Weoley Castle

I used to live near the Weoley Castle pub although at the time didn’t use it very often as it had a reputation for being quite rough. Last month however I spent some time at a friends who lives locally to the pub so ended up popping in here and there for a drink on the way home.
It hasn’t changed much! During the day it attracts older people who are simply in there for a couple of pints to pass the day away, while at night I found the local chavs seem to take it over and it’s not a terribly nice place to be at all.
It’s one of those pubs where you don’t want to wear your best clothes as chances are you’ll sit in something unsavoury (nice!) or a local will barge past and spill half of his cider and black all over you. Honestly, the Weoley Castle has the clumsiest customers in Birmingham — and the drunkest!
Beers served are very standard, there’s nothing in here that you wouldn’t find somewhere else and considering how rough the pub is I find it quite expensive and overpriced compared to other pubs in the area. It has somewhat of a monopoly though as it’s the only ‘local’ for people on this side of Weoley Castle so can basically charge what it likes!
You can buy a small amount of bar food in here, sandwiches and the like which seem to be fairly inexpensive. Having said that, the pub always holds an aura of grime so personally I wouldn’t feel comfortable eating here and would much rather walk down Barnes Hill to the very good chippy and have something nice and hygenic to eat!
The layout of the Weoley Castle is good, it’s a big open plan place which means there’s plenty of room to move once inside. Unfortunately this is not a brilliant thing in this pub as the useless cleaners struggle to clean a small area let alone a huge floorspace such as this. There are often dogeared posters up telling people about various live acts performing at the Weoley Castle, but I’ve never seen any of them so cannot comment on how good or bad they are. I’d imagine the place would get quite busy when the acts are on as the locals need something to take away the boredom of living in Weoley Castle.
Disabled access is fine as the pub is all on one level with no steps or stairs to navigate either at the entrance or once inside. Personally I wouldn’t feel comfortable bringing in anyone in a wheelchair though as the pub gets unexpectedly rowdy at times and once I did see a drunk falling over someones wheelchair and almost knocking the poor lady to the floor. Likewise I’d never even contemplate bringing my children to this pub, although kids are allowed, as it’s just too much of a nasty place to visit.