Walsall
"Then he flew off about lemonade, and ‘such-like Sunday-school slops’, as he termed them, ginger-beer, raspberry syrup, etc., etc. He said they all produced dyspepsia, and ruined body and soul alike, and were the cause of half the crime in England."
- Jerome K Jerome, ‘Three Men in a Boat’
First, note that, from a public transport point of view, Walsall don't particularly play in Walsall. They're not far off, being south of the town centre, and of course in these brave new days we're used to the geographical displacement of football clubs, but if you're aiming for the ground, don't go to Walsall station. No, for the ‘Bescot Stadium’, the best stop is... Bescot Stadium station. Hey, things have been a lot worse. The ground, like many new ones, sits in drab surroundings amidst middle of nowhere retail parkdom, but for once there is a railway station right next to it, so it's easy enough to drink somewhere better before heading to the ground, and easy to slope off immediately after the defeat that seems to attend our visits. Of course, the train times are often unsympathetic, and when they're not and you're in a dash for an after-match train it's not unknown for police or ticket-checkers to hinder your way, but this is only what we expect.
For our April 2004 visit, it is of course Easter, a time when those who know better than us do not expect people with time off work and football supporters following their teams at a crucial period to travel up and down the land. You're supposed to just stay at home. It seems the town of Walsall itself is inaccessible except by (those dread words) a replacement bus service, while there's a lengthy post-match wait at Bescot station before a train deigns to hove into view. Visit the National Rail website (where, if you click on a link marked ‘useful information’, you are told "this page is no longer available"... quite) or phone up a bored student on 08457 48 49 50 to be told something probably inaccurate.
The ground is also slap bang by the motorway, if that's your thing, close to the curious glass hangar of the RAC Control Centre. If you've driven through Brum on the M6, you've driven past the ground, although unless you know it's there, you'll probably not have noticed, mistaking it for another drab industrial unit.
After all that preamble, the place I would recommend drinking is... Walsall, as it happens. There are some good pubs dotted around the town centre, within walking distance of the station, and it's not too many minutes by train or taxi to beerless Bescot. Hey, have you ever had a good pint on a retail park? Best of all, in one or two places around town you should get beer from Walsall's own Highgate Brewery, well known for its outstanding Highgate Dark Mild. Drink it if you find it. They also brew Saddlers Best Bitter. As well as this, you should get lots of lovely pints of Banks's. This dominant regional brewer, maker of the classic Banks's Original mild, also sponsors Walsall's shirts.
The pubs listed in this guide fall into two parts. There are those I've sampled in my two visits to Walsall in modern times, i.e. since we started doing these guides in 1999. That was for our dreadful night match defeat in March 2002 and our equally horrible Saturday capitulation in March 2003. Hmm, not a happy hunting ground, this, although I did once see us win 3-1 here. And there are the others, visited back in the days when I didn't pay as much attention to where I was drinking, the descriptions of which are going to be a bit vague. You'll probably notice the difference.
And with that, we press on, although the really hard bit is getting out of Walsall station, which imperceptibly turns into a shopping centre. There must be a quick way out of here, but I've never found it. Wander around until you see daylight. There is a Banks's pub - the Red Lion - right by the station, but unfortunately although it used to be okay, selling a decent pint of Original, on our March 2002 visit it had been youthed. Decor was trashy, music was shite and the bloke behind the bar couldn't give a toss. Only the bitter was on offer, and it was crap. Shame, as it was once a decent if unremarkable pub, with a pleasant upstairs drinking area.
We might as well get the useless pubs out of the way first. It will get better. We didn't do very well that night in March. After a somewhat improvised journey, due to usual railway chaos, we discovered that Walsall shuts down on a Tuesday night. The centre was deserted. We attempted to visit the Hogshead, on Leicester Street, in the town centre and very close to the station. No beer was available, so we left. Humph. Then we tried to go round the corner to the local Wetherspoon's, the Imperial, a former cinema on Darwall Street, on the basis that at least it would be open. It was shut, for redecoration. We should have known it was not to be our night. Then we spied a branch of the Varsity chain. These big sheds are firmly oriented at the younger crowd, but they do at least sell beer. Not this one. Ah well, off to the Red Lion it is, then. That's alright, isn't it?
I've been in the Imperial since. Not one of the better Wetherspoon's, and one of those places where you feel all the locals are watching you. And the Hogshead still didn't sell any beer on the second attempt. Walsall does contain some decent pubs, but my impression on recent visits is that the centre has declined and gone very chain pub - a bit like everywhere else. You'll find better once you get off the pedestrianised bits. As well as the below, there are several locals' Banks's pubs around, the names of which I have lost, including a superbly rough backstreet bar which gave the impression of never having closed. It had certainly never been cleaned.
Heading north-east from the station, on the Blue Lane West part of the ring road around the town centre, is a large and imposing Banks's pub, the Hamemaker's Arms. In case you're wondering, hames are brass collars worn by carthorses (or so I'm told). Indeed, as you walk up here, you will pass one or two saddle-making shops, representing the trade for which the town was once well known, and from which Walsall derive their nickname. It's all quite evocative. As for the pub, it's been a while, but sometime in the Nineties it was friendly, the beer was good, and the food came in large portions. I still recall a friend's cartoonishly huge T-bone steak.
