The Lock Up Bar has become a popular spot on North John Street
The Lock Up Bar has become a popular spot on North John Street
“We are local lads who go the match, we’re running it like local lads who go the match”, says Paul Brown. Paul, 32, from Bootle, is speaking about The Lock Up Bar, a pub which has been found in the former Natterjack Running shop on North John Street in Liverpool city centre since July.
Paul spoke to the ECHO as he prepared to open his pub on Friday, predicting a busy evening as freshly-paid office workers head out for a few drinks. But how much money The Lock Up takes is not his primary concern. First of all, Paul wants to make sure his pub has the right atmosphere.
He explained: “We’re not sitting here thinking we need to make money straight away – we’ve got a union meeting coming in on Monday, it’s £3.10 Carling, we’ll have a slow cooker of Scouse on for them – we want to be a traditional Liverpool pub.”
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Keeping prices as affordable as possible is very important to Paul, whose background is in hospitality. A sign above The Lock Up’s door reads ‘daytime drink offers’ and ‘cheap prices’ – there are cocktail offers through the week and, as he mentioned, you can buy a pint for £3.10 before 5pm.
But the prices are just one part of the charm that Paul and his fellow owners want to cultivate at the pub. You may not notice it from the outside but once you step into The Lock Up, its theme becomes apparent.
The pub’s blue walls are adorned with pictures of Everton heroes Dixie Dean, Kevin Campbell and Peter Reid, as well as famous moments like the 1995 FA Cup win and the dual League and European Cup Winners’ Cup triumphs in 1985. There are also nods to Archibald Leitch’s lattice balustrades from the Bullens Road stand at Goodison Park on the bar’s stairs and by its windows.
Paul and his fellow bar owners decided that it was about time the city centre had an Everton bar. That’s not to say that Liverpool fans aren’t welcome, but The Lock Up is a blue spot – it takes its name from the lock-up found on Everton FC’s crest.
“We owned the Bluehouse by Goodison, we’re doing new ones by the ground (Bramley-Moore), but as Everton fans, we’re always saying ‘there’s not an Everton bar in town'”, Paul explained. “You have The Denbigh (Castle) that leans Everton and The Excelsior do when Everton are at home, but on Sunday, Everton play Manchester United away.
“Everton fans are going to land back off that train about 4.30pm, when Liverpool play City at home.” So Paul wants his pub to be a home for Evertonians in town (which it has already become in its first six months of operation) but he also wants to make sure it is open to all, embracing the entire city.
About its origins, he said: “My friend and I put in most of the money, then there are seven other people who are all match-going Evertonians with no interests in pubs. We’ve got a train driver, two retirees and others who all threw in some money to get it off the ground and then Leon Osman opened it on July 26.
“We’ve gone for Everton history and city history. We’ve got the baseball at Goodison up on the walls, some old contracts, the actual lock up tower, a painting of what Everton Brow was like back in the day.
“We haven’t tried to go obviously in your face or too much Everton. At the end of the day, I’ve got locals who come in here and we do still get a lot of Liverpool fans and we’re open for everyone.”
But for Paul, replicating the feel of a pub in the shadow of Goodison has been the goal. He explained: “As nice as we like to have the bar and we try to have dress codes, we want it to be a matchday pub.
“We’ve tried to take a County Road pub and put it in town – in the way of the prices, kids are allowed in on a matchday, dogs that are well behaved are allowed in. If you come in here on a Saturday before the game, there are kids in Everton scarves with their dads.
“The dads are having a pint, the kids are having a packet of crisps and a Coke, it’s a matchday and it’s how it should be. The Denbigh is the same.”
The Lock Up’s early success comes at a time of great change for match-going Evertonians and County Road’s pubs. At the end of this season, the club will depart Goodison Park after 133 years for their new home at Bramley-Moore Dock.
Traditions which have lasted for generations will come to an end – a huge part of that is that many people will be changing where they have a drink before or after the game. Paul thinks The Lock Up is well positioned to establish itself as a primary option.
He explained: “The idea is that people will head to Moorfields on a matchday, come here and they walk down to the ground. We were considering running a bus, but we’re already that busy – we couldn’t be any more busy on a matchday than we are now – so we’re developing upstairs and we don’t even need a bus.
“People come here and make their own way to Goodison and then they will to Bramley-Moore. This weekend is pay weekend and it will be chocka with office workers because we have got a reputation for cheap drinks for town.
“It’s £3.10 before 5pm on a Friday, so we do fill up with offices. You get a load of lads from the match who drag their mates in.
“But on Everton matchdays – home and away – you won’t get in. Especially if it’s on TV, because it’s accepted as the place to go if you’re not going to the game.”
Paul and his business partners are also in the process of setting up The Bluehouse Beer Hall – a 400 capacity venue on Regent Road, near the new ground. But for now, he and his staff are focusing on securing The Lock Up’s place among the city centre’s established traditional pubs.
He said: “We sell homemade Scouse every day now. That’s selling out every day and we’ve only been doing that for three weeks.
“That’s getting there, we’re trying to fold in with the old school Liverpool pub. Someone involved’s mum makes it at home on Vauxhall Road, brings it down and if it doesn’t sell that day it gets given away. But we’re selling it everyday.
“There’s a walking circuit of pubs around here – The Denbigh, The Hole in the Wall, The Saddle, Rigby’s. We’re trying to get in on that walking circle of people having a pint through the week or on a Friday. We have the horseracing on all day, it’s just that sort of thing, trying to push it.
“It’s a County Road pub in the city centre. If you come in on a matchday, you will feel like you’re in a pub outside the ground. We don’t have door staff, because chances are, if you go the match, one of us will know you or know somebody who knows you. For a football atmosphere in town, I think it’s hard to rival this place on a matchday.”
