontage. It has quoins (on a rounded corner) and the angle of the roof suggests it was once part of a terrace. The interior has three rooms, originally accesed by a central corridor. To the left there is a front bar room; this is in cream, with a blue chimney breast (gas fire) and red tile floor. It has red perimter seats and stools, speedway pictures on the walls and a TV that was showing the rugby league. Behind the bar is a little snug - it is in striped and patterned wallpaper and had a few prints on the walls. A group of maturer locals were in here playing cards. To the right is an opened out room that has a pool table and dart board, and a few TVs. It is in patterned wallpaper and had a few younger ones in playing pool. There was no music. Service was fine and the place really had a good feel, a good age mix and cosmopolitan. They do food (indian), with various specials, but i didn't eat, so i can't comment on that. Beer; usual tap stuff with Ruddles County. Banks's MILD and Bitter were on electric cask - the MILD was great. A really solid pub, just lacking a differing real ale - but worth a visit. I will come back at some stage.

This is a typical late Victorian/Edwardian street corner pub that is owned by Banks’s (Marston), the interior has three rooms, a small public bar front left, a small snug back left and a larger lounge down the right hand side of the building. The pub originally had a central corridor but the right hand wall has been partially knocked out to enlarge the entrance to the lounge area. As you enter there is the door to the public bar immediately on your left, this has a small bar counter across the back wall with a fire place in the left hand wall, leather seating and a flat screen TV above the fire place. The snug has a serving hatch from the public bar, fabric seats, an old TV set in the corner and a large mirror on the back wall. The lounge has a pool table, dart board in the back right corner, empty fire place in the right hand wall with a large flat screen TV above it, leather bench seats and a projector screen on the back wall. At the end of the partial central corridor is a door that leads to a small enclosed court yard behind the pub. Regular ales are Banks’s Bitter and Mild on electronic cask pump with no guest beers, I had a pint of each and they were very good. A very traditional working men’s type of pub, the interior has seen better days, it’s a little worn and tatty in places to be honest, but it has some character and the beer was in good condition if a bit limited in choice. I believe it used to be a GBG regular a few years back. Not the kind of place that you would take the wife and kids but I would certainly pop in again if in the area, it’s handy for a drink if you are visiting Monmore Green greyhound/speedway track with mates.