Post Office Vaults, Birmingham

The former Royal Mail cellar bar, the name and badge outside mean its currently a little confusing and may appear to be connected with the adjoining Post Office (in fact they have had someone in trying to pay his car tax at the bar!) if you can find it at all. The bar is one room and is fairly small and pokey. It is set out with just a few wooden tables/chairs against the walls and in corners and is therefore not the most comfortable. In fact it seems arranged to accommodate groups of drinkers standing sampling the ale, rather than the likes of me on this occasion popping in on my own for a quick drink on the way home from work, or a small group wanting to sit & have a drink. Thats fair enough I guess and the size of the place does limit what you can do. However, on my visits the main group tend to hang around the bar meaning its difficult to see what beers are on offer - a beer board would help here. The other issue for me on a personal level is the lighting. Its very bright all through, perhaps over accommodating the lack of natural light, perhaps Health & Safety?, but I prefer cellar bars a bit more dark and dingy, the sort of place where you could have an illegal card game in the corner, or come to plot bank raids, that kind of thing! However, there is a good range of beers and ciders and the choice of house real ale of Hobsons mild and Salopian Gold to me is quite inspired! And the quality of beer is absolutley excellent and the knowledge of the staff spot on. It is also very close to the Victoria Square entrance to New Street Station, just down Pinfold Street and centrally located in the City. Therefore, like the nearby Wellington, not an alrounder for me, but there is enough here for me to keep going back, at the right times and each time I do it does seem better than the last.

This is a relatively new, single room bar near the Town Hall and a short walk from New Street station. Having wandered around the surrounding streets looking for the pub, getting confused by the signs on the neighbouring Post Office buildings, I finally found the entrance on Pinfold Street, although there appears to be another entrance on New Street itself. The interior is surprisingly simplistic with bare floorboards and a clean looking red and white colour scheme. There is a great deal of open space and I got the impression that they hadn't yet figured out the best way to set the place up. In fact, I counted just six tables in the whole pub, which meant that most people were stood up - many crowding the bar. The walls are nicely decorated with a mix of old photos of Birmingham and various adverts for foreign beers, whilst the room's focal point appeared to be a bar billiards table close to the stairs that lead to the main entrance. Although the pub seems to specialise in bottled beers, as evidenced by the unusual array of glassware many of the other customers were drinking from, there are eight hand pumps to keep the ale fans happy. House beers are Hobson's Mild and Salopian Oracle (£3.10) and guests on my visit were Nethergate Old Growler, Milestone IPA, Beowulf Glutlusty, Dancing Duck Gold, Thornbridge Kipling, and Byatt XXXmas Ale. I tried the Salopian Oracle, which was wonderful and an inspired choice for a house beer. The pub doesn't do food, but posters encourage customers to bring their own, with plates and cutlery supplied on demand. One table of people had brought a cheeseboard with them, which they were enthusiastically pairing with their beers. Considering that this place only opened a week or so before Christmas, they seem to have hit the ground running and although there is some room for improvement, I hope they make a great success of it.

Official site of the Post Offiice Vaults - www.postofficevaults.co.uk