Birmingham’s best pubs, led by the Kings Heath bar CAMRA has picked four years running

Five cask beers on handpump, ten craft lines, crisps and nuts for food, and a water bowl for the dog: that is Hop & Scotch, a single small room off Kings Heath High Street, and Birmingham’s CAMRA branch has voted it the city’s pub of the year four times in a row. Below it the branch’s podium keeps returning to the same handful of rooms; three of the six belong to Midlands brewers, and most serve a cob instead of a menu.

How we chose: CAMRA Birmingham’s Pub of the Year medals for 2022–26 rank the top six (gold 3, silver 2, bronze 1); the rest are heritage-listed rooms, ale houses and a taproom.

1. Hop & Scotch

It is number one because it took gold in every one of the last four branch votes, from 2022/23 to 2025/26, which no other Birmingham pub has done. Drink whatever local cask is on: the pub guide entry names Green Duck and Kinver as regular suppliers, and the Good Beer Guide lists it. The bar takes cards only, children are welcome until 7pm, and the staff keep treats for dogs. A sister bar for European beer is two doors along.

Institute Road, Kings Heath · cask, craft, cider and whisky · card only · walk-in

2. Craven Arms

Silver in 2022/23 and again in 2025/26 puts the Craven Arms second. It is a Black Country Ales pub on Upper Gough Street, behind the Mailbox, with twelve pumps: three permanent house beers and up to seven guests, mostly from Birmingham and West Midlands brewers. Have a guest from the board and a cob or pork pie from the bar, and sit by the log fire in winter. Children are allowed until 7pm.

Upper Gough Street, city centre · cobs and pork pies at the bar · open daily · walk-in

3. Prince of Wales

The branch voted it silver in 2024/25 and bronze in 2025/26. Black Country Ales refurbished this single room in 2022, and it now pours the brewery’s own beers plus up to seven guests and two real ciders, a few minutes’ walk from Centenary Square, the ICC and the Rep. It is the pub for a pint before a show. Monday is bingo, Tuesday is the quiz, and the food is freshly made cobs and pasties.

Cambridge Street, near Centenary Square · cobs and pasties · open daily · walk-in

4. The Colmore

Two medals, silver in 2023/24 and bronze the year after, put The Colmore fourth. It is the Birmingham outpost of Thornbridge and Pivovar, and its published beer list runs to 94 cask, keg and bottled beers. The room behind it has a 30-foot bar, marble tables and chandeliers, with a pool table downstairs. Order a Milanese-style pizza; the dough is made every day with Thornbridge’s Green Mountain hazy IPA.

Colmore Row, business district · open daily from noon · walk-in

5. Old Moseley Arms

The 2023/24 bronze ranks it fifth, and it has also won gold twice in earlier years. The building was rebuilt in 1927–28 by W. Norman Twist, and its two rooms around a central bar carry two stars on the National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. The regular cask list leans to the Black Country and the Welsh borders, from Bathams Best Bitter to Wye Valley Butty Bach. The kitchen serves tandoori dishes in the evenings and all day on Sunday.

Tindal Street, Balsall Heath · tandoori menu evenings and Sun · children until 6pm · walk-in

6. The Bull

The Bull is sixth on a bronze in 2022/23, and it won gold the year before that. It is a backstreet local near Aston University where a collection of 300 jugs hangs from the ceiling over a U-shaped bar, with a smaller back room for quiet. Regulars include Church End Gravediggers, Hook Norton Old Hooky and Oakham Citra, and the kitchen does traditional pub food. Upstairs are eleven en-suite rooms.

Price Street, near Aston University · pub food · open daily · walk-in

The heritage rooms

The Old Crown

On Digbeth’s High Street sits the oldest pub building in the city: Historic England lists the Old Crown at Grade II* and dates its timber frame to about 1500–1550. The pub’s own claim of 1368 goes further than the listing does. Go on a Sunday for the roast, or on a dry day for the outdoor space at the back.

High Street, Deritend · Sunday roast · walk-in

The Anchor

The licence goes back to 1797; the Grade II building dates from 1901. The beer campaigners named it a regional pub of the year four times between 1996/97 and 2007/08. It shut in June 2025, and Peter Connolly reopened it that August after a restoration reported at £100,000 that brought back the mahogany and rosewood bar and the Minton tiles. Look for the tiles before you order.

Bradford Street, Digbeth · walk-in

The Old Joint Stock

Julius Alfred Chatwin designed this Grade II building as a bank in 1862, by St Philip’s Cathedral, and Fuller’s now runs it as a pub with a small studio theatre upstairs. Check the theatre listings and make a night of it.

Temple Row West, by the cathedral · theatre upstairs · walk-in

City-centre ale houses

The Wellington

The Wellington opens at 10am every day, closes at midnight, and runs on a live Beer Board of changing cask ales. There is no kitchen, so bring your own food. Before 1pm the Earlybird deal takes £1 off a pint of BFG or Pig on the Wall. It won the branch’s gold in 2012/13 and silver in 2018/19.

Bennett’s Hill, city centre · £1 off BFG or Pig on the Wall before 1pm · walk-in

The Jewellers Arms

Black Country Ales took this Hockley Street pub to gold in the branch’s combined 2019–21 award, and it remains the Jewellery Quarter’s real-ale stop. Expect cobs, pork pies and bar snacks, nothing fancier, and stay until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Hockley Street, Jewellery Quarter · cobs and pork pies · walk-in

Purecraft Bar & Kitchen

Purity Brewing is behind this Waterloo Street bar, and lunch is the reason to come: the September 2026 menu sells any lunch dish with a Purity pint for £16, or £13 to eat in without one. Ask for head chef Stuart Langdell’s Scotch egg.

Waterloo Street, city centre · lunch with a Purity pint £16 (Sept 2026) · walk-in

A taproom

Attic Brew Co

Stirchley’s brewery taps start here, by Bournville station, and the beer to order is Intuition, the flagship pale. Birmingham Brewing Company is also in Stirchley, and Cork & Cage is a short walk away on Pershore Road if you want to keep going.

Mary Vale Road, Stirchley · Wed–Fri from 5pm, Sat–Sun from 1pm · walk-in

Checked October 2026.