{"id":198924,"date":"2025-06-20T04:23:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T04:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/198924\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T04:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T04:23:12","slug":"birmingham-pub-of-40-years-saved-from-closure-but-new-landlord-issues-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/198924\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham pub of 40 years saved from closure but new landlord issues warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hoseshoe Inn pub has reopened under the leadership of former manager Darren Parker, who has ambitious plans to make it ‘bigger and better than ever’<\/p>\n

A Birmingham pub that has been serving some of the same regulars for 40 years has reopened with plans to make the place ‘bigger and better than ever’ after it was saved from closure.<\/p>\n

When the previous landlord of the Horseshoe Inn in Kings Heath<\/a> announced they were leaving and no one came forward to take over the tenancy, manager Darren Parker stepped in to stop his much-loved local from closing down for good.<\/p>\n

After being shut for two weeks, the Stonegate pub reopened under Darren’s leadership on June 3 and he was thrilled to see it was ‘packed solid’ on opening weekend.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong> Warning issued as four Birmingham venues announce closures in two weeks<\/a><\/p>\n

Darren managed the Alcester Road South boozer for five years and was a punter for 15 years before that, having grown up in the area.<\/p>\n

“The locals are really happy we’re back,” said Darren. “I went to the pub up the road and about 25 of our customers were drinking in there, but all of them know me and they said they couldn’t wait for us to reopen.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoDarren Parker has taken over the Hoseshoe Inn pub in Kings Heath(Image: Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live)<\/p>\n

“The locals are protective of the place. We’ve all known each other for years.<\/p>\n

“There are 60-year-olds who have drank here since they were 18. One bloke has been coming since he was 14 – he’s 65 now and has his own seat in the window.”<\/p>\n

However, the new landlord has been frank about the pub’s current situation, warning that things need to change for the Horseshoe to survive.<\/p>\n

“It’s a nice place on a busy road with a massive beer garden out the back on the canal, but we need to attract more customers, otherwise it’s not sustainable,” Darren said.<\/p>\n

“No one wants to see another pub gone, but that’s still a risk. At the moment, our regulars are keeping us afloat.”<\/p>\n

In an effort to bring new faces into the pub, Darren has plans to revamp the beer garden, start hosting regular events and bring back the once-popular Sunday afternoon discos.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to make it bigger than better than ever,” he said. “I used to be an electrician so I’m going to light up the garden like a Christmas<\/a> tree and hopefully then we can start having bands outside.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoThe Horseshoe Inn pub is back open after a brief closure(Image: Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live)<\/p>\n

“I’m going to put gazebos out there for when it rains. There’s already a pirate ship for the kids to play on but we’re going to put some swings in.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got some better beers on tap now and we’re going to start having Sunday discos again which used to attract a lot of people 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to get a pool table for the function room and get a darts team together. My Mrs is organising a Halloween party and we’ll have a Santa’s grotto on for the kids at Christmas.<\/p>\n

“We don’t do food – we’re a wet pub with cobs – but we’re planning on doing barbecues on the weekend and we might get a food truck set up on the car park.<\/p>\n

“We’re also going to start doing tea and coffee for the walkers down the canal and people coming past on boats.<\/p>\n

“We’ll make it work because the pub means a lot to people.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hoseshoe Inn pub has reopened under the leadership of former manager Darren Parker, who has ambitious plans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,10845,748,393,4884,16821,16555,10846,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-198924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-pubs-and-bars","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-kings-heath-and-stirchley","14":"tag-moseley","15":"tag-pubs-in-birmingham","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114713788799095550","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}