Liverpool Pub Crawl - The Crown Hotel

The Crown Hotel at 43 Lime Street is a designated Grade II listed building located next to Lime Street station and is probably the first pub people see on arrival by train into Liverpool. The architect is unknown and 1859 is the earliest reference to a pub here before in 1888 William Clarkson, the owner of the Midland, took over here. However, like others, it was taken over by Peter Walker, Brewers of Warrington and Burton on Trent. Walkers Brewery, who also owned the Midland, rebuilt the Crown in 1905, likely as a response to the magnificent Philharmonic pub built by their rival, Robert Cain. Walter W. Thomas, the same architect who designed the Philharmonic, also designed the new Crown Hotel.
 
Built in Art Nouveau style it is constructed in brick with some stucco and features marble facing on the ground floor. The building has three storeys with an attic and has two fronts, one on Lime Street with two bays and the other on Skelhorne Street, with three bays. Between the bays are pilasters rising to the top of the building, each surmounted by a cornice. On the ground floor the doorways are flanked by windows, with those on Lime Street and the middle and right bays on the Skelhorne Street front containing bow windows on each of the top two floors. Between the floors is inscribed "CROWN" "HOTEL" in elaborate lettering. The top two floors of the left bay in Skelhorne Street are occupied by a complex panel which contains in three lines, "WALKERS ALES WARRINGTON". Each of the attics contains a lunette window over which is an elaborate architrave. The interior has one of the most ornate moulded coffered plasterwork ceilings and even the entrance has etched, glazed panels and a decorative roof. The main rooms have impressive carved wood panelling topped by a marble frieze. The fireplaces and the counter with a rare copper front are unquestionably grand. An upstairs former billiard room has a glazed dome as a skylight, with an ornate plasterwork frieze below, and stained and leaded windows. 

With two ground-floor rooms, the one at the front is a large open area which retains mahogany panelling and  fixed seating, with the bar counter having a copper front and on the right is an impressive ceramic fireplace. The position of the external doors suggests that there were perhaps three distinct spaces in here when first built. The rear room, with the unusual name  'Bar Room' named in the door glass, is fitted out with more high-relief plasterwork, good-quality dark oak panelling plus a fine wooden surround fireplace with a copperwork. A winding staircase, under a glazed dome, leads to an upstairs room: it has a modest frieze of crests and nice stained glass windows. The pub's atmosphere, distinguished by its Victorian decor and cozy charm, consistently earns rave reviews from visitors having a good variety of draft beer from hand pulled ales to local and continental lagers.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2026/04/liverpool-pub-crawl-dispensary.html