To get to Blue Lane West, you need to take Green Lane from the pedestrianised centre. There are other pubs I've known in this neck of the woods. The Oak, on Green Lane, was a dump, but a nice dump. When I last called in, it was a busy, grubby pub full of stuff, with some old bloke serving behind the bar, and an odd collection of beer.
Further on, off Green Lane on Old Burchills, you'll find the Rose and Crown, another Victorian pub selling, when we visited, Highgate Dark.
North of the ring road, on John Street, you have the Tap and Spile, AKA the Pretty Bricks. This chain was once good, now isn't; but I seem to recall this being pretty decent, once it opened. It was shut when we got there first thing in the morning, and a detour into a desperately dodgy nearby Banks's pub was called for.
Back the right side of the ring road and a wriggle away from the Hogshead, on Lower Rushall Street, is possibly my favourite Walsall pub, the Victoria, which formerly went by the unhappy sobriquet of Katz. There was nothing wrong with the pub before, but the new name sits more happily with what is a traditional, welcoming beer house. It used to be rather bleak inside too, but at some point it had a smartening up to go with the name change. Well I remember the £2.50 chicken curry in 1998, though. The crowd will be made up of locals and beer lovers choosing from an excellent range that should include a mild. If you can find the Safeway supermarket, you can find a pub.
In comparison, on Upper Rushall Street, which is where you might expect, was a place I really didn't like, the Lyndon House Hotel. It's been some years, but boy, this place was really up itself. A hotel bar, it tried to be genteel, and advertised all sorts of restrictions on groups, dress, and so on. In Walsall!
Close to the Victoria, on Lower Forster Street, you have the Fountain, a nice little pub on my visit (if it's the one I'm thinking of), again selling Highgate Dark.
A little further past and down from the Victoria is my other favourite Walsall pub. On Bank Street, the Walsall Arms has the advantage of a stunningly simple name. It's a backstreet pub, isn't terribly easy to find, and when we got there for the March 2002 night match, it was shut. So far, so good. Apparently it closes in the afternoons. But just when it was threatening to turn into a truly hapless evening, the man opened up for us, thus earning instant kudos. It turned out to be a jolly nice, immaculately looked-after, old-fashioned sort of pub, with decent beer from the house of Marstons. It's a big place, with several rooms and a skittle alley. Every pub should have one! I've been in on a Saturday since, and it was every bit as good as I remembered.
Heading further south, and nearer to the ground, the White Lion, on Sandwell Street, was a huge corner pub a long way up a steep hill in a roughish part of town. I recall a hot day at the start of a season and an enervating climb. Inside, it was a grand place superbly gone to seed. Service was heartwarmingly incompetent, and the Highgate Dark was excellent.
To the east of the ground, you'll find the New Fullbrook, on West Bromwich Road. It's a large place, and it sells Banks's.
Bear in mind that for some of the above it has been a while, and they might have changed beyond recognition. There is a local CAMRA website, but it hasn't particularly helped me out here.
Moving on to the ground: rather like Scunthorpe, Walsall have perhaps been punished for moving early, before the recent wave of new grounds. They moved from Fellows Park, now the site of a Morrison's supermarket, in 1990. The ground defines the word ‘nondescript’. It was often likened to a shoebox. It had four low-rise stands of identical size and styling, although they've since built a bigger one at one end. If you didn't know there was a football ground there, you could have passed it without knowing. I suppose character may come with age, and there are worse grounds to go to, but unfortunately, they are stuck with those pillars. The away end is shallow and has a poor view.
What sticks in the craw for our April 2004 visit is of course that Walsall are ripping us off, acting every inch the little club out to fleece the away followings that are better than those they take to other grounds. To get in behind the goal at one end of the ground costs £12 if you pay on the day and a mere £9 if you buy in advance. To get in at the other end costs £16. Hmm, which is the home end and which the away end? It was to further this rip-off that Walsall were refusing to sell away tickets. Hey, you don't have to offer a £3 discount for buying tickets in advance if you don't sell tickets in advance! Thanks to pressure from CISA, they are now averting the risk of Bradford-style chaos by selling away tickets in advance... at the non-discounted price of £16. What a disgraceful lot these are. I normally say grab a chicken balti pie here, but I'll see to it by eating elsewhere that they don't get a penny more of my money than it takes to get in. Don't give these rip-off merchants any more of your money than they're already fleecing from you.
If you're looking for a non-drinking option, it has to be Walsall's New Art Gallery, which has put this unlikely town on the map perhaps more than the football club. The collection boasts a world-class line-up, including works by such masters as Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Picasso. Visit their website for more information.
Walsall's famous sons include some of Slade and Victorian whimsicalist Jerome K Jerome, in case you were wondering. Take a look at his website.
If you're coming from absolutely anywhere by public transport, you will pass through Birmingham. For ideas on how to kill time while changing at New Street, click here for our Birmingham pub guide.
Firmo
Last visited: March 2003
Last updated: April 2004
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