Desi Pubs
Commissioned by Creative Black Country to consider artistically the success of Asian pub landlords across the Black Country.
For the project, I documented some ‘Desi’ Black Country pubs, its owners, staff and the punters. Initially, I thought that the project was primarily about the dislocation of the Asian landlords running Black Country pubs, yet you quickly realise that almost everyone who comes to the pub is slightly out of place
Amrick, Fourways, Rowley Regis
Almost all of the local punters talk about the decline of the local manufacturing industries. For example, one area Rowley Regis grew from its iron ore, stone and coal and this made it a central location for heavy industry, many of the local men would have worked in the same factories, often on the same machines, as their fathers and grandfathers.
It's a generation of men who feel slightly out of place in the modern post-Fordist economy, but not so in the pub. People of all backgrounds socialised together in the factories and the pubs.
In 1965, when the first Black barman, Linton Dixon, started pouring pints in the New Talbot Inn, Smethwick, it was such big news it made the local paper, nowadays the growth of the Asians owning and running local pubs passes without anyone even noticing.
