Where to drink in Liverpool: fourteen pubs and two cocktail bars

Order a pint of mild at the Lion Tavern on Moorfields, Rock The Boat’s Lion Best at 3.5%, and take it to one of the two back lounges with a fireplace. Liverpool drinks well at both ends: Robert Cain’s brewery money built Victorian and Edwardian pub rooms that are now listed, and a newer set of beer pubs and taprooms keeps turning up in the Good Beer Guide.

How we chose: CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide 2027 and branch awards, Historic England listings, Guinness’s 2026 Harp Guide and the European Bar Guide, checked against each pub’s own site.

The heritage rooms

Philharmonic Dining Rooms

Go for the room as much as the beer. Robert Cain had it built across the road from the Philharmonic Hall in 1898–1900, and in 2020 it became the first purpose-built Victorian pub in England to be listed Grade I. Drink a cask pint at the main bar, look up at the repoussé copper panels and the mosaics, sit in the small rooms called Brahms and Liszt, and see the pink marble gents.

Hope Street · cask ales · walk-in

The Vines

Cain’s 1907 gin palace on Lime Street is Grade II* listed, and the 1936 Pubco’s restoration of its Edwardian tiling, stained glass and plasterwork won Historic England’s Conservation Award at the Pub Design Awards. It stays open late, to 1am through the week and 2am at weekends, which makes it the last stop before a train from Lime Street.

Lime Street, opposite the station · open to 1am, 2am Fri–Sat · walk-in

Peter Kavanagh’s

In a back street of the Georgian Quarter, Peter Kavanagh’s keeps the interior its licensee fitted out in 1929; he held the licence from 1897 to 1950. CAMRA lists it as a nationally important historic interior, and the local branch made it Pub of the Year in 2019. Dogs are welcome, and some nights there’s live music.

Egerton Street, Georgian Quarter · walk-in · dogs welcome

Hackins Hey, two doors apart

Ye Hole in Ye Wall

Liverpool’s oldest pub, from 1726, turned 300 this year with a weekend in April. There are six hand pulls, no kitchen, and Spanish sandwiches and tapas come over from Castro’s next door. In August it marked the centenary of Judy the donkey, a Princes Park celebrity who, bar manager Lisa Kelly told the Echo, “used to come in and have a stout”. Order one in her honour.

Hackins Hey, off Dale Street · six cask ales · walk-in

The Denbigh Castle

Two doors up the alley, the Denbigh Castle dates from 1815 and took its old name back in 2020. It runs five handpumps alongside German and Belgian beers and a long Scotch list, and has CAMRA and tourism awards to show for it. Families and dogs are welcome.

Hackins Hey · open to midnight Thu–Sat · walk-in

The beer pubs

The Lion Tavern

The Lion is the corner pub at Moorfields and Tithebarn Street, and the city’s real ale branch made it Pub of the Year for 2020–21. Its current list runs to eight cask ales, from Oakham Citra to Coach House Gunpowder Mild, with Irish whiskeys and Scotch behind the bar, locally made pork pies on it and a free jukebox.

Moorfields · eight cask ales · Mon–Sat 12–11pm, Sun 12–10pm · walk-in

The Ship & Mitre

A framed cutting at the door records a coaching inn on this Dale Street site in 1822; the art deco front came in the 1930s. Landlord Ben Garner has run it for about 20 years on cask, craft and German beer, and in September it took 250 beers to St George’s Hall for its festival. The German list is the reason to choose it over its neighbours.

Dale Street, near the tunnel entrance · cask, craft and German beer · walk-in

The Roscoe Head

The pub says it has been in every edition of the Good Beer Guide since the first in 1974, the only pub in the North of England with that record. It keeps six cask ales on, serves hot pies all day and plays no music.

Roscoe Street, near Bold Street · six cask ales · walk-in

The Belvedere

Rescued from closure in 2006, this Grade II listed Georgian Quarter pub of about 1836 is in the Good Beer Guide 2027. The curved bar pours European lagers and local cask, and the baked savoury snacks are the food.

Sugnall Street, Georgian Quarter · European lagers and cask · walk-in

The Monro

Guinness put the Monro in its first Harp Guide, 35 pubs across Britain picked for the pint, and Echo readers had already voted it the city’s best Guinness in 2025. The 1936 Pubco restored the Georgian building in 2024 and runs it like a 1920s Dublin bar, with hot and cold pies.

Duke Street · Guinness · open to 2.30am Fri–Sat · walk-in · dogs welcome

Down by the docks and out south

The Baltic Fleet

Wedge-shaped on its corner of Wapping, the Baltic Fleet has stood since 1853 and is Grade II listed. Four cask lines, three of them rotating; the fixture is Trappers Hat, a pale bitter from Brimstage on the Wirral, so start there. There’s a log burner inside and a beer garden.

Wapping, by the Albert Dock · Trappers Hat on cask · daily 12–11pm · walk-in

Hobo Kiosk

Down the stairs of an old brick warehouse in the Baltic Triangle, Delia and Tristan Brady-Jacobs have run this micropub since 2018, and in September the European Bar Guide placed it 85th in Europe for the second year running. All the beer is keg, from local brewers; the house lager is Shindigger’s pilsner and the house gin is from Big Bog.

Jamaica Street, Baltic Triangle · local keg beer · walk-in

Black Cat Rose Lane

Rich Midgley, Andy Scott and Chris Welsh opened their second Black Cat on Rose Lane in Mossley Hill in 2024, and it made the Good Beer Guide 2027. Craft beer and real ale are the trade; on Mondays two margaritas are £10.

Rose Lane, Mossley Hill · two margaritas £10 on Mondays · walk-in

The Masonic Arms

For a Lark Lane pub crawl, start here. The former Lodge reopened in 2025 under its old name, billed as the oldest pub on the lane, and it went straight into the Good Beer Guide 2027.

Lark Lane, Aigburth · cask ales · walk-in

After the pubs

Bar Glue

The UK’s Top 50 Cocktail Bars ranked this 30-seat room on the Albert Dock second in the country for 2026, a year after it debuted at 38th. Nathan Price, Mike Bower and Harriet run an 11-drink house list; start with the Happy Meal or A Fox in the Outback. Book by WhatsApp on 07777 931203.

Anchor Courtyard, Royal Albert Dock · closed Mon · book by WhatsApp

Slowpour

In the basement of Ropes and Twines, Slowpour splits its menu into light drinks (clear spirits) and dark (brown), with each flavour done both ways; the strawberry is Belvedere vodka, strawberry, milk and Chandon on the light side. Cocktails are £12–£13. It opened in 2025 and was 30th on the same national list.

Bold Street, Wood Street entrance · cocktails £12–£13 · Wed–Sat from 3pm · walk-in

Checked October 2026.