Greetings from snowy, sleety, Sheffield.
I’m stuck inside with only Mrs RM and last night’s leftover curry for company, so expect manic blogging.
February 2024. Liverpool.
Sunday morning brought clear skies and a clear route from the Potteries to Liverpool, where our £25 Toxteth Travelodge (with FREE parking) awaited. A day earlier it was a hundred quid dearer (do the math, Dick), the party premium.
If you believe everything you read, and obviously you lot do, in 1981 you could have bought a house for £25 in Toxteth. But then along came those loveable Dusanji Brothers to revitalise Cains and the area south of Liverpool centre and in turn become as popular on Merseyside as The Sun.
Cains famous beers have come and gone and come again and gone again, but the games arcades, tattoo studios, crazy golf and co-working spaces remain.
We headed towards that vast Cains brewery site now, a walk along the dock road lacking drama, and it dawned on us why the Docks Travelodge was such a relative bargain. Young women in heels won’t walk 100 yards on a night out, let alone a mile.
Mrs RM is made of sterner stuff, and walked ahead to find lunch in the food court while I dawdled and took photos of dereliction,
and inspirational quotes.
Cains Brewery Village (2013) is a giant rambling complex with a brewery tap for a non-existent brewery,
and an Irish pub named after a physical assault on Mancunian Bill Tarmey (whose 1994 debut album is a classic). Assaults on Mancunians are what Scousers are famous for*.
There’s a closed craft bar and a yellow submarine (nope, no idea) and much, much, more.
The Baltic Market is one of those converted warehouses with central trestle tables and street vendors round the sides (see also : Crewe, Sheffield, Manchester etc etc etc).
It had been nearly 18 hours since we last ate, a huge plate of Chinese stodge, so we ordered a huge plate of Thai stodge for variety. Pretty good, and some early ’80s American pop for accompaniment.
The central bar was no Mackie Mayor, a disappointing array of corporate taps, so Mrs RM went Lucky Saint.
The food court was just starting to fill up a bit at noon, but the rest of the impressive site looked far too quiet.
Phil, our Man on the Mersey is your guide to Toxteth’s pubs, but there was nothing to detain me locally, so we pressed on to our next targets. The Anglican cathedral, and a new GBG tick.
*Let it go, Retired Martin.
Nope.
retiredmartin 
I’m not sure I’ve heard that song since the 80s.
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They had KC & The Sunshine Band (Give It Up) before that. Early ’80s American pap (see also: Air Supply) is making a comeback.
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What do they play in your Town Hall Tavern ?
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Trad and Americana mostly. Fairly low volume so we miss most of it. Taylor Swift on game days.
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Not sure about £25 for a house in Toxteth in 1991, but…
In 1999, I was involved in the purchase of 123 back-to-back houses in Salford at at a unit cost of just £19 each.
Moral: The less likely a property story, the greater chance it might be true.
PS. I had to put up with some rubbish ale up there, however. The client was taste bud-free.
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About 20 years ago I had to deal with a dodgy property dealer who was buying houses in the North East in pubs from other dodgy geezers. Apparently you could get a buy two, get one free deal.
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There were houses in Anfield on sale for £5k about that time (and Peterlee). We used to get sent details of property auctions when estate management was part of my brief.
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Last October I had a room booked at that nice red triangle on your map but a rail strike meant cancelling it for a refund of 90% of my £36.
Maybe later this year, especially as I would like to get to Vines.
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Simon Everitt (BRAPA) has just visited Vines, and a couple of new pubs nearby. Two Liverpool pubs coming up from me, one new and an old classic.
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Liverpool, like Manchester or London, is no good for just a day, especially at my age when I take things slower.
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Not many Mancunians on that bus.
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They all live in 2-up 2-downs in Wythenshawe, Bill.
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That’s one hell of a brewery. They certainly supped a lot of ale, back in the day, but it’s no wonder the Dusanji Brothers were unable to make the place viable.
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Paul,
They had two attempts if I remember correctly.
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It’s a complex tale I’m not qualified to tell, Paul. I remember the relaunched Cains beers being superb in the early 2000s, but then stopping suddenly in 2008, the actual year of culture, which seemed unfortunate to say the least. Never got to taste the most recent incarnation.
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