MULLANEY'S DIGBETH CRAWL

09-07-2007

As we reported on Saturday, The Stirrer's debate about the future of Digbeth could have a major impact on plans to redevelop the area, with some members of the Irish Club now fearful of selling out to developers (see the story here). Meantime, Moseley and Kings Heath councillor Martin Mullaney goes on a pub crawl to put the area to the test.

To assist with the debate over whether Digbeth is Birmingham’s ‘Jewel in the Crown’ I decided to sacrifice the health of my liver for one night to assist in this debate and do some on-the-spot visits.

Wasn’t sure how this would pan out. The pubs I visited were: The Woodman, The Kerryman, The Spotted Dog, The Rainbow and the White Swan. I then moved to Moseley, since I thought this would make an interesting contrast and visited The Cross, The Fighting Cocks, The Prince of Wales, The Patrick Kavanagh and the Bull Head.

The Woodman

I met my drinking buddy for the evening, Colin, who is a great fan of traditional pubs and culture. He a massive fan of Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa so will always be on the look out for quirky culture.

The Woodman pub lies in the shadow of that huge monument to Victorian engineering the former entrance hall to Curzon Street station. (Picture here) This building built in the shape of a 100 foot sided cube was the terminus of the original Birmingham railway station opened in 1838. The four huge Doric columns replicate the columns that once stood at the entrance of London’s Euston station until 1962.

The Woodman was built in 1897 at the start of the short period that we call the ‘tile-and-terracotta’ pub period. The outside is built using highly ornate terracotta - a clay like material that enabled the building blocks to be moulded. The interior is completely covered in tiles, although in the case of the Woodman, the tiles are very simple in design. Within a few short years, as we will see later with the White Swan, the design of the tiles became highly elaborate.

The Woodman has changed very little since it’s first opening, containing three rooms - the L-shaped public bar, the small Smoke Room tucked into the angle formed by the L-shaped bar and the corridor which leads to the Smoke Room. The corridor was designed purposely wide so as to enable corridor drinking.

We met at the Woodman at 7pm. I would expect any pub to be quiet at this time. The Woodman had about 20 customers in there. They clearly all knew each, since they were huddled in two groups with an interchange of people between the two groups.

In many respects the two groups wouldn’t have looked out of place on Broad Street. One beer bellied man wore an England Football team T-shirt; one group contained a heavily pregnant 19 year old who was dressed in tight fitting white jeans and T-shirt complete with cleavage - she was drinking water thankfully.

At the counter were three office workers - I think from Lancaster Circus Highways Department, since I recognized one of them - who clearly looked uncomfortable and out of place here.

I was amazed that the Woodman had so many customers so early in the evening, since the Woodman is what I would call a back street pub. It not on any busy road or bus route. It is also a good long walk down some eerily quiet roads from both Digbeth High Street and the City Centre

The Kerryman

The Kerryman sits directly across the road from Digbeth Coach Station on the overly wide Digbeth High Street. Digbeth High Street dates from the before the Doomsday book and it is along this road that Birmingham was born in the 12th Century.

The town took here off due to the entrepreneurship of Peter de Birmingham. Realizing that the land he owned was infertile, Peter decided to develop his lands for business. He was the first in the surrounding area to apply for a market license - which would later be known as the Bull Ring Market.

He then set up burgage holdings along the High Street. A burgage would enable local peasants enslaved by feudal ownership to become traders who merely had to pay rent. At the time, Birmingham was seen as a haven of freedom for serfs.

In the 1960s the south side of the High Street was flattened so as to accommodate the now 6 lane dual carriage. This is why the north side of the High Street still retains many of its original Victorian buildings, including the timber framed Old Crown pub. The blandest, dreariest and unwelcoming buildings that the 1970s and 1980s could possibly build now line the south side.

With the destruction of the Inner Ring Road at the Bull Ring in the late 1990s, the 6 lane Digbeth High Street now appears unusually void of cars. Should it be narrowed?

The Kerryman was called, until a few years ago, the Old Bulls Head, not to be confused with the Big Bulls Head a few doors up, which was built in 1900. The Old Bulls Head was built in the 1860s.

When it became the Kerryman, it’s old multi-room interior was hollowed out to form a large sports hall feel interior. On floor space alone, one could fit two Badminton Courts in here, although you would hit the ceiling with your badminton racket whenever you went for the overhead shot.

As soon as you enter the pub you have the bar immediately to your right and a line of flashing gaming machines to your left. Past these the room opens out where discos are normally held.

Colin and I walked in there about 7.30pm. There were five elderly blokes sitting on stools dotted around in the area between the gaming machines and the bar counter. It was deadly quiet.

We left straight away and went to the next pub.

The Spotted Dog

The Spotted Dog was built in the 1930s by the Ansells Brewery. The Ansells Brewery built pubs in the 1920 and 1930s that went completely against the style at the time. All the other large brewers were building pubs in the Reform pub style - large grand pubs with car parks at the front and bowling greens at the rear.

