Liberal House, Amington

 

There’s no point pretending otherwise, historically The Liberal House (located in a back street in Amington almost next door to Tesco Express) was always a bit edgy. The sort of place where you wouldn’t want to catch the eye of a regular for too long, and bar etiquette meant you let others get served before you regardless of whether they were in front of you in the queue or not!! Fast forward to now however and the transformation of this place is more startling than when Katie Price morphed into Jordan !! 

The old function room where the larger folk of Tamworth used to attend Weight Watchers (‘it’s a slight gain this week Cynthia’) and various other unused spaces in this large building have been utilised to accommodate twenty five ‘cosy and modern’ en-suite rooms. A quick look on line shows that these are available for as little as £30 per night. Seeing as I don’t live that far away a cosy night for three tenners (thirty quid rather than a trio of opera singers) could be an alternative to an overnight stay in the dog house should I ever get on the wrong side of my better half particularly as meals would be readily available from Tescos….well, every little helps !!

The pub’s website boasts that its menu is ‘filled with mouth watering meals’ though, whilst I’m no food critic,  I can’t help thinking that Bird’s Eye sponsor all four dishes on the Light Bites menu….ham, egg, chips and peas, sausage, mash and peas, mini fish, chips and peas and 4oz gammon, chips and….wait for it…peas!! You can be sure you’ll get one of your five a day if you eat at The Liberal House !! 

My most recent visit to the pub was entertaining to say the least. I walked into what thought was a cross between a reunion of the Tango men and a Netherlands football fixture, the bar was a sea of bright orange..

It soon became apparent that the budget accommodation was proving popular with workmen currently plying their trade at local construction projects including I would think the HS2. 

As you can imagine the welcoming reception desk (situated at the end of the bar) came equipped with a hand sanitising station so all current COVID protocols could be adhered to…

…..however I can’t help thinking the good folk of Tamworth aren’t following the guidelines seriously enough as later in the evening it became a coat stand…

Disappointingly the single cask ale available during my last visit (admittedly it was only Doombar) has now gone and been replaced by Strongbow dark berry or something equally unimpressive. I begrudgingly went along with the majority of the rest of the patrons in there and settled on Carling which was every bit as uninspiring as it was the last time I drank it. 

It wasn’t long before a couple of fellow suffering Blues fans that I know walked in, amusingly they’ve called me by the wrong name for about twelve years (in a Dave from Only Fools and Horses stylee) and now didn’t seem like the right time to correct them. I love their approach to life, when I asked them where they’d been one of them said simply ‘Two in The Phoenix two in Spoons and we’ll have two in here. When you’ve had your six pints that’s your fill.’ Wise words indeed. 

Once I had taken my seat I noticed raised voices on an adjacent table from the male members of two middle aged couples. It transpired that they were arguing very vociferously about the difference between an endemic and a pandemic. The argument ended abruptly when the louder of the two stated ‘I can’t take this anymore’ (peppered with an expletive or two) slammed down his pint and stormed out with his embarrassed wife following dutifully behind him. It’s a good job they weren’t discussing the difference between a party and a business meeting !! I assumed that it was a disagreement between two long standing mates that had got out of hand however the bemused couple who were left in the bar stated that they were staying overnight in the pub and had only met the couple that day!! 

The back room of the pub was rapidly filling up with blokes are wearing identical Tamworth Mercians jackets. It looked to be a bikers group but I couldn’t tell whether the Mercians are mods or rockers. I quickly began running through my knowledge of The Who’s back catalogue in case anyone started up a conversation with me as that particular band I believe are respected by both camps. It quickly transpired however that they were more scooters than Harleys so I girded my loins for a rendition or two of We are the Mods should the need arise !! 

Mercifully the next few minutes were fairly uneventful with the exception of when a punter decided that the food wasn’t as mouth watering as the pub claimed so disappeared for a few minutes only to reappear with a Chinese takeaway which he unashamedly demolished on a nearby table. I thought the owners would grab him by his Prawn Balls but they didn’t bat (that’s not a COVID related pun by the way) an eyelid. Maybe he had a frozen pea allergy!! 

My peace however was short lived I was unceremoniously ejected from my seat onto another table so the pub could be rearranged to stage poker night. I kid you not !!

An entertaining venue and judging by the number of people in there on a cold mid January mid week night one that is thriving.