Lion Tavern, Liverpool

After the ride on the Royal Iris, John and I went to the Lion Tavern, where we met my sister.

The pub is listed by Camra as having an interior of National Importance (three stars). The interior is fantastic, it has lots of tiles and woodwork, a mosaic floor plus etched and stained-glass windows. One of the best interiors in town. Unfortunately, my photos of the inside were unusable. So, I guess I’m going to have to go back and try again. Clicking the link in the above paragraph will show some photos of the interior.

The pub has a decent selection of real ales, at prices that are not extortionate. They serve snacks, mainly pies.

The pub is close to the Vernon Arms and the Ship and Mitre. These three pubs form a really, really good pub crawl. After a couple of pints here we went to the Vernon Arms for more pints and fish and chips. I wrote a post about a visit to this pub recently, it’s here.

The fish and chips were OK, but nowhere near as good as those in the Ship and Mitre. From now on, I’ll be eating the fish and chips in the Ship, they are well worth the extra £6.

You need to be careful with the Vernon, there are TV’s everywhere and they always seem to be showing football, luckily with the sound turned down most of the time. Just after six the sound was turned up (Liverpool were playing at home) and I had to leave the pub fast (leaving John there to finish his fish and chips, sorry John). The sound of football on a TV is one of my least favourite sounds (up there with pneumatic road drills and dentist’s drills).

So, I went to the Ship and Mitre, closely followed by John (my sister had gone home). Just after half seven I had to leave to get the train home. Just as I was going a group of five or six people sat at the table next to us. It turned out that there was a convention of small brewers in town today, John said he had an interesting conversion about beers with them. I wish I’d stayed at the sisters.

Soon I’m going to start writing my manifesto (an idea I stole from John, sorry John). One thing will be a complete ban on TVs in pubs. Pubs should be for conversation.

The interesting lighting effect in the above photo was caused by the sub being reflected of a tall building opposite. The sun was actually behind the pub.

Update 13th April

Today I visited this pub again and managed to get some usable photos of its inside.

They were taken with the camera’s internal flash. Later this year I’m hoping to get a more professional flash (more power and the ability to bounce the light). I’ll then need to return to try again and hopefully get a much better set of photos of the interior.