I’m doing this wrong, I know I am. What I should do is go to the places I’m about to mention, ‘experience the art’, get trollied and turn this into some gonzo jounalism effort.
Sigh.
Anyway, there are a few pubs in Birmingham that are pushing the arty side of things – two in Hockley that have been about for a bit (but not all that long) and a new pretender the other side of town.
The Lord Clifden touts itself as Birmingham’s ‘urban art bar’ and makes a fair claim on the title by having work by Banksy, D*Face, Nick Walker, Blek, Obey, Faile and Army Lion knocking about. It’s at 34 Great Hampton Street, Hockley (map).
The Urban Art Bar people also own The Red Lion at 95 Warstone Lane, Hockley (map) which seems to follow the same formula and only opened a month ago (I think). There’s info and a few reviews on the beerintheevening.com page.
The Victoria (website soon come) is the new one – it only opened last Thursday. The pub’s been around for a while but has now been taken over by the people who own Island Bar. The pub now boasts a Birmingham cityscape mural made by the Them Lot collective which is based on the computer game Rampage.
It’s round the back of the Alexandra Theatre at 48 John Bright Street (map) and promises DJs, bands and burlesque shows. It was also the venue for Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School the other day (and will be again on 17 Jan).
The Clifdon is one of my favorites. Such a gem to find a place like that in Hockley. It stays open real late on saturdays . It also serves the best fish and chips I have ever eaten anywhere!
Nice one, someone mentioned these to me but I’d forgotten all about them, must get over there soon.