Poste House, Liverpool

They had a single handpump with a Doom Bar clip, but nevertheless I went for a half of Guinness at £1.60. I didn’t see any sign of food during my late afternoon midweek visit. This is a tiny little one room pub in an alleyway of a road running between Victoria St and Dale St. I can’t imagine any tourist venturing in here, apart from yours truly of course. There seemed to be n upstairs room, as I heard lots of noise and jollity coming from up there, but I didn’t go exploring up there. The walls are covered in black and white photographs of I know not what, and furnishings are upholstered settles, normal tables and small round stools. It’s a friendly little local, but probably not your destination of choice if you’re looking for a real ale selection.

Very compact pub with a traditional bar downstairs and another at first-floor level with signs suggesting that it caters specifically for the local gay and lesbian scene. Just two of the three handpumps were on when we stopped by on a crawl, offering Fullers Front Row and Tetleys Trust Porter (£1.10, half). Pleasant atmosphere, with a bot of jovial banter.

Well worth a look it nearly got knocked down a few years ago but survived that its a gay bar for the older end but you dont have to be gay to go in nice crowd and banter from them

A real survivor. A backstreet local in the centre of the city. Tiny and gay friendly, it's a very sociable pub. When we called in on a Monday afternoon, the regulars were mainly older men and there was a load of amusing banter going on. Two changing real ales on the bar and my pint was in very good nick. It's a pleasant place to call in for one when on a crawl (as we were).

There’s a strange rumour about this pub which suggests that in 1912 it was visited by Adolf Hitler when he was staying with his half-brother and sister-in-law who lived in Liverpool at the time. Although this rumour is probably untrue (many historians dispute the fact that he ever visited Liverpool, let alone this specific pub), it is somewhat satisfying to find that the pub is now part of the city’s expanding gay scene. A small, single room pub, the Poste House dates back to the 1820’s and had a close shave with the wrecking ball in 2001 when developers looked to demolish it as part of a redevelopment plan for the area. It’s a classic traditional boozer with bare floorboards and lovely curved banquettes of the sort commonly found in this part of town, although these ones formed seating booths with small integral lamps and some attractive etched glass panels. A fireplace on the rear wall has a number of old pictures of Liverpool above it and unlike most of the pubs I visited in the city, it displays its colours on its walls, with plenty of Everton memorabilia on show. I noticed a couple of TV screens, both of which were turned off, so perhaps live sport is shown. The servery is quite pleasant, with leaded glass panels in the canopy above it and a few self deprecating posters on the bar back say things like ‘Don’t take the piss out of our beer – it needs all the flavour it can get’. A sign above the staircase at the back of the room explained that there is a ‘gay friendly bar’ upstairs, but the pub was so busy on my late Saturday evening visit I gave up trying to push through the crowds to see what this might mean. The decision to cater for the gay community meant that there was an unusual clientele mix spanning the ages from 18 to 80. Just the two hand pumps on the bar, but an interesting enough choice between Tetley’s Trust Porter and Fuller’s Front Row. I gave the Tetley’s a try with a little trepidation and was pleased to find myself with a well kept and flavoursome pint of traditional porter. Spirits seem to be big here and the bar back was covered in hand written prices for various singles and doubles. It was a bit tricky to get the measure of this place when it was so busy, but it felt like a classic traditional pub, unchanged over the years but still able to cater for a younger crowd. Very satisfying to report that this was much better than I’d expected.