The Mayflower, Liverpool

In a building purportedly built in 1798 the Mayflower is a bare boarded two floor pub that has been decked out to resemble a ship. Booths run up the left and right-hand walls and barrel tables run up the centre, above which the ceiling has been removed leaving just the joists still in position. This looks quite cool looking up, but the real value is when viewing from the first floor because it looks like you’re looking down into the deck below. There’s also a balcony up here that looks out of the front of the pub, this area was the place to be for the students in the pub. The serving counter is back downstairs along the rear wall where premium keg is available alongside five hand pumps that were drawing St Austell’s Proper Job, Bowland Brewery’s Hen Harrier, Black Lodge Brewery’s Me and the Devil, Neptune’s Abyss and Seacider. The barman wasn’t quite with it so either he’s new and had been left to get on with it or he’d had a rough night beforehand. Walking back out of the pub I noted the balcony centrally located above the front sign on the first floor and the Yard which is an outside space up the left-hand side of the pub. I’m not sure that I’d go out of my way to revisit, but it’s an interesting pub to take a guest for something a bit different.

The Mayflower used to be the function room for the basement Pilgrim pub. They are still effectively the same premises with a spiral staircase connecting them, but are branded as two separate pubs. The Mayflower is much brighter and is also much more appealing than the Pilgrim. With its own street level entrance, there is a ground floor bar and further seating on an upper level. The decor is very much distressed with what looks like a partly-finished ceiling. But its quite a nice space to enjoy a drink. The bar is to the rear and offers 5 cask ales, typical to other 1936 Pub Company outlets and possibly replicating what is downstairs in the Pilgrim. On our visit, they had 4 cask ales and a cider. Ales were Black Lodge Digging The Scene, Neptune Ezili, Beartown Lit & Weetwood Cheshire Cat. The cider was Seacider Passion Fruit. Pick of the keg selection was Black Lodge Baltic Pale.

Official site of The Mayflower - www.instagram.com

Official site of The Mayflower - www.instagram.com

A completely separate pub that will operate from the former function room of the adjoined Pilgrim.