The direct competitor to Ansells was Mitchells and Butlers who were one of the biggest advocates of the Reform pub style.

The Reform pub style was the British breweries response to the Governments serious consideration on introducing Prohibition in Britain - ie banning alcohol. The breweries decided to abandon the tiny corner Victorian pub and instead build upmarket pubs.

In these Reform pubs, sensible drinking would be encouraged though sober, inspiring and spiritually uplifting surroundings. Famous examples in Birmingham (and Birmingham is recognized as the birthplace of the Reform pub style) are the Black Horse, Northfield; The Three Magpies, Hall Green; the British Oak, Stirchley.

Ansells did not take on the Reform pub style and kept to the Victorian concept of what made a pub great - small multi-room interiors with lots of corners to hide in and low ceilings - theymerely put a 1930s Moderne and Art Deco twist onto it. The Spotted Dog is an example of one of these pubs.

The irony is that the Reform pub style did avert the introduction of Prohibition, but were commercial disasters - which is why so many are now being demolished for housing estates. While the small corner pubs of the Ansells brewery still exist.

The Spotted Dog has changed little since the 1930s save for the introduction of carpet and a nice colour scheme. At its rear is a pleasant beer garden - one of the few in Digbeth.

The pub wears its Irish roots on its sleeve. Maps of Ireland adorn on the walls, adverts for Irish sporting events in Birmingham are pinned to the notice board. There is even a Catholic mass card for a second generation Irish man who, the picture reveals, is buried next to my brother’s grave in Brandwood cemetery.

The bar counter has a selection of real ales, including a mild, which is obligatory in an Irish pub.

The beer garden to rear is hemmed in on three sides by neighbouring buildings, which give it a pleasant secluded feel. Over looking the beer garden is the new Abacus building - this has been the cause of much controversy since the new residents have been complaining of the noise from the beer garden.

The Abacus is close, very close indeed. Balconies from the flats directly overlook the beer garden, which means these flats get the full blast of any noise from this beer garden.

From the beer punters viewpoint, the Abacus building provides a fantastic vertical piece of art. Sitting there in the beer garden I was able to watch one person vacuuming their apartment, while in another, a person downstairs made their bed complete with the flapping of the duvet about. Quite enjoyable.

Back in the pub there were a group of 20 girls out on a hen night, complete with pink dolly boppers perched on their heads. In the midst of these colourfully dressed girls were two mature men, who did not quite fit in.

It only became apparent who these men were when one of one hen party girls shouted “we’ve got five minutes to get back onto the bus”. One of the two men was the bus driver of the 1960s bus standing outside, while the other man was the business organizer of the hen night.

When the hen party left, we were left with an empty pub, Colin, me and six other customers.

The Rainbow

The Rainbow is the Lazarus of pubs in the Digbeth area. Until a few years ago it was the real McCoy of ‘spit and sawdust’ pubs. It had the bleakest interior imaginable. Plain whitewashed walls - any Victorian features like doors, picture rails, skirting boards, long removed.

All the rooms had red lino floor covering that is necessary in a ‘spit and sawdust’ pub. The brightest lights possible, meant you could see every painful feature on the alcohol stewed faces of the drinkers.

The Rainbow was refurbished a few years into a trendy bar. The previous complete lack of wall features in the pub, suddenly became an asset, in so much that a modern urban pub interior doesn’t have a need for fussy wall features.

The lighting has been turned down, the wooden floors revealed and wacky seating inserted - for example the top half of a school gym vaulting box.

On the walls are canvases of graffiti urban art. The gents toilets are covered in graffiti tags - real graffiti tags ‘from the mean streets of Brum’ no less, since I recognised many of the tags.

The loudspeakers are playing what I think is described as ambient dance music. At one stage Colin jokes that someone needs to tell the DJ that the needle is stuck, since the music has been constantly repeating the same sample of music over and over again for the past 5 minutes.

The needle wasn’t stuck, it was merely part and parcel of this genre of music.

There about 15 people in the pub scatterly about in its airy space. The people are your young professionals dressed in the latest trendy gear.

There something about this place that I really like. So far it is the most comfortable of the pubs visited this evening. Even though it's empty, it still feels good. The art on display I like and even though I joke about the music, it is good.

The White Swan

We get to the White Swan about 9pm.

The White Swan is the sister pub to the Woodman we visited earlier. Built by the same brewery and architects, but a few years later. The interior is over-the-top Victoriana. A lincrusta embossed ceiling, ornate tiles on every vertical surface and a glorious bar back complete with glittering mirrors.

The White Swan is a special place for me. It was the first pub I ever really liked. I would drink in there in the mid-1980s with my elder brother (now buried in Brandwood) and he would extol to me the virtues of real ale and pub architecture - “look at the decoration on those tiles above the bar back” he would say.

This set in place my journey into learning about pub design, followed by the history of British architecture, my subsequent move into Moseley to live with like minded people and then to become the Councillor of Moseley and Kings Heath Ward.

