Liverpool Pub Crawl - St. Peters Tavern

 

 

This new lovely pub on Liverpool’s Georgian Seel Street is set in the awe inspiring consecrated St Peter’s church, another restoration by The 1936 Pub Company. Dating back to 1788 it was built to accommodate the city’s growing Catholic community before Seel Street even had that name. A map from 1785 shows Bold Street, Parr Street, and two parcels of land owned by Mr Thomas Seel. The church was hit by bombing during WWII but the damage wasn't so severe it couldn’t be repaired. As congregations started to dwindle after the war years, the church was transferred to the Polish Community in 1976 but was eventually deconsecrated in 1993 and locked up until three years later when it reopened to welcome a VIP guest. That was when Mother Teresa came and they opened up the church for her in 1996 when she visited the building across the road, 55 Seel Street, which is run by an order of nuns. 

Urban Splash bought it in 1999 and started work on it in the early 2000s. The organ went to a different church, and the font is now in the Metropolitan Cathedral. There were also 27 coffins in the basement that nobody knew about and were the fathers who had run the church for a number of years. When they died they were put into the basement, which was a crypt. When Urban Splash took over, they found the coffins and most were taken to Ford Cemetery. Instead of the original plan to turn it into offices, the church was turned into Alma de Cuba, which went on to become a celebrity favourite in Liverpool, later taken over by Signature Living when the Cuban-themed bar closed in September 2024.

 

The new owners have now refurbished, renovated, restored and honoured this beautiful original 18th century interior by re-imagining it as a new/old beer hall and grand public house, befitting of the golden age real pubs in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Officially opened on the 13th of November,2024, it is split over four levels, boasting three bars, two beer gardens and TV's, which broadcast live sporting events. With stained glass windows, and carved iconography, the building’s religious origins are still felt throughout. "The original crypt is still there, the altar is original and the paintings around it are too," says local historian Jonathon Wild. "The memorial tablets are still in the Lady Chapel and a lot of the woodwork is still there."