The Summer House, Wolverhampton

This road side country cottage style pub with single storey extension on the right was built sometime in the early 20th century to replace a very old coaching inn on the same spot, it is now owned by Marston's and the interior has been opened out and modernised a little in recent years. The main part of the building has an L shaped public bar area which has the long half of the L going across the front of the room and the short half going front to back down the left side of the room, this has a stained wood L Shaped bar counter which follows the shape of the room, there is a tall brick and moulded stone fire place with a log burning stove and tall flue in the right hand wall of the short half of the L, there are red and green fixed fabric bench seats across the front wall, stone paved floor in front of the counter and patterned carpet everywhere else, there were two large flat screen TV’s high up on a partition wall protruding from the middle of the left wall of the room and the back wall, both of which were off during this Saturday lunch time visit, there were also some old black and white photos of Wolverhampton on the walls. The extension on the right of the building is more of a dining area with a carvery serving counter along the left wall, several tables in the middle, a couple of booths across the front wall and various paintings on the walls. There are half a dozen picnic tables on a paved patio at the front of the pub and a grass area to the left of the building. The large car park on the left has several steps up to the pub but there is a second small car park on the right which I believe has disabled spaces and better access. Regular ales are currently Banks’s Bitter and Mild with two changing guest beers from the Marston’s portfolio which includes Jennings, Ringwood, Brakspear and Wychwood. On this occasion they were Banks’s Sunbeam and Wychwood Jester Jack, I tried a Sunbeam which was superb in my opinion. A decent country pub with usually well kept beer, reasonably priced food and a Sunday carvery. There are maybe a couple of other pubs out this way which are slightly better for beer and food selection but not for prices and I’m not aware of anywhere nearby that does a carvery. I would return if only for a change of scenery, a cheap meal and good real ale.

This is a detached Marston's pub/eatery in cream render and greenish paintwork, with an extension for the dining area and a patio. The interior has two areas. The first is an open plan U-shaped area around the bar that faces you on entry via the main door. The decor is red, green and a mushroomy colour (best i could come up with!), with a brick fireplace. There are a few old photos on the walls and some prints, along with a fishing net (yes, old and not recently used!) - despite this, it looks just a bit bare. It is really all laid out for dining here, there isn't really a 'bar' kind of area. The second area is the carvery/restaurant room, which was mainly in a brown and red, where there were also a few prints and some old fishing rods on the walls. The service was fine and the clientele quite mixed. Beer; usual tap stuff, with Wychwood Regal lager, Shipyard Brewery's Independence Ale (USA), Banks's Bitter and a bit of a gassy Banks's MILD on handpull. All in all a nice place of its type. More for dining than perhaps the more balanced approach of the Horns down the road, but it has 4 real ales and a nice atmosphere. Again, like the Horns, worth a visit.