Pubs & Clubs is presented by Carl Kenneally from Liverpool Record Office and forms part of the Liverpool Through the Archives series, produced for the Connecting Our Communities project…
Over the years, Liverpool has had the fortune to boast a variety of pubs and clubs, renowned for serving up bevvies and smiles in abundance. The Liverpool Record Office team have picked out a few old images displaying a small selection of the city’s favourite watering holes – some of which still exist to this day!
The Ship and Mitre pictured here in 1960. The pub has been known as both The Flagship and The Mitre (as it is in this picture) over the years. The pub was built in the 1930s and has been home to a coach house. The downstairs is designed to reflect the inside of a ship and the upstairs retains many of its impressive Art Deco features to this day.
Catalogue Reference: 352 PSP/111/629/65
The Other Place club on Stanley Street (1979) which is now the Navy Bar located in the gay quarter of the city. Liverpool’s gay scene originally centred on Queens Square. However with the redevelopment of that area in the late-1960s with the building of St John’s Shopping Centre and the new bus station the landscape of the area changed. One of Liverpool’s original gay bars and last remaining in the Queen Square area, The Stork, was demolished in 1975. Subsequently, gay venues began to open up along Stanley Street during the 1970s including Jody’s, The Curzon, The Lisbon and Paco’s and the area remains a vibrant part of Liverpool’s gay scene.
Catalogue Reference: 352 PSP/111/2127/4
Upper Newington, looking north east towards Mount Pleasant and the Mardi Gras club (1966). The club opened its doors in 1957 and played a vital role in Liverpool’s music development hosting an array of local groups such as the The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Chants. Many American artists performed at the club including Muddy Waters and Count Basie with the venue also having a run as the home of soul music in Liverpool with The Drifters, Al Green and Chairman of the Board making live appearances. The venue was demolished in 1975 with plans in place for the M62 motorway to extend into the city centre which sadly for this historic music venue never happened.
Catalogue Reference: 352 PSP/111/2249/1
The Byrom Arms pub on a very different looking Byrom Street to how it looks today. The cobbled street with buildings of character was sacrificed for road widening in the 1960s and was occupied by the Churchill Way flyover until recently. The curved façade of the old Technical College (far right of the shot – now part of Liverpool Museum) helps with placement of the image in today’s context.
Catalogue Reference: 352 PSP/111/381/7
Cases Street in 1968 showing Egerton’s, Casey’s, The Sefton (now Cooper’s) and The Globe public houses. The stay-behinds at Casey’s bar are legendary from the era when pubs closed at 10:30pm. Much of Clayton Square, as it was then, and with it most of Cases Street, as seen in this shot, was demolished to be redeveloped as Clayton Square Shopping Centre which opened in 1989 and has since closed in its original form. The mock tudor frontage just visible here on The Sefton pub has long gone but the pub now known as Cooper’s is still a prominent pub on what remains of the street. The Globe, built in 1888, retains the feel of a traditional Victorian pub and features wood panelling, stained glass and leather-backed benches as well as a smartly tiled floor which famously slopes due to subsidence.
Catalogue Reference: 352 PSP/111/435/4
Commutation Row pictured here in 1959 once housed a number of public houses. The County on the corner of Islington to the far left of the shot and subsequently renamed Pepper’s, the Hare and Hounds (in the middle) and the Court House, a few doors to the right. Three traditional pubs with interesting interiors situated in a row of Victorian buildings with each building having a different face – unified only by keeping to the same height line (more or less) were a distinct feature of this part of Liverpool from the 1880s onwards until their demolition in the late-1990s. A block of offices built for a housing association now stands in the place of what was an historic part of the city’s fabric.
Catalogue Reference: 352 PSP/111/562/8
The Justice pub on the corner of Hatton Garden and Dale Street seen here in 1965. This fine Victorian pub, along with the Old Scotch House pub next door, was demolished in the late 1960s to make way for Kingsway House. The prominent pub was a feature of this corner and was distinctive for its glazed green tiles exterior. This plot of land is now used as a carpark.
Catalogue Reference: 352 PSP/111/629/68
