The Old Joint Stock Pub & Theatre, Birmingham

You walk into what feels like a proper Victorian gentleman's club, all soaring ceilings, ornate plasterwork, and the kind of grandeur that makes you stand a bit straighter. This former bank building near St Philip's Cathedral has been pouring Fuller's finest since the mid-90s, and the theatre upstairs means you're as likely to bump into actors unwinding after a show as you are city workers drowning their sorrows. The food's solid pub grub - think fish and chips that actually matters and Sunday roasts that draw families from across the city centre. But it's the building itself that steals the show, with those impossibly high ceilings and period features that remind you Birmingham's got more architectural swagger than people give it credit for.