The Crown Hotel, Lime Street, Liverpool

Feb 23 2008 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

FIRST impressions are lasting impressions. Right? Right.

And the primary place the city burghers should want to get right for the first time visitor alighting from the train in this its Capital of Culture year is Lime Street.

Right?

Er, well, wrong.

Or so it would seem if you were to survey the work that still needs to be done around here.

The station itself may have finally been tidied up and the widened Big Dig pavements are impressive.

But the derelict Concourse House office block eyesore is still there, albeit covered with a big 08 banner, like a giant ostrich with its head in the sand.

The sad old ABC Forum cinema is there too.

And then there’s the mishmash of dereliction, pole dancing tat and fast food nosheries on the facing side of the street.

So give thanks, then, for the Crown Hotel which has been given its second major makeover in recent years, a sensitive sprucing up worthy of its Grade II* listed building status.

It’s a Victorian toff of a pub that’s been dressed to kill to make it welcome for the passing train trade brigade.

It hasn’t always been so, though.

During the naughty 90s – that’s 18 and not 1990s – Lime Street was renowned as one of the city’s red light districts and the pub would be perfect for ladies of the night trawling for trade.

In the darker days of the late 20th century, it was the domain – like the Big House further down the way – of The Shamblers that breed of passing trade which nobody wants. In they would shamble selling everything from knock-off socks – usually odd – to ciggies which smelt worse than a sweaty docker’s armpit.

Then there was the Mr R A Mate variant, begging for money.

As in “R A Mate, I spent last night in the Bridewell. Giz a fiver for me taxi, yer mingy get.”

Thankfully, this passing traffic has been blocked in recent years as a close Shambler Watch is now kept on the door.

Consequently the sight of a pair of trackie bottoms and the utterance of that tell-tale giveaway catchphrase “gorranymoney” will set off an immediate alarm and the offender will be frogmarched outside to be dumped head first into the nearest purple wheelie bin.

This means that the Crown has become not just a perfect stopover for the traveller eager to avoid the off-the-rails food and drink service which has become the norm when trundling along by train but a favourite among locals too, especially shoppers.

It’s been closed and sheathed in scaffolding for the past three months to allow the latest shapeshift to take place.

The consequent result has been met with the approval of the Liverpool and Districts Camra group and the council’s conservation wallahs who both keep a beady eye on alterations carried out on all the city’s listed pubs.

New carpets and furniture are in place, interior walls have been repainted, lighting has been increased inside – and out – and the ladies and gents totally renovated. There’s also now a polished oak floor in the bar area, the ceilings have been gilded with intermittent flakes of gold leaf, while the back room and upstairs former billiards room still offer the best grandstand seats of the hustle and bustle of Liverpool.

An additional bonus is that the pub is now open for breakfast from 8am to catch even more of the station’s commuter trade with a takeaway service available.

So things are certainly on the right track here.

It’s now time for others to follow suit on this gateway to the city.

And pronto.