I am this week commencing with the continuation of my sally down the Beatles influenced Mathew Street. On one of its corners bordering Stanley Street, you would locate Liverpool McCooleys whichis a sports and music bar that first opened its doors in 2017. The venue has a sister site located across town in Concert Square. The Mathew Street branch are an Irish Bar built over two floors, and they recently expanded to include a rooftop bar which accommodates a capacity of around 150 punters.
When its first opened, its overall size of 6500 square feet gained it the instant accolade of being the largest Irish Bar in the city and it has the traditional wood decor. They have regular music performers and on the day of my visit a local artist called Martha was strumming away in the corner.
Liverpool McCooleys. Image Credit Liverpool Echo.
A couple of doors away is the Liverpool Legends Sports Bar, which does exactly what it says on the tin with live sports blasting out all day. They have stretched the concept of the happy hour to the limit by expanding it to 11am to 9pm from Sunday to Thursday. There are musical interludes every evening followed by regular DJ sets; on the one time I have visited I saw a double act called Dewey and Bill playing.
Liverpool Coopers Town House which isburied away on Cases Street near Clayton Square has a long and illustrious history. The pub has been around since 1890, but the story really starts on 16th January 1925 when a lady called Ada Cooper took over the license for the hostelry which at that stage was called The Sefton. She was an immensely popular landlady, so much so the pub became affectionally and informally known locally as The Coopers.
In the 1980’s, The Sefton was under the auspices of the Tetley Walker brewery, but the tide was changing in this decade into the free houses ethos, and this new approach resulted in the pub being renamed the Coopers in 1985. However, their early days were a challenge as in 1986 the majority of the street was demolished to create room for the Clayton Square development which resulted in its isolation from the city centre for three years.
Liverpool Coopers Town House. Image Credit Liverpool Echo.
To mitigate this commercial hit, the brewery asked John Hodges, who ran the nearby Empire pub, to take an additional rent free tenancy to preserve the licence. He developed the Coopers into a music-themed community establishment and when the area opened back up in 1989, he sold his current tenancy and moved in. Over the corresponding 35 years he maintained the popularity of the pub, and they have regular karaoke and live music nights.
The legacy of Ada was not forgotten as on the 100-year anniversary of her arrival celebratory events were held and a commemorative plaque was unveiled there. Through social media the small pub has attracted faithful clientele including Liverpool fans who live in Belgium and Copenhagen who have visited there year on year when attending Liverpool matches and it also has a commendable social media presence with 100,000 followers and over a million likes on Tik Tok. I saw a singer called Kerry on my one visit there.
Further down the same street is Liverpool Rocking Horse. The pub is located in the previous home of a TSB bank and prior to that Blacklers Department store. Blacklers was in situ there for almost the entirety of the 20th century before closing its doors for the final time in April 1988. Contained within their children’s clothing department since the 1950’s was a famous rocking horse called ‘Blackie’ (a name now from a bygone era).
‘Blackie’ the Rocking Horse. Image Credit Museum of Liverpool.
When the store closed Blackie moved on a free transfer to Alder Hey Childrens Hospital where it remained for 16 years as a well loved feature in the central admissions and cardiac clinic. In 2004 it was given a makeover after sustained usage on the wards, and it went into deserved retirement when it was donated on to the Museum of Liverpool.
So, naturally the name of the new hostelry that opened in 2021 was thus pre-ordained. It is an identikit sports and music bar with performers on 7 days a week. When I graced its doors, I was treated to a few tunes by a singer called Vera.