Ye Hole in Ye Wall, Liverpool

Tucked away up a side street next to Thomas Rigby's, I always find this a bit of a strange pub. It's quite dark and dingy inside, but with several cosy areas in which to hole up in. There's generally some interesting people in and often some impromptu musical performances, as it proved again on our late Tuesday afternoon visit, when we found guitar and harmonica players. The barmaid/landlady was a good laugh and as usual, there were some interesting ales to choose from. Although only the one set of 3 handpulls were in use, the other 3 all unclipped. Beers on offer were Hawkshead Bitter, Big Hand Bastion & Wigan Brewhouse Alcatraz.

Only open Thursday - Sunday at the moment.

Enjoyed our visit to this 2019 Good Beer Guide pub. Both staff and customers were friendly and we enjoyed our beers from Big Bog and Hafod breweries.

This pub is on CAMRA's Regional Inventory of pubs with historic interiors. Most of the work in here is inter-war, although there are one or two post-war embellishments. The layout is unchanged from that described by previous reviewers, with the pub effectively divided up into separate areas by glazed paneling. The telephone booth is still there - I saw two of these in Liverpool, having not seen one in London. One should take the trouble to open the door to this one, as most unusually contains the skeleton of a man and his dog. I do recall the days when an operator had to put your call through, sometimes resulting in a bit of a wait, but I think that this poor chap and his dog were particularly unlucky. There were six real ales on in here; on my first visit here I had the excellent 5% Heavy Industry Collaborator which was in excellent condition. A second visit the following day with several chums saw most of the ales on offer being sampled, and all were said to be in good condition. Hopefully the problems mentioned by previous reviewers have been resolved. This has all the look of being a traditional locals' pub, which is something I wouldn't have expected in the centre of Liverpool. It's definitely worth a visit.

Situated down the evocatively named Hackins Hey, a narrow side lane, this pub has claims to be the oldest pub in the city. Inside there are a series of cubby hole seating areas with the bar along the front wall in what is the main area. Carpeted, wood panelled walls, stained glass leaded windows and copper panels to the bar front. There was a proper roaring fire on the go in a hearth with a copper hood over which featured a Liver Bird. The overall ambience was of a warm, comfortable and cosy feel. Old signs warn of press gangs, there are jugs and tankards dangling from hooks over the bar and the walls are liberally covered with old B&W photos of Liverpool. It's a friendly spot, a chap sitting on a bar stool saw me perusing the pumps and then ran through the beers describing the styles, the extremely chirpy barmaid was good fun and nice with it, she left her post briefly to help some old boy outside to his taxi. Two banks of three handpumps, Red Star Lakota plus Havana Moon, Peerless Bunny Hop, Rock the Boat Dazzle and Cottage Golden Arrow. I'm unsure if meals are served but there are signs advertising Jones' pork pies. This was a men only pub until relatively recently resulting in the hastily added ladies toilet being accessible only by passing through the bar. Unusually also the cellar is upstairs as the pub is apparently built on the site of an old burial ground. This is the sort of cosy pub you could easily sit in for a session, I liked it a great deal.