Crown Hotel, Liverpool

The Crown Hotel is a large, two storey pub outside the main entrance to Lime Street station. It’s certainly a striking building, with its large gold lettering catching, if not exactly pleasing, the eye. You enter into a large, carpeted front room with the bar along the rear wall and ample seating filling what is a fairly open space. There is nice wood panelling, etched windows and a tiled fireplace but the star attraction is the fantastic ceiling which, in keeping with the signage outside, has recently been augmented with some flecks of gold leaf. The bar back is also worth a look, with an intricate design and some nice stained glass inserts. Passing to the right of the servery you can enter a smaller room at the rear of the pub which has an even nicer ceiling, some smart leather banquette seating and a small tiled fireplace. My arrival came an hour or so after the end of a Liverpool home game, so the place was packed with football fans enjoying a pint before their train home. Unable to find a seat I decided to venture up the winding staircase, passing under an impressive cupola on the way, where another large, open-plan seating area can be found in what used to be the billiards room. There is plenty more seating here and I was able to get a seat looking out over the station approach. I’d expected a fairly mainstream ale selection, but I was pleased to find a relatively interesting line-up of Greene King Suffolk Springer, Marston’s EPA, Wooden Hand Pirate’s Gold and Hop Back Taiphoon. My Pirate’s Gold was in good shape and served to me by a charming barmaid. The pub’s location made me a little wary about what I might find inside, but there was a good mix of customers and the staff seemed like a really friendly bunch. I wouldn’t put this high on the list of pubs to return to, but it’s great for a pre-train pint and well worth a look just for the fine interior.

Called in this one as someone suggested to include on my crawl of the city. The interior is impressive and looking up the grand staircase, there is a large glass dome. Beer range disappointing given there were only about 4 ales despite the many forlorn handpulls, and as it was busy I would have thought they would have had the turnover. We chose Shepherd Neame Spitfire as it was the 75th anniversary of its being built, and was amazed as it was only £2 a pint.