Nicholson's Old Contemptibles

About Venue

The Old Contemptibles is one of Birmingham's most storied pubs, a handsome Victorian red-brick on the corner of Edmund Street and Livery Street in the heart of the Colmore Business District. The building began life as the Adelphi Wine Vaults in the late 1700s, became the Albion Hotel in 1880, and was renamed in 1953 to honour the British Expeditionary Force of the First World War - the soldiers whom Kaiser Wilhelm II reportedly dismissed as a "contemptible little army" and who wore the insult as a badge of honour. That history lives on throughout the pub in the form of wartime memorabilia, vintage artwork depicting WWI soldiers, and a sense of occasion that is hard to manufacture and harder to replicate.

Inside, the pub is a proper wood-panelled single room divided into distinct drinking areas, each with its own character. Seven handpulls at the bar serve a rotating range of real ales alongside Nicholson's Pale Ale, brewed by St Austell Brewery and a fixture across the Nicholson's estate since 2012. The gin selection is extensive, with a particular nod to Nicholson Gin - a brand with its own 19th-century link to the pub group's founder, William Nicholson. Classic British pub food runs through the menu with pies a particular point of pride, from breakfast through to dinner.

A recent refurbishment breathed fresh life into the building while keeping its character firmly intact. The Campaign Room - the cosy rear snug that has long been a favourite of regulars - has been redesigned as a warm, semi-private retreat for smaller groups. Above the bar, an upstairs space unused since the mid-1980s has been transformed into The Expedition Room: a self-contained private room with its own bar, natural light, air conditioning, and a flexible layout that works as well for board meetings as it does for birthday dinners.
The Old Contemptibles is steps from Birmingham Snow Hill station, which sits on the Chiltern Main Line and Cross-City Line and provides direct services to London Marylebone, Oxford, and across the West Midlands. Birmingham New Street is a 10-minute walk. There is no on-site parking, but Snow Hill Station's NCP car park and several other paid car parks are within easy walking distance.