The pub was a meeting place for seafarers and was run by a landlady know for her hat collection
The pub was a meeting place for seafarers and was run by a landlady know for her hat collection
14:24, 15 Feb 2026
A former Liverpool pub was once “legendary” among sailors and run by one of the city’s most respected landladies. Currently sitting empty on the corner of Griffiths Street and Nelson Street in Liverpool’s Chinatown is The Nook pub.
However, it was once “full of character and characters” during Liverpool’s height as a trading port. In 1940, the pub was a meeting place for seafarers and a hub for the local Chinese community. The Nook was a pub with a cosmopolitan reputation where sailors from all over the world would rub shoulders with its regular patrons.
The pub has also been known as the “Chinese Local”, a plaque attesting to the fact being fixed to its Nelson Street frontage, and has been called ‘Britain’s only Chinese pub’.
From the 1945 to 1974, The Nook was run by an Irish landlady called Eileen Jones – one of the city’s most respected and well known licensees. She was known for having an astonishing collection of wide-brimmed hats, and wore a different one each night.
In 1967, Eileen was also crowned ‘Queen of Chinatown’ by the Liverpool Press Club. Originally from County Cork, she arrived in Liverpool in 1930 with her husband and they originally owned a pub on Pitt Street.
In a story on the dwindling population of Chinatown compared to its pre-war heyday published in the Liverpool Echo in 1974, the legendary landlady is quoted to have said: “For me it exists as much as ever. My place is their only meeting place.
“It is home from home for so many and always will be.” When she died later that year her funeral, attended by over 200 mourners, also made the ECHO underneath the headline: “Chinatown’s ‘Queen’ dies’.
The Nook passed into the hands of her son, Colman Fitzgerald, who carried on the pub’s tradition of calling time in both English and Cantonese. After being in the same family for 40 years, the keys of the pub were handed over to new management in 1985.
The Nook began to decline over the years and in 2008 the ECHO previously reported it looking like an “abandoned bomb shelter”. It then went on to have its licence suspended in 2009 after police uncovered evidence of suspected counterfeit trading. The historic site then closed its doors.
In 2014, there were plans to convert the now derelict and boarded-up building into a living museum in Nelson Street.
The plans involved creating a place for people to wander in and tell their story, adding to the archive of the oldest Chinese community in Europe. Unfortunately, the plans did not come to fruition, and The Nook has lain empty for years.
However, the much-loved institution could be transformed after planning permission was submitted in July 2025 to turn the site into a shop and apartments.
The proposal from Imperial Lee Properties Ltd states is to build a second floor extension, alter the windows, add a new entrance to the, use the basement as a commercial unit, use of ground floor as a restaurant and convert the upper floors to six apartments.
The plans would be to use The Nook and its neighbouring building The New Capital restaurant. The restaurant would be retained, with its upper floors used for apartments.
A document included in the application states: “The proposed use of the buildings is proposed to be mixed use, with residential, restaurant and commercial components. The New Capital restaurant will be retained on the ground and first floor level of its building.”
The proposals state that a two-bedroom apartment would be found on the floor of The Nook. A three-bedroom apartment would be situated on the first floor, with two on the second floor.
The third floor would have a three-bedroom apartment and a two-bedroom apartment. A new commercial unit is proposed for the entirety of the basement level of The Nook pub.
The application is currently in the consultation phase.
