Desi Pubs
Landmark Project | 2016 onwards
Desi Pubs is an extraordinary story about migration, survival, love and food. For over 40 years, the Black Country has been quietly incubating a gastro revolution, the ‘Desi pub’.
It’s an East meets West story, where the classic English pub with its ales, darts and dominos meets Punjabi food and Bhangra. Landlords Beera, Jinder, Jeet, Dal, Slack and Amrik, have opened their pub doors to six artists sharing their personal life stories and experiences over a pint.
The pubs landlords and staff helped shape bespoke creations which captured the heart and soul of each venue and their punters. Portraits, stained glass windows, photography, mosaics, and handcrafted pub signs were produced for permanent display in each pub. The collection is part of an ongoing body of work produced by Creative Black Country that includes an archive, broadcasts and a publication.
Parminder Dosanjh, Creative Director at Creative Black Country, comments: “The project is about telling this extraordinary story in the sincerest way and paying homage to the people at the heart of it. The story has many layers and includes tales of migration, survival, love, and the remarkable meeting point of the English Pub and once Indian migrant.”
Asian landlords have been salvaging the struggling pub trade in the area for decades by reinventing failed pubs for new communities and as a result redefining British pub culture. The Black Country is uniquely populated with around fifty successful Asian run pubs which serve traditional ‘Punjabi dhaba’ style curry.
The pubs have their own signature dishes that attract punters from all over the region. Desi pubs have been popping up since the 70’s initially frequented by mostly Asian men working in the foundries. Award-winning TV chef Cyrus Todiwala visited the Black Country during the project to discover more about the importance of food in Desi Pubs.
“I’ve never known a situation where a pub run by an ethnic minority group has given reason for others to create art from it and for other people to try and understand how this came about. It’s interesting to see how they’ve managed to build two things – a very typical British institution, the pub, with a very typical British-Indian aspect, the food.”
Desi Pub Catalogue - Produced in collaboration with Rope Press the 152 page catalogue, which has a gold foil cover detail and is perfect bound, is a limited edition with only 1,000 copies in circulation. The catalogue also includes an illustrated desi pub map to help you plan your pub crawl.
DESI PUBS press coverage
Arts Council England
Long Live the Arty Party Pub
BBC Get Creative – Time please! Join a Desi pub crawl
East meets West in Desi pubs, where the classic English pub with its ales, darts and dominos meets Punjabi food and Bhangra music. Join Get Creative champions Creative Black Country on a unique Desi Pub crawl.
Central News
Central News did a broadcast to cover the launch of the newly installed pub signs in October which included interviews with the Desi Pub landlords, regulars and artists.
Inapub Trade Jounal
Front Cover and double page spread
Birmingham Mail – Punjabi pub signs to be put up at Desi pubs in Black Country
Birmingham and the Black Country have been blessed by an explosion of Desi pubs – offering authentically Punjabi food in a Great British boozer. Now seven of the Desi pubs in the region are getting their own distinct sign – in Punjabi.
Great Barr Observer – Unique Indian-inspired signs to be unveiled to celebrate booming Punjabi Pub Trade in West Brom
A PROJECT celebrating the rise of the Punjabi pub trade in the Birmingham and the Black Country is set to go live later this month – when specially-made signs are to be hung outside.
The Economist – Pakoras and pints: Raising a glass to Britain’s Indian pubs
N THE 1960s, the Ivy Bush public house in Smethwick, West Midlands enforced a colour bar. An ad hoc system, it barred Asian and Caribbean men—most of whom had migrated to the town to work in its flourishing foundries—from the premises. Today, the Ivy Bush is owned and run by Lakhbir Singh Gill, who took over the pub 23 years ago, and it is one of many “desi” pubs in the region (“desi” is a vernacular term meaning “of South Asia”).
Desi Blitz – Cyrus Todiwala talks Desi Pubs in the Black Country
Paying homage to the rich Asian heritage of the Midlands, Cyrus Todiwala reflects on the significance of Desi Pubs with Creative Black Country.
Arts Council England – A story of East meets West Midlands
The world’s first Punjabi pub signs designed by artist Hardeep Pandhal have been unveiled at Desi Pubs in the Black Country. The signs can be seen along with a new series of artworks telling stories about migration, survival, love and food.
Black Country Pub – Desi pubs: ower precious Punjabi jewels
Yow dow av to go deep, or far, for Desi in the Black Country. No, not at all. Yow only av to scratch the surface to find one of the many delightful Desi pubs that are scattered, like precious Punjabi jewels, across ower industrial heartland.
Paul Fulford Blog – You’ve never seen pub signs like this before
The world’s first Punjabi pub signs will be hung at seven Desi pubs across the Black Country this month.
The signs are part of a project to commemorate the visit to Smethwick 50 years ago by American civil rights campaigner Malcolm X.
Red Bull Amaphiko – The phenomenon of Britain’s Desi Pubs
Last week an art project celebrating British-Indian pubs in the West Midlands unveiled pub-based artworks including old-fashioned swinging signage and stained glass windows.
Burnt Roti – Desi Pubs at Alchemy 2016
The Desi Pubs installation at Alchemy 2016 (Southbank Centre) is an outcome of a project started in 2015 by Creative Black Country in collaboration with the owners, landlords and punters of The Red Lion, The Fourways, The Prince of Wales, Island Inn, the Sportsman, the Red Cow, and the Ivy Bush pubs located across the erstwhile industrial heartland known as the Black Country of the UK’s West Midlands.
Express Foodie – The Desi Pubs of Great Britain
In the 1950s, after the Second World War, Britain decided to open its borders to immigrants, mostly from its former colonies. The Royal Commission on Population had decided that immigrants of “good stock” would be welcomed “without reserve”. And so a large number of people from the Caribbean, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) sailed to Britain in search of a new life in the West. Britain needed cheap labour to rebuild its economy, which, after the Second World War, lay in tatters.
Yahoo News: Desi Pubs are a Thing in the UK
India 101: Desi Pubs are a Thing in the UK
Behind the bar, you’ll find Bhangra, Punjabi food, and Mr. Singh. The pub: an institution that’s as British as the Queen and as ubiquitous as bad weather. In the UK, the pub is the cornerstone of a community, a place where everyone knows the landlord’s name and becomes intimate with each other’s personal business.
Caught By the River Blog – Shadows & Reflections
My best day out this year involved a trip to Smethwick in the West Midlands. I went on a Desi pub crawl organised by Creative Black Country – ‘Desi’ referring to the Indian diaspora – with writer friend Rahul Verma.