I needn't have worried The White Lion is quite a decent pub with a choice of a couple of ales, I seem to remember having a fairly ropey pint of Banks's bitter in The White Lion on a previous visit so I declined that in favour of a pint of Sharp's Doombar.
Tamworth has a bit of a reputation of being a v*lla stronghold though, while many residents share that unfortunate affliction, there is a certainly a Blues presence, I was particularly pleased to see the iconic club crest behind the bar at The White Lion.
The pub regularly has live bands on a Saturday night many of whom are pretty good. We saw a fabulous punk covers band in The White Lion a couple of years ago. The band had obviously got a very loyal following with right wing tendencies who travelled in numbers on that night. I am not exaggerating when I say that when I walked in that night I thought we were at an EDL rally !!
There was a poster on the wall in the pub telling of forthcoming events at the venue, as well as the usual sporting events and live bands I noticed that there was mention of a psychic night on the 15th of May with Dawn Lorose, I'd have never predicted that !!
There is plenty of history to the pub and it always features in old photos of Tamworth town centre from bygone eras. The late American actor Mickey Rooney was a regular in The White Lion during the war when he was stationed at nearby Whittington Barracks.
We left after a quick pint though not before we witnessed two blokes pay a visit to gents together to seemingly take the term powder your nose a bit too literally.
Time for a quick photo..
...before a stroll to the next venue Wherever.
UPDATE 31st May
After a quick pint in Wherever, The White Lion was originally intended to be our final stop off point for the six of us (me, Shelley, Gill, Alan, Craig and Maria) while on route to the Tamworth Rock and Sports bar to watch the Carl Froch v George Groves fight.
When we got in there we discovered that the boxing was being shown on six HD screens throughout the pub. We quickly decided against a move to the dark, chip smelling rock bar and decided that The White Lion was now our chosen venue in which to watch the boxing.
Although they do sell real ale at The White Lion it can be a bit iffy. Out of loyalty I went down the ale route and went for a pint of Adnams Ghost Ship, it was okay but certainly wouldn't appear in any Good Beer Guide.
We found a good pitch, not too far from the door but with a really good view of the pub's largest screen. They were showing the supporting bouts but I missed James DeGale knock out his opponent due to my financial embarrassment, I had to pop to the cashpoint as I had literally no money.
The pub had really filled up by the time the main event started with the split in the pub between men and women being roughly 50/50. Both genders were offering well meant advice to the boxers with 'Hit him' being the most commonly used.
Carl Froch obviously heard the advice that was being given from The White Lion and caught Groves with a peach of a right hook in the eighth round. Game over. It was also night over for us, well kind of, we drunk up and decided on more beer and a chilli back at ours.
UPDATE 6th June
Right, that's it, I'm never drinking real ale in The White Lion again, the pint of Banks's bitter I had on our post work pub crawl was dreadful but it wasn't a one off I've seldom if ever had a decent pint of beer in this pub so that's it, it's fizzy tasteless lager for me from now on.
We called in for a quick pint on the way to the curry house, it wasn't a planned visit it was just that previous pub The Globe was so quiet it felt like we were having a pint in our front room.
There was a bit more life in The White Lion which was just starting to fill up with the pre night club crowd loading up on drinks that end with the word bomb.
Very little of note occurred during our visit, I must admit the music was pretty good with Creep by Radiohead and I Wanna Be Adored by The Stone Roses being the pick of the tracks.
I did look jealously over at Shelley's pint of Th*tchers and shook my head knowing I'd made a bad choice. It won't happen again let me tell you !!
According to folklore the streets of London are paved with gold, well something similar occurred in Tamworth as we left, I dropped a fiver on the pavement, thankfully Shelley was on hand to sweep up the dosh !!
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