Pub Zine: Briar Rose & The Square Peg

The first pub we went in on our derive to pubs in Birmingham was The Briar Rose which is a Whetherspoons located close to Grand Central Station. We got to this pub around 2:30 pm so there was a few lunch time drinkers and a few people having a late dinner. We were visiting these pubs on Valentines Day which meant that there were a lot of couples on dates.

We sat in there and observed the people and atmosphere and also recorded a few sound recording of the talking and conversations. We noticed a group of elderly gentlemen sat around a table near us, who seemed as if they'd had quite a bit to drink. But what we found interesting was that they were sat in suits, which intrigued us a spoons are quite casual pubs, they also seemed quite friendly so we decided we would go and speak to them.

From talking to them we found out that their ages ranged from 72-80 and they are life-long friends who used to play football together when they were younger. They always drink in the Briar Rose every Thursday at the same time because they know one of them will always be there to catch up with. The reason they choose to go to that particular pub is because it is need the train station and metro so they are all able to get to there. This group were really nice people (maybe because they'd drank quite a few pints) and were also happy enough to let Jack take their photograph for our zine.

Photographs by Jack

The next pub we went to was another Whetherspoons but this one was The Square Peg which is near Snow Hill Station and roughly a 5 min walk from the Briar Rose. This pub was a lot busier than the last one, maybe because it had gotten later in the day. We struggled to find a seat this time so we had to stand by one of the tall tables near the bar. However, this gave us a good view of the people who were in there. Similar to the Briar Rose there was a few groups of older men who I imagine are regulars, and a lot of couples having Valentines dates. There was a gentleman stood at the table alone next to us who kept looking over and he seemed quite friendly, so we decided to go and speak to him. However, as soon as we walked over we knew he did not want us speaking to him which was a bit annoying but fair enough, but we decided we'd still ask him a few questions and make a conversation with him. He told us that he likes to try different beers from around the world and Whetherspoons is quite good for that, he didn't really give us any more information than that but he did tell us about quite a few good pubs around Brum and also the Black Country that have good beers in them which we could potentially go in. As we expected he wasn't happy for us to take his photo, but it was quite nice to talk to him and it definitely gave us a bit more confidence to speak to people we don't know.

We then saw a group of young people a similar age to us so we decided to go and speak to them aswell. They were a lot happier to speak to us than the previous gentleman and we found out that they were uni students. They told us that they drink in The Square Peg because it is close to their accommodation and spoons is cheaper than other pubs.

Photographs by Jack