The Wheatsheaf, Wolverhampton

This is a fantastic Georgian style building which is also a good traditional Banks’s pub with a hallway leading to three small rooms. At the front of the building and immediately on the right of the entrance there is a traditional public bar with a counter across the back left of the room near to the door, it has green leather bench seats on the right with only a couple of tables, old photographs of Wolverhampton on the walls and etched windows. If you bypass the bar and follow the hallway then you will see the second room which is in the back left of the building, I would describe this as a sports room as it has a central pool table and a dart board on the left hand wall, there are red fabric bench seats around the perimeter of the room and a juke box on the right hand wall near the door, unfortunately the music in this room was extremely loud! Off the hallway in the back right of the building is a lounge with a serving hatch from the front public bar, a nice cast iron fire place with floral tiles in the back wall, an old TV in the front right corner opposite the door, purple fabric bench seats and several old photos of Wolverhampton on the walls and more etched windows. Between the two back rooms is a cobbled court yard which has been enclosed and fitted with a roof, this is where the pool table used to be. A short lunch time menu was posted on the wall of the lounge which was basic but reasonably priced. Regular ales are Banks’s Mild and Bitter with no changing guest beers. For many years this place was considered to have one of the best pints of Banks’s in Wolverhampton and although the landlord has changed in the last 18 months I think the quality has been successfully maintained. A great pub with genuine traditional character, a working mans kind of pub. I don’t know for certain but I would guess that the beer choice, interior layout and furnishings have remained virtually unchanged for many years, no gimmicks here. The music in the sports room was deafening but thankfully this did not have an impact on the other two rooms. I would gladly return for a drink.

This is a proper traditional workingman's boozer in the city centre. It has a small front snug with worn, but not tatty, green leather seating round the outside. Three rooms at the back the left one and the right one are both lounges and the middle one is a covered courtyard leading to the toilets. In the front snug there were a couple of flat caps in evidence and a couple of beanie hats as well. I'm 51 and the average age in the snug was reduced considerably when I walked in! There was a load of amusing banter going on between the barmaid and some of the regulars in one of the lounges. She seemed to have a nickname for each of them, most seemed to involve the word knob! There are 4 handpumps with Banks's Original and Bitter doubling up. The Original was in very good nick, one of the best pints of this beer I've had in ages and at £2.15 it was a bargain. They advertise that they do midweek lunches for 99p with a list on the wall including faggots and peas, sausage casserole and catch of the day and chips. It's not what you would call genteel and I wouldn't bring the other half in, but I'd be happy to call in again.