The growth in the number of poetry and spoken word evenings means that ever more pubs and venues are setting nights aside for poetry, but a cafe that specifically sets out to support and promote poetry is still the rarest of beasts. London has the Poetry Cafe, of course, and now poets visiting or living in Birmingham can pop along to the P Cafe.

Sitting on the sunny side of the street on Pershore Road in Stirchley, south of Birmingham city centre, the cafe is the brainchild of two brothers, Brendan and Kieran O’Driscoll, who set out to open a cafe which would, in their words, “bring high-quality art and poetry to the high street and make it as accessible as possible”. Neither of them had any experience of running a cafe, but they aimed to provide great art, great coffee, and to learn on the job.

And it’s working. Since they opened last May they’ve created a space where budding poets and artists can pop in for a coffee, meet like-minded folk, exhibit their work, and put on events. There’s poetry, art, and photography on the walls – all of it by local artists, and all for sale – an exhibition space that doubles as a performance space for poetry events, and even a small studio.

There are regular creative writing workshops, and lunchtime events where poets can share their work. Each month starts with Stirchley Speaks – an excellent spoken word night – on the first Tuesday, and ends with an LGBT poetry night on the last Saturday. The nights are welcoming, enthusiastic, inclusive and supportive, and well worth getting along to. You’ll find more details here.

Above all, on a sunny afternoon it’s a perfect space to enjoy a coffee and some cake, and be inspired to pick up your pen and write. What more could you want from a cafe? More details and Map 

Steve Pottinger

ILLUSTRATION: NEIL FOSTER