The Cowley Vaults, St. Helens

didn’t expect this pub to be as good as it was - six real ales (plus two ciders) in a range of styles - had a Salopian Lemon Dream in good form. Friendly service. simple L-shaped layout with a few nice features. Well worth a visit if you’re calling into the Turks next door.

According to WhatPub this is in the same ownership as the Turks Head along the road (unless they mean something completely different by the phrase "sister pub"), but there's almost no family relationship: chalk and cheese, dogs and cats, William and Harry; that sort of different. There's much more of a back street local feel to this one. There are half a dozen real ales and two ciders on the bar (see photo for the ale choice). I went for the Ossett Excelsius, which was in good condition. I really liked the Turks Head and would come back if in St Helens again; in which case it would be daft not to pop in here as well if time allowed. But if there was only one pub on this street I couldn't see myself making a special trip to the Cowley Vaults.

This is a nice back street boozer located a short walk from the town centre, in an area blessed with a few other good ale houses. The pub seems to have been opened out from a previous multiple room layout, leaving a decent sized single room, with the main entrance taking you directly to the bar area. This is a tiled floor space with the dark wood tongue and groove counter opposite the front door, under a pleasant hop-lined gantry. To the left, there is a compact seating area with nice, long padded banquettes along the front and left walls with some low stools in support and a collection of Good Beer Guides and a CAMRA certificate on the back on the banquettes. Some nice old pictures of the town have been hung on the walls alongside paintings of the local rugby league team’s stadium, whilst a TV screen was showing a retro music channel with the sound on. To the right, the room opens out more once you’re beyond the servery, providing a rather plain space dominated by a pool table which is positioned in such a way as to render the dartboard behind it totally unusable. Towards the rear, some more banquettes and low stools can be found in a carpeted space decorated with black and white photos, some nice brewery mirrors and another TV screen showing muted football. Visiting shortly after opening on a Sunday, I found myself the only customer here, which didn’t strike me as that strange until I discovered other pubs close by were doing a brisk trade. I believe this place has re-invented itself as a bit of an ale house in recent times, and the signs at the bar certainly looked promising, with a choice of Thwaites wainwright, Titanic Plum Porter, Taylor Landlord, Jennings Cumberland, Moorhouse White Witch and York Guzzler plus two ciders on the handpulls. The barman offered me a CAMRA discount before pouring me a half of the Guzzler (£1.50 without discount), which wasn’t in great shape and tasted like the line could’ve done with being pulled through. I quite liked this place and felt that I probably wasn’t seeing it at its best thanks to the timing of my visit. The beer quality is certainly a bit of a concern and perhaps they’ll consider taking an ale or two off if trade doesn’t pick up, but allowing for the possibility that I just got unlucky, I otherwise liked it here and thought it was a nice, uncomplicated pub that easily lends itself to a crawl of the local area.