Upton

A grey drizzly Thursday saw me nipping under the Mersey by train to Bidston station where the diesel Wrexham service is allowed grudging access to a few yards of Merseyrail track.  I took the diesel unit just one stop to Upton where I noticed the rather tatty Seven Stiles located by the station has been refurbished and renamed Fender.  I wonder where the odd name comes from, I thought, until I checked my records and found it's on the corner of Fender Way.  Anyway, I was heading in the other direction, towards the pretty village of Upton.

The first pub I came to was the Eagle & Crown which is in a very fine 1920s (I guess) building.  Just look at the size of those chimneys!  Sadly, going inside I was disappointed to find a fairly plain and ordinary pub interior, knocked through into one L-shaped room.  No real ale was available so I ordered a pint of Guinness and sat down to listen in on the half a dozen locals chatting at the bar.

Just a minute's walk away is the Horse and Jockey, which looks rather worn outside and in.  The plain, slightly threadbare interior consists of one large knocked through room.  Guinness once again for me as no real ale was available.  The place was pretty deserted, with just a few regulars sitting at the bar, and three youngsters - they needed passports to buy drinks - in one corner.

When I visited Greasby last year I missed out one pub, The Twelfth Man, because it's actually nearer Upton, so now was the time to head westwards and try this one out.  I found a large pleasant pub attached to a Premier Inn, and was pleased to see a Cask Marque sign by the door.  Inside, bare brick and wood beam decor, all fake I suspect.  I chose a pint of Spitfire.  They concentrate on food from the Fayre and Square brand and were doing a steady but slow trade, mostly of diners, on what was by now a rainy Thursday afternoon. 

Three in Town

A visit to a few locations in Liverpool City Centre, starting with the Tavern on the Green which is part of the Liverpool 1 redevelopment.  Inside this peculiar building the interior is also a little odd.  The distressed varnish on the wooden floor looks a lot older than the two and a half years the pub has been here.  Perhaps the boards were second hand.  Old wooden tables and chairs adds to the old pub feeling, in marked contrast to the contempory style of the battleship grey walls and naked plywood ceiling.  Altogether, a quite attractive ambience is created.  On a Wednesday afternoon there was no atmosphere, as I was the only customer for most of my stay.  Two handpumps were on the bar, one had a Jennings' Cumberland clip turned round, and the other provided a fine pint of Marston's EPA.  Eventually a few other customers came in to boost the takings.

Next, to Leaf on Bold Street.  I quickly obtained a spot on pint of Lancaster Bomber, found a vacant table and settled down for a good look round.  Oh my goodness, it's a whole different world here on the artistic side, and I felt very out of place amongst all the arty types, most of whom were sipping tea of various peculiar colours.   Far be it from me to offer fashion advice, but I always feel a flat cap on anyone under sixty years old is a mistake, and wearing one while sat at a table in Leaf just looks stupid!  Anyway, returning to the factual, a small stage is located at one side of the large open room.  There's another large room upstairs which was in use for some event or other, which meant that downstairs was pretty busy, I saw some people standing waiting for a free table.  In conclusion, not my sort of place but I can't fault the quality of the ale.

Just round the corner is Bier which used to be The Old Rope Walk.  I visited here not so long ago and found no changes this time, with an array of hand pumps offering a good choice of real ale.  I selected Ringwood's Boondoggle, one of my favourites.  Trade was quiet but ticking over gently.

Updated Book

It's that time of year again.  The 2013 edition of the Merseyside Pub Guide is now available for purchase direct from the printers, for only £7.20 plus postage and packing.

You know you want one!

Birkdale

A gloriously sunny, if cold, Tuesday saw me heading out of Liverpool on the Southport line and alighting at Hillside station, which is on the south side of Birkdale.  There don't appear to be any hills around here so I wonder where the name comes from.  Mind you, Southport isn't a port so I suppose it's just following local practice.

My first destination was the never before visited Crown Hotel.  I found a very nicely decorated food-oriented chain pub doing a very good trade in lunchtime meals - It seemed like I was the only person who'd come in for a drink.  Unusually, at one end of the very large space was a plainer area with a pool table, the modern equivalent of the bar side.  I enjoyed a spot on pint of Thwaites Wainwright, one of my favourite brews.

I moved on for another first visit, to the Portland Hotel.  A slightly threadbare appearance on the outside of the building, but once I got inside it was much better cared for, with some good original-looking features in the large lounge side including plasterwork on the ceiling and a fine fireplace.  No real ale, so I settled down with a pint of the black stuff, while the landlord got busy with the dirty job of relaying the fire.  Sadly I was the only customer on a Tuesday afternoon, I hope they get a lot more later.