When I regularly drank in Digbeth in the mid-1990s it was always the busiest pub and so tonight it is also. The public bar has a nice comfortable full feel to it. Not packed, just lots of people in there. The customers are all men in their 40s. Most of whom appear to be second generation Irish.

Colin and I have a drink in the back room, empty apart from three other people. This is what makes multi-room pubs interesting. One room can be packed to the gunnels but the next room is empty.

It’s 9.10pm and Colin and I decide to catch the 50 bus to Moseley. Standing in Bradford Street waiting for the bus, this long road is completely empty of any fellow human beings.

Moseley

I won’t go into detail about each pub in Moseley. The immediate noticeably difference between drinking in Digbeth and now in Moseley is the amount of people.

Digbeth lacks people, including inside the pubs. As soon as the 50 bus enters Moseley shopping centre at 9.15pm there are just loads and loads of people. It just hits you in the face - people walking up and down Alcester Road. People everywhere.

We try to get into the Fighting Cocks. The doorperson won’t let us in since the pub has reached its fire limit for customers.

We go the Cross Bar, where the front pavement section is packed with smart young professionals. Inside its full. We have a drink there.

We revisit the Fighting Cocks and wait 10 minutes to get in. Both inside and the beer garden at the back is packed. The beer garden has been designed in a funky style with the smoking ban in mind. The people drinking here are the type of customers that the Rainbow pub should be trying to attract.

The Prince of Wales pub is also busy. After going through a terrible year, the new owner Keith Marsden is getting this place back on it feet.

The Patrick Kavanghs is packed. The owner, Eileen McGee, has just redecorated the front bar. She has a wonderful eye for interior design and many a pub licensee would do well to come to the Patrick Kavangh and learn from her.

The back room was decorated in a Moroccan style some years ago. This time for the front bar she has experimented with a mixture of OTT glass chandeliers and funky 1970s lamp shades.

The clientele are a mixture of second generation Irish and trendy professionals. The age range is wide from 19 to 60 years old, but all of whom have youthful energy and tastes.

The Bulls Head is a wonderful recent addition to Moseley. Recently purchased by Adam Reagan of Medicine Bar fame. Indeed it is Medicine-Bar-in-Moseley. It, too, is full.

It's now 11.30pm and I go home.

Conclusion

Digbeth has many great traditional pubs, plus some new funky London-style bars. It also has many buildings that have a story to tell in their history.

However, what Digbeth lacks is people. The streets can appear eerily quiet and unsafe when nobody is around - this makes the distance between the good pubs seem longer. Even the best of pubs can seem dull, when they are empty.

The contrast with Moseley is important - at the same moment in time when all the pubs in Digbeth were empty, Moseley was heaving with people.

Why the difference?

Both areas contain great pubs run free of any national PubCo interference. Both areas have funky London style bars.

Digbeth does not feel welcoming or even safe.

In the middle of the Winter I have avoided, the walk from Digbeth High Street to the Woodman pub.

I also do not feel comfortable waiting alone in Bradford Street at the bus stop and in the past have gone to the expense of grabbing a taxi.

Moseley on the other hand has spent the last three years cleaning itself up.

The street drinkers have long been moved on. The pavements are jet blasted clean every year and flower baskets adorn every nook sticking out any wall. The area is completely free of graffiti and the street furniture repainted. These are subtle difference, but it sends out the message that this area is free of crime and safe.

The street frontages of Digbeth, and especially its High Street, need to change and add life to the area. Having a series of car showrooms along Digbeth High Street adds nothing culturally to the area and provides a dead frontage at night.

Moseley on the other hand has retained much of it Edwardian frontages - many thanks must go to the Moseley Society and their tireless campaigning since 1979. It has also ensured the shopping centre is not covered in solid roller shutter blinds that provide dead frontages at night.

There are opportunities to wipe away the mistakes of the 1960s in Digbeth - of which there are too many - and replace these with developments that add life to the area.

Digbeth also has little or no population living in the area - the existence of a resident population is crucial. Moseley has converted much of the spaces above its shop into flats which, again, add to the feeling of safety in the area. If the pubs and bars of Digbeth are to survive, then it needs a population living in the area.

Finally, I had this pub crawl to decide whether or not Digbeth is Birmingham’s ‘jewel in the crown’.

My conclusion is that it isn’t. It has a lot to offer and at a future date, with the right developments, it could become the ‘jewel in the crown’.

At the moment, apart from a handful of great pubs, some new bars and the Custard Factory dev elopement, Digbeth is dead.

Digbeth has been dead since the 1960s when large sections were flattened to convert Digbeth High Street into a 6 lane dual carriageway, complete with raised central reservation.

This is not to say a lot of people do not feel passionate about the area - this writer counts himself as one who does - BUT walk down the following roads at 10pm on a weekday night and can you honestly say they are lively and that you feel safe - New Canal Street, Green Street, Birchall Street, Allcock Street

Martin Mullaney