A respectable P artist!

Jul 28 2007 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

THERE must be one week in which the Pub Column takes a break from a protracted course in catching hepatitis and finds an alternative to simply propping up the bar.

So this week Yours Truly paid an alcohol-free visit to Princes Park to see Bernie Carroll, the man who has given a more respectable meaning to that irreverent expression, the p--- artist.

Over the years he has visited thousands of pubs in towns and cities across the UK capturing their exteriors for posterity on his popular compendium posters.

It’s no surprise, however, that his most prolific are those featuring pubs from his home city.

Since he began drawing them in 1979 he’s produced 26 posters chronicling some of the most famous – and, it has to be said, infamous – of all Liverpool’s alehouses.

For instance, on his latest one there are a couple the Pub Column would only visit surrounded by a protective phalanx of Dalek bodyguards.

But that’s beside the point.

Bernie’s posters provide a fascinating insight into the ever-changing landscape and history of Liverpool pubs.

“There were about 85 pubs pictured on the very first poster I did in 79 – and out of them I think only eight have survived in their original state on the latest one,” says 57-year-old Bernie, who was a language translator for car giants Toyota in a former existence.

Bernie laments the passing of particular favourites.

There was The Mayflower on Fazakerley Street, just around the corner from Castle Greyskull, which was an underground haven for clandestine meetings and wild office parties where the girls would hide “topper-upper” bottles in their handbags, while the lads would strap them to the inside of their trouser legs.

There was also the King Edward, or The Eddie’s, just off Great Howard Street, now knocked down to make way for yet another skyscraper in the “mine’s bigger than yours” waterfront saga.

This was a late night watering hole for hacks and ne’er-do-wells (who some of you may argue are largely one and the same). Yours Truly well remembers the black jack cosh that Pep the landlord kept handy for his, er, more exuberant customers.

Of which there were a few.

On one memorable occasion the so-called King of the Gypsies – who kept court in the backroom with a bottle of brandy or three for company – staggered over, slammed a £20 note on the table and asked Yours Truly to match it for a gentleman’s punch-up outside.

This received a polite, albeit nervous, decline which was luckily accepted despite the disappointment of an extended family of the King’s knuckleheads who had gathered for the spectacle.

Ah, happy days.

Those outside of Liverpool who may be feeling left out from such golden, nostalgic reverie should take solace from the fact that Bernie’s other work includes the pubs of Wirral and Birkenhead, the Lancashire Riviera (which includes its San Tropez, Southport) and West Lancashire.

And then there’s the myriad of other areas around the country with the latest projects set to cover Cambridge, the Peak District and Bristol.

It keeps him on the move and makes him one of the more successful of Merseyside’s micro businessmen with up to 600 posters sold in a good week especially to ex-pats based everywhere from Medicine Hat in Canada to North Sea oil rigs.

Amid all this happy-clappyness, Bernie has but once concern – because of the smoking ban how many of the pubs will be left from last time when he comes to do the update on Liverpool next year.

That, as they way, is another story – but stay tuned.