Market Vaults, Tamworth

Market Vaults is a Joule’s pub with lots of Jouel’s Brewery mirrors, signs and portraits on the walls making it quite ornate. The front bar has a wooden floor and a fireplace with burner on the left-hand wall. The L-shaped serving counter stretches into the rear, accessed via a step up to the tile floored rear bar where more seating is found. Six hand pumps are supported, five of which were being used to draw Blonde, Pale Ale, Slumbering Monk, Calcutta 1757 and Champions Choice. I went for the Monk which was ok and served with a smile, even though the pub was empty because my visit was on a Wednesday not long before closing at 20:00. Quite a few of this brewery’s pubs seem to close early, maybe they generally attract an older clientele who need to be in bed by 21:00.

A Joules pub but retaining Banks’s windows and a couple of Banks’s embossed door finger plates, inside are two bars in old fashioned style. The panelled front bar has six pulls and a few kegs both Joules and national. Traditionally furnished and decorated with a selection of prints and pictures. Up a step or two leads to the wood panelled rear bar with a counter lurking in one corner, no pulls just similar kegs to the front. There’s a geometrically tiled floor in here and it’s narrow old floor boards elsewhere. The rear bar is split level with a few tables and high and low stools then more of a dining set up on a higher level. Beyond that up some more steps is a corridor leading to the toilets and beer garden which can also be reached via a side door. Personally I’m a fan of Joules pubs and beers but I know they don’t suit everyone.