This is going to be a relatively short entry as I've only ever been in this pub once and that was back in 1996!
This was on the evening of Monday 27th May 1996 and was our first canal trip into Stourbridge having moored at the end of the Stourbridge Arm. As I recall, we weren't overly impressed with what Stourbridge had to offer the casual tourist. The pubs were functional, but none of them offered food in the evening and I'm fairly sure we ended up with a Chinese takeaway that we ate on the boat.
I've no recollection of what The Bell was like inside, probably typical of the large Banks's town pubs that were around at that time.
We revisited the Stourbridge Arm seventeen years later and surprisingly The Bell was still there, although not open at lunchtime.
This was on Wednesday 15th May 2013 and at first glance The Bell has hardly changed over the years. On closer inspection, it is no longer a Banks's pub, but from this distance it isn't easy to work out what is going on...if anything.
Having found The Bell's website it became apparent that it is now a music venue/nightclub. Similar to Digbeth in Birmingham, as I've reported in the past, it appears that converting pubs into music venues in towns is a good way of reinventing themselves.
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