A stroll through the centre of Birkdale itself took me to the Good Beer Guide listed Fishermens Rest, another standard food-led pub.  The large partially knocked-through interior was busy with diners as I sat on a very comfy sofa with another pint of Wainwright.  The menu looked rather good, and seemed a little cheaper than most.  Unusually for this sort of pub, meals are paid for at the till after you have eaten.  The staff all seemed particularly efficient and friendly, which I'm certain must lead to plenty of repeat custom.
(No complaints about apostrophes please, the pub name on the signs is rendered as I have shown.)

For my final stop I headed back towards Birkdale station and to the Park Hotel.  Another food-oriented chain pub with lots of people dining, but there were also a number of regulars in for drinks and friendly chit-chat.  They've painted over much of the dark wood panelling which I noted in 2004, and my comment about this making the interior a bit gloomy no longer applies.  Another great pint of Wainwright for me, it seems to be very popular hereabouts.
Sorry, no photo as it was getting dark by this time.

In summary, a pleasant excursion with some decent pints in pleasant surroundings, and the total of pubs researched goes up to 1,142. 

A Mixed Bunch in Town

A couple of trips into Liverpool gave me the chance to make a few long-overdue pub visits.  Sorry, no pictures this time.

Let's start on Whitechapel in The Beehive - Incidentally one of two pubs with this name in the City Centre.  Not much has changed since my last visit in 2007, except for the welcome addition of real ale, and I was able to enjoy a decent pint of Black Sheep.  A long narrow "corridor bar" with some original features including a good ceramic dado in the standing area by the bar.  To the rear is a restaurant area which was totally deserted when I visited, although a number of people were eating in the more friendly surroundings of the front seating area.

The menu, a good selection of standard pub fare, features this sad indictment of our education system:  "CHECK OUT ARE 2 FOR £10.00 MAIN MEALS OVERLEAF LOOK FOR THE ONES WITH AN ASTERIX".  Under the laws of natural justice, no doubt I'll be punished for having the gall to make this criticism with a really embarrassing grammatical or spelling error appearing in this post.  [Pun intended]

The Lion on Moorfields is a gem well worthy of its inclusion in CAMRA's list of historic pub interiors.  It retains the traditional layout of an L-shaped corridor between the doors, with the servery and bar room on the inside of the L, and the lounge rooms (two in this case) on the other side of the passageway.  Service for the lounges is provided via two tiny hatches in the cut glass partition that divides the corridor from the bar.

At the time of my visit they were having a beer festival, with eight real ales on, making it even harder than usual to choose a beer, peering at the back of the pumps through the serving hatch.  Luckily the landlord pointed me to the blackboard behind me.  I selected a pint of Leeds Brewery's Yorkshire Gold - splendid!

On to Ma Boyles Oyster Bar, which I haven't visited since 2005.  Something of a disappointment with only one pump clip on, and the Sharp's Doom Bar had run out, so I had to put up with a pint of the black stuff.  This place used to be great for real ale, but sadly it seems to have gone downhill.  The presentable interior has changed little since the last time I was here.

The Pig and Whistle on Chapel Street used to be another gem but in 2005 it was unfortunately refurbished within an inch of its life.  Nonetheless, it remains a very pleasant, comfortable, friendly pub serving a spot on pint of Timothy Taylor's Landlord.  On a grey Tuesday afternoon there were only a handful of customers, all of which knew the barmaid, and she invited them all to a party somewhere on Friday!

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.)

Thatto Heath

A convenient coincidence meant I could do research for both my blogs (The other is Northwest Sparks News by the way.) at the same time, so I headed for some pubs in Thatto Heath, starting with a quick look at the Railway Hotel which has been closed for at least two years.  I had a drink in there in 1999 when it was a Greenalls pub.  In common with many of their outlets, it had a bowling green at the back.

Just a short walk round the corner to The Elephant, a rather imposing building containing a plain clean and tidy interior.  When I last visited, in 1999, this was a two bar pub but now it's been fully knocked through into one large L-shaped room, although one end still seems plainer than the other.  No real ale, so I had my usual pint of the black stuff.

Very close to the Elephant is the externally less impressive Vine Tavern.  Inside is a classic two-sided boozer with no access between the halves except via the gents.  The plain bar side had a cluster of cheerful regulars sitting at the bar whiling away a Friday afternoon.

The review from my previous visit grumbled that "The 'Cask Ales' sign would appear to be a lie".  I was surprised to discover the sign is still there and still wrong thirteen years later, so it was another pint of G.

Back to the station and, next door, the Springfield.  This impressive building contains a large two bar pub pleasantly decorated inside, with dark wood panelling on the bar front.  In the plain bar side a couple of regulars were playing pool, and there were one or two more customers in the lounge end I think.  The trophy cabinet was well filled.  Again, no decent ale so it was yet another Guinness.  (This picture was taken in 2010.)

All three pubs were ticking over on a sunny Friday afternoon, a little surprising considering they're located within 1/4 mile of each other.  They all had the "local pub for local people" feel, where everyone in the pub (except me) knew each other, but they seemed to have no objection to a stranger coming in and jotting in a notebook.  All three were last visited in 1999, so long overdue for an update!