The White Hart, Liverpool

Liverpool is really a special place for the pub tourist. This is unheralded by camra (never seen it in the guide for the last few years) yet I found it on a pub crawl app. The title of the pub crawl was "Top 10 Real Ale Pubs in Liverpool". Camra may not know but the locals certainly do. It doesnt look too much from the outside - although the Georgian archiecture is fine. Inside, it has a well worn, timeless feel. Looking at the reviews here, it seems as though this a retro-fit - but they couldnt have done a better job. Multi roomed, with a lovely sun trap beer garden. Beer wise - half a dozen cask on and I was impressed with a first Baltic Best Bitter by the Black Lodge Brewery (Liverpoo). Another favourite and well worth popping in.

I walked into the White Hart via the skylight covered beer garden that joins this pub to the Engineer. I was surprised to find the barmaid that had just served me in the Engineer standing in the bar, the staff explained that the two pubs are owned by the same people and that the staff work in both of them. The draught options from the serving counter up the right were the same as the Engineer with Guinness alongside premium and mainstream craft keg and four of the eight hand pumps were drawing Salopian’s Golden Thread, Purity’s Gold, Colbier Brew Co’s Minor and Lilley’s Elderflower. I missed the other four hand pumps, I’ll be sure to note them next time I’m in here. The main between the two pubs is that this is a traditional pub with lots of wooden features, beer shelves and tables and chairs and the other is akin to a bunker. There’s also another bar upstairs with the same keg as downstairs plus a couple of double up hand pumps. Walking out of the pub via its front entrance I noted that there’s lots of steps up to it from the street below. I think I slightly preferred it in here to the Engineer, but they both get an 8/10 so there’s little to choose between even though they are vastly different pubs.

Official site of The White Hart - www.whitehartliverpool.co.uk

Official site of The White Hart - www.whitehartliverpool.co.uk

I walked into the pub unaware of the recent refurbishment till later that day when told by a local in another pub, well they've done a top notch job with the result being a very comfortable and authentic feeling pub, probably my favourite of my twenty eight Liverpool pub haul. I was too far into the second day to bother recording all available beers but my Neptune Eliza hit the spot. A great place I look forward to revisiting if I'm ever back this way.

I used to like this place under its previous guises as the Clove Hitch and the Keystone, with the 23 Club downstairs, but if anything, the new owners have done an excellent job of refurbishing the building and there is now a much bigger drinking space. Whilst the downstairs space no longer appears to be used, the main ground floor room is still used and there is an extra space adjacent to the rear courtyard for further tables. This space then connects the White Hart to the Engineer at the rear. Whilst the two pubs are joined, the Engineer does have its own entrance from Arrad Street. The Engineer itself is much smaller, but with a ground floor room just to the right of the bar and steps leading up to a balcony above the bar with access to 3 cosy rooms that appeared to be popular with the local student population on our late Monday evening visit. Back in the White Hart itself, there is a further bar on the first floor. Whilst the White Hart and the Engineer have different ale selections, the first floor bar in the White Hart is just a reduced selection from the ground floor. A friendly, young barman told me that the two rooms up here had previously been offices. As with the whole building, they were both tastefully decorated and make you think that they have been just like this for years. The cask ale selection does not disappoint. The White Hart has Ossett White Rat as a regular with Ossett Silver King, St Austell Proper Job, Black Lodge Shake Hand, Make Friend, Abbeydale Deception & Timothy Taylor Boltmaker being the guests. In the Engineer section, Timothy Taylor Landlord appears to be the regular beer. Guests there were Carnival Carmen, Chapter Blindfold Off & Titanic Chocolate & Vanilla Stout. Along with the Vines, the Red Lion and the Queen of Hope Street, this group of pubs are fast becoming firm favourites in Liverpool city centre and we're always happy to find pubs that stay open a little later than normal (they are all open until 00:30, with the Vines open until 1am. However, we did notice that they rang last orders at around 23:45, which wasn't quite as advertised. Luckily this didn't prove to be a problem, as we just headed further along the street to the Queen of Hope Street which was definitely staying open until 00:30.