April 2025. Birmingham.
Always best to have a rest day after a Proper Day Out, so I’d booked my return from Wolves to Sheffield at times that ensured I wouldn’t get to a new pub. Clever, huh ?
A late start from a Premier Inn room with sheets covered in crispy beef sauce (you don’t see that in the Lenny Henry advert); the Great Western looked majestic in the Black Country sun.
You can’t come to Wolves and not have a bit of gastronomy; here’s the excellent desi breakfast at Chaiwala,
my first ever cup of sweet chai.
A change at New Street with a 45 minute wait presents the possibility of Abbot in the station Spoons,
but 45 minutes seemed perfect to finally, finally, visit Birmingham’s re-opened Museum and Art Gallery.
It’s a British trait to find the worst in people and places, and poking fun at Brum bins is a national sport.
But I didn’t see any offending refuse, with Victoria Square stunning in the sun.
And the (W.I.P.) museum, which has taken almost as long to refurbish as Manchester Town Hall, is spacious and sparkling.
Benjamin Zephaniah is, rightly, the prominent display, but it’s the breweriana you want.
The display on “Progress” rightly focuses on the cost of moving forward;
that Eagle & Tun (RIP) was a highpoint of the Codger’s Digbeth Crawl on World Cup Semi-Final Day in 2018, a day I do remember overflowing bins in the Jewellery Quarter.
That’s an impressive sign they rescued from the Golden Eagle.
And an impressive sign at the legendary Wellington, a rare 10am opener.
On this occasion, I DID manage to walk past.
retiredmartin 
Always look beyond the bins.
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I’d rather not seek out the bins
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Oh, I gave up commenting on the Daily Mail website years ago, Martin.
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Museums will play an important role for those about in the next rather than the past three score years and ten.
With fifteen pints of Ansells there over fifty-two years ago, I quire well remember the rather posh Golden Eagle but not its Art Deco features as that’s not what teenagers were much interested in.
An older pub but the Eagle and Tun is a more recent memory. My fridge magnet of it made Peter Allen reminds me of both it and him.
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