The Shakespeare, Birmingham

Close to Victoria Square, but not all that easy to get to (I suggest heading down Newhall Street and turning into Lionel Street), this is a pleasant, compact Nicholson's pub. You enter through a corner door that takes you through a grand dark wood porch with a brilliant decorative internal canopy. The front room is very small by Nicholson's standards and the limited seating options get taken up pretty quickly. The room is bare boarded with a few rugs here and there to dampen the sound a little. Large lattice windows on two sides with bull's eye panes and stained borders at the top allow a good deal of light in and are framed by some huge curtains. The walls are half panelled with some sensible modern wallpaper above and the seating is a mix of comfy banquettes around the perimeter and low stools elsewhere. Some partitioning screens along the front wall have been used to break the banquette up into smaller booths. There are lots of pictures and the odd information board on display and as you move around the right hand end of the bar, a few high tables and stools come into view, as does a narrow staircase with a big M&B mirror. A corridor here leads past a small unlit nook to the right which has room for a single table with a portrait of Shakespeare on the wall, into a carpeted dining room, passing through a doorway with a nice stained glass feature above the lintel. This room has curved button back banquettes, a nice fireplace on the end wall, standard chairs, old maps, paintings and photos of Shakespearian plays, plus a bust of the bard on a shelf in the rear corner. A check tiled floor room leads off the corridor, out towards the toilets or the paved garden with modern garden furniture and lots of potted greenery. On the bar, the ale range was Oakham Inferno, Sharps Doom Bar and Atlantic, Wold Top Against the Grain, Purity Ubu and Nicholson's Pale Ale. I tried the Inferno which was absolutely spot on and in as good shape as the Oakham beer sampled in their own 'Bartons Arms' pub earlier in the day. This is a pretty good example of a smaller Nicholson's pub and I found it preferable to its namesake on Lower Temple Street. I imagine it can get a little cramped at peak times, but it's a good place to relax over a few pints and has the bonus of a decent garden for warmer months.