January 2026. Liverpool.
Ten minutes walk from Love Lane through Liverpool One‘s shops brings me to my Travelodge, and reminds me I still haven’t repaired that wedding ring I had surgically removed by Ernest Jones Jewellers here in 2023.
My room costs £24.99, which in 1993 would have bought you a terraced house in Anfield, and gives you this majestic view of two famous Beer Guide pubs;
It’s barely 4pm, the museums are closed, and 3 rapid pints (all ticks !) leave me feeling disinclined to walk to Bootle to take pictures of urban dereliction for you.
But within an hour I’m out and about, in need of crispy beef and one more classic pub.
Ooh, green bollards at the top of Roscoe Street,
there to stop a stampede of Pub Men on their way to one of the Famous Five GBG ever-presents.
Actually, the Roscoe Head isn’t that frantic just at 5pm on a Thursday in January, but the clientele makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity.
Fifty-three straight years in the Beer Guide, and not much has changed. I took this picture back in 2016, the last time I’d visited, and I doubt it’s much different.
I don’t recall the pie cabinet,
but I do remember the Roscoe as having a cask range that would delight Stafford Paul with its “beers the average pub visitor has heard of“.
The Jarl is just being poured, so I don’t even need to make a decision, other than where to sit.
That bench seating looks nice, better than the high seats around the beer barrels of Love Lane.
The couple opposite play cards, two young lads come in and discuss Indian ballet (possibly), and a note from landlady Carol tells you nicely not to flush hand towels down the loo.
It’s a Proper Liverpool Pub, and when the Jarl (cool, chewy) edges up from NBSS 3.5 to 4 I realise I’ve made the right call to revisit the Roscoe.
Lacings never lie.
retiredmartin 
The Roscoe is a great pub.
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Further to your previous post, the taller building between the Dale Street pubs is actually the former Higson’s Brewery Head Office – the handles still on the front doors are H shaped and Higson’s is carved in granite on the side. At one point it extended into the space above the Excelsior even though it was never a Higson’s pub. And Threlfall’s Brewery just behind until Whitbread closed it down in the early 80s.
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Many thanks.
It looks a bit incongruous between the Excelsior and Ship & Mitre, doesn’t it ?
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“and reminds me I still haven’t repaired that wedding ring I had surgically removed by Ernest Jones Jewellers here in 2023.”
Ye gods! I perused the link and am actually glad I wasn’t around to comment on that particular post (shudder).
“My room costs £24.99, which in 1993 would have bought you a terraced house in Anfield, and gives you this majestic view of two famous Beer Guide pubs;”
(looks down)
Good lord. If I had lived over there (and hadn’t been married at the time) I may well have considered that as my pied-de-terre till I shuffled off this mortal coil. 😉
“and 3 rapid pints (all ticks !) leave me feeling disinclined to walk to Bootle to take pictures of urban dereliction for you.”
You had a quick kip?
“But within an hour I’m out and about, in need of crispy beef and one more classic pub.
Aha! (sort of)
“Ooh, green bollards at the top of Roscoe Street,”
They look more like pill boxes for dwarves (or leprechauns since they’re green).
“but the clientele makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity.”
I think that’s a sign of a good pub. 😎
“Fifty-three straight years in the Beer Guide, and not much has changed.”
Don’t mess with a good thing.
“I don’t recall the pie cabinet,”
They read one of your recent posts.
“but I do remember the Roscoe as having a cask range that would delight Stafford Paul with its “beers the average pub visitor has heard of“.”
(looks down)
I recognise the first two, and possibly the 3rd?
“so I don’t even need to make a decision, other than where to sit.”
(looks down)
Blimey! I’d get dizzy and fall down looking at that!
“and a note from landlady Carol tells you nicely not to flush hand towels down the loo.”
What about wet wipes and possibly (since we live in progressive times) tampons?
“It’s a Proper Liverpool Pub, and when the Jarl (cool, chewy) edges up from NBSS 3.5 to 4 I realise I’ve made the right call to revisit the Roscoe.”
Hmmm. I think the beer itself led to that conclusion… which is a testament in itself. 😊
“Lacings never lie.”
Pfft. I beg to differ! I recall these one pair of shoes; and don’t get me started on a certain corset!
Cheers
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I remember it fondly from my time at Tetley Walker when it was one of our pubs. Great to see so many Liverpool city centre pubs still going (and thriving in some cases). When I was in town last October I made my first visit to the Vines (“the Big House”) for more than 30 years.
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Yes, (the) Vines is a wonderful pub.
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Third along from left – weird looking pie.
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It’s there to make the other ones look good.
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I wondered, perhaps onion bhaji ?, but couldn’t quite be bothered to get ChatGPT to identify it.
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