The Globe, Liverpool

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.

Good old type of pub let down a bit by the low ABV on the ales. Might be better on another visit.

Fine, traditional pub with a compact bar and rear room accessed via a slight but wonky slope. Short of space, so found a perch with a few older locals who indulged in some good-natured banter (partially at my expense, of course) of just the sort that you would expect in a proper Liverpool pub. Three of four handpumps in operation, with a disappointing selection of Doom Bar, Wainwright and Black Sheep Holy Grail (expensive for the area at £3.40 too). However, I did really enjoy my brief stop here.

A great old pub. Descriptions elsewhere. Real ales available. Both the front bar and back room can be busy.

The back room has new wallpaper and an antique map of the northern hemisphere as well as new upholstery and floor, otherwise the dear old place is unchanged. Long may it continue.

Always worth a call must have the most uneven floor in a pub always a good hand pull on and nice type of customers to chat too

A small pub wedged in buildings opposite Central Station that would quickly fill up. Very old fashioned and good for it, two drinking areas, the small bar at the front and a further seating area at the rear with a telly of the same scale. Mersey beat piped music plays whilst you drink one of the 4 real ales. Nice place, welcome to Liverpool.