The Old Bank House

 The Old Bank House is the newest pub in Tamworth town centre and what an addition it is. It is one of a row of Victorian buildings that overlook the castle. Although the above picture looks as though there is a plaque on the door paying homage to a former QPR manager this is simply the name of the street the pub is located on. Cast your eyes upwards and you may be surprised to see a proper historic plaque, a blue one making reference to the fact that this was once the site of the former TSB. 

‘So what’?!! you may say. Bear with me, this is not the location of a former branch of the Trustee Savings Branch whose reputation, back in the day, for turning down loans and mortgages with little or no compassion led to customers believing the acronym stood for Tough Sh*t Baby !! No this is a lot more grand than that, The Old Bank House is the building formerly used to house the Tamworth Savings Bank set up by former Tamworth resident Sir Robert Peel. This was back in the day when a bank was run by a Captain Mainwaring type (ask your great grandad kids) rather than a computer and way before we’d even heard of the terms, interest rate manipulation, PPI mis-selling or money laundering!!

The building fell into disrepair for many years and local business partners Jim and Jon have painstaking restored it back to its former glory. For those of you are interested in such things the two storey building boasts a buff brick facade with ashlar dressings and a tile roof with ashlar end stacks. Anyone would think I’ve cut and pasted that straight from the internet !!

I hope I am not doing the place a disservice when I say it has the look and feel of a London gentleman’s club. You can almost imagine the fug of cigar smoke while gentlemen sat engrossed in their copy of The Times, drinking their brandy whilst occasionally raising their head from their newspapers to discuss the splendid century from Edrich at Lords the previous day.

Some pubs (particularly some micropubs) adopt a policy of not playing any kind of music. That is not the case here however the music is loud enough to hear but not that loud that it dominates and becomes annoying. During my last visit there was a 1980’s electro feel to the playlist, a few too many means I can’t remember exactly what, but I seem to recall OMD, Depeche Mode, ABC, Human League etc. 

The beer garden, whilst maybe in need of some attention (hardly surprising given the demands of restoring the inside of the building) and not the prettiest, really works, it has a really good buzz on a sunny Staffordshire afternoon. There is also a beer terrace on the front for those who’d rather have a view of a Norman castle. 

How remiss of me, I’ve not mentioned the beer yet. I often feel tempted to say zwei bier bitte when I go up the bar as me and my better half adore the German wheat beer that is served here. If you are a fan of German beers then this is the place for you they sell ABK Weissbier, ABK Dunkel, ABK Hell and ABK Pilsner. Wunderbar !!

Don’t worry real ale drinkers you are well and truly catered for, the 6 well kept ales rotate more regularly than a Black Sabbath lead singer and a Barry Fry Birmingham City starting XI put together!! The more frugal folk may be pleased to hear that certain real ales are currently reduced on Mondays (has that changed your opinion on the first day of the working week Sir Bob?) so you can grab a pint for the bargain pint of £3. I can’t believe there’d ever come a day when I thought I’d say that a three quid pint was a bargain. That said I recently paid £6.80 for a pint in a back street boozer in Digbeth !! 

A great place. Go visit, what are you waiting for?!!