Baileys Venue Bar.

Address	High Street.
County	Shropshire
Real Ales	No

Baileys Venue Bar occupies 39 and 40 High Street and has been associated with the drinks industry for over a century. The inn was first licensed, as the Criterion at 40 High Street in 1879.The definition of the unusual name is that the Criterion is the standard by which a thing is judged, which means that this was the inn by which all others would be judged.

In 1900 it was a tied house owned by Lassells and Sharman Brewery but run by landlord Thomas Watkins. Their inn had six private and four public rooms and accommodation for four people in two rooms. They also had excellent toilet facilities for that period with three water closets and two urinals. For entertainment the customers could play bar billiards or have a game of shove halfpenny.

The inn was later taken over by Butlers Brewery until the lease expired and it closed for a number of years. The last landlord of the old public house was Arthur Sambrook who moved to the Six Bells in Ditherington. His wife had fond memories of the old inn and remembered it had "a cosy atmosphere and was a real old fashioned pub."

The inn was closed for around eighteen months and was extended into the building next door, which had been occupied by C.H. Christmas who sold glass and china and sportswear. When the Criterion reopened it had been transformed into a Berni Inn steak bar that was run for many years by the Sidoli family. Later Honeycombe Leisure Ltd ran the inn as a restaurant. It was transformed into the Black Bull in Paradise in 1998 before becoming Baileys Venue Bar in 2004.