The Green Man, Vauxhall Road, Liverpool

Dec 1 2007 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

IF YOU want to wallow in some alehouse nostalgia, dig out a copy of Freddy O’Connor’s A Pub On Every Corner.

Never was there a more aptly named book for a time when Liverpool was awash with more boozers than you could shake a big stick at – and no more so perhaps than in the Vauxhall area of Liverpool.

Stretching from the outer rim of the city centre to Bootle, and fed by a triple whammy of thirsty dockers, seafarers and the thousands who lived in the terraces before their demolition, this was a pub crawl paradiso up until fairly modern times.

Even Gail the Cyberqueen, a relative whippersnapper who sits chained next to Yours Truly in the slave galley of Castle Greyskull, reeled off great wafts of folklore about Vauxhall’s many pubs passed on to her by her dad when she discovered that the Pub Column would be venturing out there.

Grantie of the Echo went all misty-eyed, too, because he was actually born in Paul Street just around the corner from our pub this week, The Green Man on Vauxhall Road, one of the locals in which his own late dad, “Gunner” Grant, would have a jar.

From that boozer boom time of the past, only a tiny handful of pubs now exist on this main thoroughfare that connects with Commercial Road and Stanley Road.

The pub’s nostalgia status extends far beyond the city’s boundaries, though, thanks to Alan Bleasdale’s classic ’80s award-winning TV drama about Liverpool life The Boys From The Blackstuff.

For this is where his infamous character Shake Hands, played by Iggy Navarro, meets his comeuppance.

In one of the series’ many scene stealers, the huge bald- headed brawler, who insists on challenging people to shake his hand so that he can crush them and then buy him a drink, makes the mistake of trying it on with man on a mission Yosser “Giz a job” Hughes, played by Bernard Hill.

In typical style, Yosser stares blankly at Shakey before pulling his head back and butting the hapless bully through the Green Man’s window.

Naturally, that had long since been replaced when the Pub Column arrived this week with Grantie (of course!) in tow with Tugboat Cath and Lady Penelope of Pensby.

It’s also undergone an extensive refurbishment since being bought by Eddie Brack and his wife, Sue, a couple of months back.

A local boy who grew up in nearby Burlington Street, Eddie has provided something of a lifeline for Vauxhall’s remaining pubs as he also owns The Eagle down the way and co-owns the Vauxhall Vaults on the edge of town.

The soon-to-be 47-year-old is well aware of how many pubs have fallen by the wayside in his 27 years in the trade.

“There were actually four pubs between here and The Eagle – the Queens, Black Dog, the Fail Me Never and the Arley Inn,” said Eddie, who only reopened a week last Friday, but seems to have retained the old trade while attracting the new, especially the curious from the Eldonians estate across the road.

A nice job’s been done on it to warrant this popularity.

Outside, it’s been given a striking new coat of green paint, while inside there are new carpets, tables and upholstery with pastel colours and subtle wall lighting which won the girlies’ approval.

There’s even a holder for betting slips if anyone fancies a trip to the former Black Dog, now a William Hill’s.

Given this attention to detail, it’s a fair bet that this last Man will remain standing and won’t follow the old Dog’s fate.