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Beer of the Week (w/e 15th June 2025) with Tris39 on the Pub Forum

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Submitted on Wednesday, 7^th February 2024
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The Pretty Bricks (New Inn), Walsall

5 John Street
Walsall
WS2 8AF

Phone: 01922612553

Correct details

Served areas

Walsall Central

Reviews of The Pretty Bricks (New Inn) (Average Rating: 8½ of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

Soup Dragon left this review about The Pretty Bricks (New Inn)

UPDATE: Had a few gaffers over the years. The pub is as it was, with the addition of two dart boards in an upper room. Beers remains the same BCA choice with guests - the Titanic Cherry Porter yesterday being excellent.
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Time for a re-review after this pub has re-opened as a part of the Black Country Ales chain. The pub is called the New Inns, apart from a brief spell when it was known as the Tap & Spile (see Andy Ven's photo of the pub lantern, which i think was originally put up in 1950). The Pretty Bricks is a nickname based on the brown and cream ceramic tiled exterior. The rest of this detached pub is now in cream render, with some blue paintwork and etched windows. The pub is mid-Victorian and was a GBG regular. There is a rear patio area.

The interior - the layout of the pub is of course still the same - two rooms either side of a central wooden serving bar, with coloured glass. They are accessed by a corridor in cream patterned wallpaper and red walls. The front room is the bar room. It is in a mix of red and a salmony colour, with white ceiling and a patterned carpet. There is a stone fireplace at the end and some pew seating. BCA posters and a few old photos grace the walls, with a bookcase/dresser which displays ephemera in the corner as you enter. The lounge is in Cream patterned paper and red walls, again with a white ceiling and red patterned carpet. There is another stone fireplace, with a stove in it. The seats are red. There was no TV that i saw and the background music was general and very subdued. They do food in the day and cobs and things while they last! The service is friendly and the place was rammed out with a slightly more mature crowd.

Beer; usual tap stuff with 8 real ales on handpull. These inclue the three BCA regulars; Fireside (which was very good), Pig on the Wall MILD (about to go on) and BFG. The guests that i managed to note were Piddle's Yogi Beer, MHB Nightingale, Pot Belly Yellow Belly and Aisling and Falstaff Little Voice.

Back to class. Back to being a must do. I could sit in here all day. If this pub closes again, close Walsall.

On 24^th May 2025 - no rating submitted
[User has posted 3077 recommendations about 3072 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Quinno _ left this review about The Pretty Bricks (New Inn)

Nationally-known pub run by Black Country Ales. Glazed tile exterior gives the pub its nickname, though those who have been in the pub-ticking game for a few years can likely reel off half-a-dozen other pubs with a better claim to that title. Two rooms either side of fine wood and glass central servery, accessed off a corridor. BCA corporate decor throughout though many of the older fittings remain, enough to merit a ** CAMRA Inventory listing. GBG listed also and in the usual BCA style there were many pumps, in this case sporting eight cask with two ciders. Not enamoured with the quality, the BCA Pig didn't fully clear and was a well-green (NBSS 1.5), the BCA BFG was better (3) and the Beowulf Handover was a flat, hefty stodge (2). We visited twice over the long weekend and neither time did the pub feel busy, indeed it was near-deserted at 8pm on Saturday night. Simple equation - few customers means the beer doesn't shift which means poor beer which means even fewer customers. BCA need to get a grip on this one, it certainly wouldn’t Guide in my CAMRA branch if these visits were indicative. I thought this would easily be my pub of the weekend.

On 13^th March 2024 - rating: 6
[User has posted 5589 recommendations about 5570 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Ian Mapp left this review about The Pretty Bricks (New Inn)

Honestly thought I had misplotted the location into my GPS. I walked from the arboretum through never ending light industrial units, to find this around the corner opposite a factory.

You have to want to come here and with the rain, I dont think Walsallians wanted to. I was the only punter in a 30 minute stay on a Saturday lunch.

A classic Black Country Ales Pub - Traditional to the point of conformity to their other tied house. 7 handpulls on but even with the lack of turnover, the Fixed Wheel No Brakes was my pint of the day.

On 7^th August 2023 - rating: 6
[User has posted 1607 recommendations about 1584 pubs]

View more reviews of The Pretty Bricks (New Inn) (20)

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