The Clarendon Hotel, Wolverhampton

I really enjoyed our visit to this 2019 Good Beer Guide pub today with it's well appointed tidy rooms. Variety of seating styles, old fireplaces and some original stained glass windows plus a history of the brewery written on one of the walls and plenty of old photographs around the walls too. Enjoyed wandering round inside and the seating area at the back overlooks the brewery itself. We tried Wainwright Altitude which is brewed as cold cask so that it can be served cold without becoming hazy, and it was fine. The rest of the pumps were the usual Marston's range.

This is clearly a pub that has been around for some time in fact my old Black Country beer guide says it was built in 1851. Externally the upper Clarendon Hotel signage remains intact but some really tacky looking stuff has been added below it listing the six breweries now under the Marston umbrella. I'd prefer not to be reminded of them thank you. My old beer guide also adds a comment "Spoiled By Progress" with the loss of public & corridor bars due to refurbishment. This comes as no surprise as Marston seem to have trashed or closed a large part of their estate. It's now just one big room with different areas. To cap it all there are also TVs just about everywhere which were all switched on. Their are six hand pumps plus some weird looking contraption selling the boring Lancaster Bomber. The other six were Banks's Mild, Bitter & Sunbeam, Pedigree, Wainwright and Hobgoblin Gold. I went for the Mild (£2.75) which was in good nick. Where did it all go so wrong for this brewery?

Decent looking pub right by the brewery with the full range of Bank's beers. You would expect it to be in good condition and it was.

Well what can I say, it's just like Soupy says. However the small room at the back of the bar has leather seating which is ripped with the stuffing falling out, which is a bit of a mess. There are loads of interesting pictures around the walls and it also has a quiz machine and a function room for hire. When I visited last night the beer range was exactly the same as when Soupy visited. It was about 6.30 and despite the pub being very food led there was no-one eating in any of the rooms. The menu is very Wetherspoonalike with special offers and 2 for 1 type of stuff. I had a pint of the Wizards Staff which was served way too cold, almost lager temperature. It's not my favourite pub in Chapel Ash I'm afraid

Banks's brewery tap on the corner of Brewery St, it's a spacious open plan pub with a profusion of drinking and sitting spaces, some of which offer a degree of privacy. Finished in the usual sort of all purpose mock Victorian style it has a mural of the brewery in one corner and looks to be quite a popular place. Beers come of course from the W&D / Marstons range and my mild was in very good nick as it should be for a brewery tap.

Rather formal open plan largish pub tap for the Banks's brewery next door. parking is limited. Feels rather square and Georgian, its a nice enough place for a visit. Pictures of the brewey adorn the walls. The beer should be good, it hasn't had to come far, and indded was, and a choice of the growing range. Its nice if nothing spectacular, but a fine pub.