The Northern train was bang on, but Merseyrail was in a right mess; usually it's the other way around. Eventually I reached Southport for a short stroll to the wonderful Guest House:
The best pub in Southport? Could well be: Glorious interior, wonderful beer, friendly cheerful staff, what more could one desire.
I passed on my favourite White Rat and plumped for a gorgeous pint of Bass. I think it is compulsory to have Bass when it's available - One of the unwritten laws of pub ticking.
I sat in one of the side areas to enjoy my ale. No music just cheerful chatter formed the soundtrack here, isn't it great!
I glanced at the menu. Fish chips and peas £6.95 - Bargain! The meals I saw looked very generous.
I moved on. It is always a great bonus when I tick a bar I didn't know existed, and today it was the Olde Post Office:
A bit of a mess inside if I'm honest, I'm not sure if it is in mid re-construction or this half-built chaos is intentional. Very clean, anyway. The finished parts, including the bar counter, are rather nicely done in a rough wood style, if they do the rest like this it'll make an attractive bar.
A significant proportion of the beers were unavailable, in fact I'm not sure which lager I ended up with, but as an extra bonus I got a second glass with half a pint from testing the taps, the landlord said he didn't want to pour it away. And one of the most crucial of the unwritten laws of pub ticking is that one never refuses free beer!
A rather odd place, the customers appeared to be strange and/or drunk and/or crazy. Not scary though, they all seemed friendly. The landlord answered a phone call from someone who'd heard the place was being raided by the police. He assured the caller, and I can confirm, there were no police present. And, to be fair, I could see nothing here meriting police intervention.
One down side of a place like this is that Untappd has never heard of it, so I couldn't log my pint of unidentified lager.
Literally next door is Sinclair's, which was Peaky Blinders last time I was here:
Untappd still had this as Peaky Blinders. I tried to recall what it looked like back in 2018 but I couldn't, the basic layout of one room with a glass front onto the streets is unaltered. The interior is very pleasant and comfortable.
More importantly, the provision of real ale hasn't changed and I had a fine pint of Bowland Gold.
The customers here were more "normal" than in the Post Office, and there were plenty of them, not bad for a Friday afternoon with gale force winds (Slight hyperbole)
Even though there are a number of locations around here begging for a tick (Punch Tarmey's, Bold, Corridor etc.) I moved on to one which I haven't visited since 2011, the Oast House:
Now this is what the Post Office should be aiming for. A down market bar with a beautiful interior, I can't think of a word to sum up the decor, except "great". Perhaps I could add "quirky" and "fun" to that.
The two handpumps are purely decorative, I think, so I had my usual Carling.
The background music mixed with animated chatter, plenty of space in here but it was ticking over nicely.
I moved on to the cul-de-sac with three pubs that is Cable Street. Last time I was here I visited O'Leary's, but now it has been totally transformed into Cloud 9, so let's try it:
A very pleasantly done out bar, this. I ordered a Stella. The barman read my mind and said there's plenty of seats upstairs, so I climbed the stairs to a rather well done room which had an open ceiling, resulting in a rather chilly breeze.
This place is really attractively decorated; I imagine, or at least hope, that it is packed later on. Mind you, they need to close the roof hatch, it's very cold up here.
Time for home, with my total now at 1,495.
Beer of the day: Bass
Miles walked: 1
Maybe coming soon: Cantril Farm, Prenton, Bebington
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