Lady of Mann, Liverpool

Previously a restaurant called the Courtyard, this place was taken over by the Okells brewery in 2008, creating an unusual double-header with its sister pub, Thomas Rigby’s, which is situated at the opposite end of the once eponymous courtyard. It’s a fairly simple, single room affair, although a central staircase leading down to the toilets creates enough of a partition to make it feel like there are two distinct areas. The front area is the smaller of the two, with the bar to the right on entry and standard table and chair arrangements filling the rest of the space. There are several pillars which break up the space a little and the walls have a few pictures of the Lady of Mann car ferry which used to sail between Liverpool and the Isle of Man. The bar counter is a fairly unattractive metal affair and the bar back has a large collection of coins stuck to it. Moving past the stairs and into the back of the pub, there is a cosier area with bare brick walls, dartboard, TV screen and plenty more standard seating. This area struck me as the nicest place to settle down for a drink, although in good weather, the courtyard easily becomes the pub’s best asset. Music was playing during my stay and there were a number of adverts for live sports. The beer choice was a bit of a let-down compared to those found in Rigby’s, with just two hand pumps offering Okells Bitter and Brains SA. The Bitter was okay, but if it’s good beer you’re after, you’d be better off on the other side of the courtyard. This is one of three Okells pubs in Liverpool and as far as I’m concerned, it is by some way the runt of the litter. However, in isolation it is a decent enough pub with just about enough going for it to merit inclusion on a crawl around this part of town.