The Bridewell is at 1 Campbell Square, Liverpool, off Argyle Street where the Bridewell and Fire Station was built in the 1840s at a cost of £2675, designed by John Weightman, who also designed the Liverpool Central Library complex, and was first opened in 1859, mainly used as a lock up. There were 7 cells which housed over 100 'guests' each month, bread was free as was the floor but if you required use of a bed or better food then these would have to be paid for. Covering the marine area of Liverpool, which was historically home to thieves, vagabonds, prostitutes and a lot of drunken sailors, Liverpool used to have an interesting policy regarding Bridewell’s, named after the first such establishment in the former Bridewell Palace, near Fleet Street in London, which stated that they should be situated no further than one and a half miles apart. This policy was in place so that officers who would only have to walk a maximum of three quarters of a mile with the criminal who may be strong and struggling. The Bridewell would have a blue lamp shining brightly to guide the officers at night to safety. When looking at old police reports they state that in 1863 alone there were over 26,000 arrests made in Liverpool. Charles Dickens was sworn in as a special constable here for one night only in 1860 having expressed his interest to see the Liverpool police force at work whilst researching his novel 'The Uncommercial Traveller'. The Building ceased to be used as a prison in 1932 but was brought back to life during the second world war for use by the US military with rumours of German POW and conscientious objectors being put there, but as these activities were shrouded in mystery for fear of letting the enemy discover, any evidence has been lost in the passages of time. The Police Sergeant lived upstairs in what is now the pub's function room. A nightly bucket of Guinness was supplied to The Bridewell patrol from the Guinness boats that were tied up at the nearby Salthouse Docks, and there are tales of staff from the nearby Guinness bottling factory on Norfolk Street bringing buckets of Guinness to encourage the Sergeant to let their friends and family out.
Seemingly the building was forgotten about, and became derelict but it was brought back to life in the 1980s when it was used as a rehearsal space for many local Liverpool bands including 'Echo and the Bunnymen' and 'Frankie Goes To Hollywood' with most of 'Welcome to the Pleasuredome' written in here. In early 2000, TV producer Colin Mckeown purchased the building and rescued it, as he invested in bringing it back to life as a unique bar & restaurant. In recent years the building has been home to pubs, restaurants, and speakeasy-style cocktail bars, but now it feels completely at home as a good old-fashioned pub with a friendly team behind it, and more importantly a good selection of beers. The Grade ll-listed Bridewell was taken over in 2019 by Fiona and Dominic Hornsby and the area now used as the Atrium was formerly the prison exercise yard. They've turned it into an award-winning pub that has a loyal fanbase of regulars who live and work in the city centre, and also attracts sports fans, concert-goers and tourists. The pub is actively involved in the local community, and recently they have raised money for a food bank and a local boxing gym for young people with autism—as well as supporting a motor neurone disease charity, after one of their regulars who had the condition sadly passed away. As well as a Camra award, the pub has been shortlisted in the Liverpool City Region Tourism awards for Pub of the Year.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2026/04/liverpool-pub-crawl-mccartneys-bar.html
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