Gunbarrels

Ok, so I've given up on doing Selly Oak in one go and am having to resort to doing it in bits. Whilst not quite as exciting, this method will allow for most of the reviews to be done by a semi-sober person.

<photo of exterior to come - completely forgot to take it on the night of the review>

The Gunbarrels, or 'Gunnies' as it is commonly know, is a popular student pub two minutes down the road from the University of Birmingham Guild of Students, and is therefore seem to be the Enemy...this does not, of course, stop many of the Guild staff from going in there. It's one of those 'Scream' pubs so be prepared for lots of yellow.

We went on a Friday night in the summer after the end of term, which meant that a) it was busy, but b) not so busy that there was no where to sit.

The first thing to notice about the Gunnies is that the seats on the whole are either stools, or giant sofas. There are some proper chairs, such as that highlighted below, but very few.

I ended up sitting on 3 stools over the few hours I was in the pub. The first was this one, which is like 90% of the stools in the place. Can't fault the comfort really, the seat has a load of padding on it so will be fine for a good length of sitting time. The real problem is that the stool was incredibly wobbly.

As was this one. One stool I could have accepted - you're bound to get the odd stool becomming a bit loose at the legs - but two is pushing it a bit. Based on this evidence, I think the Gunbarrels should get someone in to check all the stools in the pub and ensure that they are not going to fall apart whilst some poor student is sat on it.

Stool number 3 was a lot better, but this still makes 66% of them unstable. Until the Gunnies gets it's stools checked, if you do go in there I would advise you to ensure that your stool is safe before sitting on it. Otherwise it is only a matter of time before someone has a serious accident.

- Damian, July 05

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