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Episode details

Local Radio,4 mins

1/3 The Desi pubs story: From colour bar to landlord

Desi Stories

Available for over a year

For over 30 years Asian landlords have been salvaging the struggling pub trade. At a time when pub closures are happening every week across the country these Desi pubs, as they have become known, are thriving. They have become places where local ales are served alongside authentic Indian food and they are redefining British pub culture. The story of these Desi pubs is the subject of an ongoing arts project funded by the Arts Council, which launched at the Alchemy Festival at the Southbank Centre in London in May. BBC's Ruchi Tandon has been taking a look at the Desi pub scene in the West Midlands Black Country region where there are over 40 Desi pubs. In the first part of this three part series she looks at the long history of South Asians in the area and why they took on these pubs... *Desi pubs is an on-going arts project produced by arts organisation Creative Black Country and funded by Arts Council England Creative People & Places.

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