The Black Boy, Swansea

Large Brains roadside omnipub. Warm and fairly comfy inside though inevitably the battleship grey paint has had an airing. Two cask on from Brains in SA and Rev James. The SA was awful (NBSS 1), taken back and exchanged (with no obvious concern) for a better, if slightly undercellared, Rev James (3). Useful to know about this one if you’ve had a session in the Railway and need a quick pit-stop to drop some recently acquired ballast.

The Black Boy page at the Brains site - www.sabrain.com

This is a detached pub and eatery, run by Brains, which has a patio area. The pub has its originas back around 1850, and takes its name from the coal miners that frequented the place. Now, if i have my map work correct, the present pub stands near to the original and seems to date to the 40/50s, when the area was substantially redeveloped. The pub has a central cottage style house, where bow windows flank a central porch entrance. There are low-level extensions, with bow windows, eiter side. It is in a coffee colour. The interior is an open plan long room, in red, green and white, with a white ceiling and patterned carpet, as well as brick fireplaces. The TVs had Sky on and there were local photos, sporty memorabilia and mirrors on the walls. There is a dart board. The service was fine and the clientele were mainly dining - i didn't eat so can't comment on that, other than it seemed pricey for what iw as (they did do various offers). The music was general, and very quiet. Beer; usual tap stuff with Brains Dark and Stout on keg. On handpull there was Brains SA, Bitter (decent) and Rev James. Worth a visit more for trying the Brains range than eating the generic kind of menu - but worth a visit for one.

The Black Boy page at the Brains site - www.sabrain.com

This is a sizeable roadside pub on one of the main routes down to the Gower peninsula. As a student living in the nearby student village, I used to shamelessly use the pub car park when picking up shopping from the neighbouring supermarket, without ever popping in for a beer, so I felt I owed the place a quick pint, if nothing else. Sadly, the interior, which clearly comprised separate rooms in the past, has been opened out into a vast space with carpeting throughout and a mix of seating options, all seemingly nicely upholstered. Various pillars, arches and low walls break the space up to varying degrees of success and give clues to former layouts. The dark wood servery runs in two sections along the rear wall with a modern mirror on the bar back bearing the pub’s name. At the far left end of the room, there is a raised area with a dartboard and bits of cricket memorabilia and other such sports related photos. Aside from this, there is very little in the way of interest, although I did notice a couple of nice stone fireplaces at either end of the room. Blackboards detail various food offers and the place as a whole had more of a restaurant feel to it, with the majority of customers tucking in to their lunches. A TV screen was showing tennis whilst some non-descript pop music played in the background. There’s a decent seating area out the front with a deceptively large amount of seating and of course, there is a car park (ahem, for patrons only) to the rear. Three Brains ales were available – SA, Bitter and Rev James. I gave the SA a try and thought it was in pretty good shape, but the selection is pretty uninspiring given the number of Brains pubs in and around Swansea that stock these ales and more. I thought this was a decent enough pub, but I can’t say I was left rueing the fact that I never popped in when I lived just down the road. There are several better pubs within a short distance of this place, but if you’re looking for somewhere to enjoy a Sunday lunch, this is probably your best bet.