The Globe, Liverpool

My tweet about "never judging a book by its cover" was retweeted by Roger Protz who commented that Liverpool CAMRA first met there 50 years ago next year. I went viral :-) What a gem - externally, it looks like you should be walking on by, but inside, its a proper pub that you instantly feel at home in. Small front room around a horseshoe bar. A 2nd, almost secluded back room. Full of puppy trinkets and art work. TT Boltmaker in fine condition - the pumps for this and landlord emblazoned with the brewery "champion cellar" accreditation. GBG2023.

Handily located for Liverpool Central station and all of the main shopping streets, this is a small and narrow locals' boozer tucked away off the main drag, but easily found if you're heading to Clayton Square shopping centre. It's probably been almost 10 years since I was last in here. The ale range is not too inspiring these days and it has dropped out of the Good Beer Guide, despite being the birthplace of Merseyside's CAMRA organisation. Sharp's Doom Bar, Timothy Taylor Landlord & Thwaites Wainwright are the ales. The guest beer yesterday was Coach House Cheshire Oak. There is a small room and some equally small toilets at the rear, with a deceptive, sloping floor in between. The pub attracts all walks of life, including locals and stag parties (one had just arrived as we were getting ready to depart).

situated by the ghastly Cooper Square shopping centre, yet another of those classic convivial Scouse boozers. this one is particularly tiny and populated by jolly pensioners. beer not bad but it's all about the atmosphere in here.

A small and very traditional old city pub, tucked between a shopping centre and a row of circuit pubs. The main room at the front slopes through to a cosy snug at the back. A couple of local ales were on offer alongside the more usual national brews and in good condition (Cask Marque listing). Well worth a visit.

Just outside the entrance to Clayton Square shopping centre we popped in here for a bit of post retail therapy and mainly for the interior, which is well described by previous reviewers. Four beers were on for our visit and yes they were fairly pedestrian choices including Doombar, TT Landlord, and Thwaites Wainwright, but the Landlord was an excellent pint and we managed to bag a seat in the small back room by the wall length world globe mural.

Improbably located next to a large modern shopping centre, the Globe is a lively old fashioned boozer in a prime location opposite Central station. The pub has a small two room layout, with a nice porch leading you into the main bar area with the servery along the right hand wall. The porch has some nice etched glass panes bearing the pub's name and the word 'Bar', with stained glasswork above and a diving helmet an telescope on the top. The room is part carpet, part tile floor and it takes a little while to figure out that the slightly odd perspective in the room is the result of quite a notable up slope towards the back of the room ('The pub with the famous sloping floor' says the sign outside). The bar has a grand dark wood counter, stained glass canopy and what appears to be a relatively new bar back. Smart button backed banquette seating fills the front window bay underneath more fine etched and stained glass, with similar seating along the left hand side of the room, broken midway by a small partitioning screen. A nice frieze runs around the top of the walls which have been decorated with a smart wooden frame with glazed tile top, retro mirrors, a ship's wheel, model ships, old tobacco tins and other such odds and ends. To the rear, pleasant wallpaper covers a wall adorned with old photos, newspaper clippings, various certificates and a shelving unit full of ceramic barrels. A TV in one corner was showing a muted daytime programme, perhaps for the benefit of the bar staff. Beyond the bar a short passage leads into a smaller rear room which is bare boarded and has space for just three tables served by a compact U-shaped banquette and several low stools. There's a tiled fireplace in the rear corner, low wood panelling and wallpaper showing an old map of the world. Mirrors, jugs and more model ships are displayed above the banquettes, an old typewriter and radio can be seen to the rear whilst to the right there is a plaque commemorating the formation of the local CAMRA branch in this very room. Music of a certain vintage played quietly in the background, more apparent in the back room and the customers, of whom there were plenty at lunchtime, were a friendly bunch, with one chap offering me a seat at his table and engaging in a good chat about Liverpool's best traditional pubs. A couple of cheery old ladies were running the bar as I assume they have been doing for a great many years, and they were offering four cask ales - Sharps Doom Bar, Taylor Landlord, Thwaites Wainwright and Lancaster English Pale Ale (£3.40). I tried a pint of the latter and it was in fine form - certainly on a par, if not better than beer sampled in some of the city's Good Beer Guide listed pubs. I'm not really sure how I've never visited this pub before, as it is clearly one of the stand out boozers in the city in terms of its fine traditional interior, warm welcoming atmosphere and well kept beer. I'm glad I finally got round to paying a visit and can imagine missing a train or two to soak up the atmosphere in here again in the future.