Prescot

A sunny autumn day, time for a trip to Prescot, where I started in Tommy Hall's, a compact two-sided boozer, partially knocked through, with a well cared for interior.  No real ale, so I had a pint of Guinness and watched a little of the early Saturday match, along with a number of cheerful locals.  My previous notes recorded this place as packed on a Saturday night, this time it was early Saturday afternoon and it was still pretty busy, although I had no trouble finding a seat.

The Royal Oak is much larger and retains two separate sides with no obvious access between.  The inside looks very traditional and appears to have been well refurbished recently, so it isn't easy to tell how much of the woodwork is old.  Less busy than Tommy Hall's but still doing a good trade.

Next, two closed pubs:  The Bath Springs is boarded up

... and The Crown is now The Crown of India!

The Red Lion Hotel was also busy with regulars watching the same football match as I had seen in Tommy Hall's, although this time, rather disconcertingly, on an Arabic TV channel.  The post match analysis consisted of a man in a suit speaking English (He looked like he might be a former player but I didn't recognise him.) and two Arabic men in traditional dress (Is it called a thobe?) speaking Arabic.

Another unexpected sight in here was the notice saying "NO STRANGERS ARE ALLOWED to PLAY ON FRUIT MACHINES SORRY!" - I wonder what that's about?  (This photo is from 2004, the others were taken today.)