Mathew Street and Victoria Street

All The Lonely People: Tommy Steele's Eleanor Rigby statue in Stanley Street, which links Mathew Street with Victoria Street.

Mathew Street has been transformed in the last 25 years from a back street with one pub - The Grapes - to a bustling Beatlesville with bars, memorabilia shops, fashion boutiques and art galleries. This vitality has overflowed into Victoria Street, a main road which runs parallel.

Victoria Street boasts several fashionable restaurant-bars, most notably The Living Room. Linking Mathew Street to Victoria Street is Temple Court and Stanley Street which are both lined with restaurants and bars. The area has been marketed as The Cavern Quarter.

RESTAURANTS:
A walk along Victoria Street and Stanley Street would give you a wide choice, including Portugese, Spanish, Italian, French, Modern British, Chinese, Indian and Balti dishes.
Stanley Street, L1 6AF, includes the pleasant Portugese restaurant THE ALGARVE (0151 236 0206), the lively CASA ITALIA (0151 227 5774) and SHAH'S CITY BALTI HOUSE (0151 236 3456)
Victoria Street is similarly cosmopolitan. CASA BELLA (0151 258 1800) is a well established Italian restaurant at 25 Victoria Street. DON PEPE is a Spanish restaurant - with many fans, as in admirers - at 19-21 Victoria Street L1 6BD (0151 231 1909). SHANGRI-LA is a Chinese restaurant at 37 Victoria Street, (0151 227 2707).
A well established Indian restaurant in Victoria Street is SULTAN'S PALACE (0151 227 9020) which competes with SHAPLA (0151 258 1144) which is a little walk away in Whitechapel, L1 6DT.

There are several bar-restaurants on Victoria Street; market leader is THE LIVING ROOM (0870 4422 535), near Mathew Street. Worth mentioning but tucked away in a nearby side street is THE PACIFIC BAR AND GRILL, in Temple Street, L2 5RH (0151 236 0270).

In Dale Street, set in a courtyard, at the side of the historic Rigby's pub, is a restaurant opened in 2004 called THE COURTYARD (0151 236 5556)

BAR and PUBS
There is a tremendous mix here. Mathew Street at night is let-your-hair-down while Victoria Street is more make-sure-your-hair's-in-place. (For real ale, see separate listing further below)

The best known venue on Victoria Street is THE LIVING ROOM, a restaurant and bar that's popular with soccer stars, TV soap stars and anyone who likes to be seen in the same room as them. Similarly stylish is the PACIFIC BAR and GRILL, located 30 yards away in a nearby side street, Temple Street.

In Mathew Street, Beatles fans tend to head for The CAVERN CLUB, which is opposite the CAVERN PUB. The original Cavern, where the Beatles made their name, was knocked in to make way for an underground train line. The Cavern Club is a re-creation very close to the location of the original.

John, Paul, George and Ringo would often pop into THE GRAPES pub as it was the only pub in Mathew Street. For decades after, the pub remained much the same. But after Mathew Street became a weekend 'party street', it was decided to extend the pub. The newer part is on the left-hand side of the pub, so Beatles fans should head for the right-hand side. At the back there is a photograph on the wall of four boys drinking there in the early 60s. The pub has also been refurbished in the last year or two.

Opposite The Grapes is FLANAGAN'S, the second pub to open in Mathew Street, around 25 years ago. The shrewd owner was ahead of his time and opened it as an Irish-style pub, long before they appeared in British high streets in the 1990s.

Around the corner from Flanagan's, in a side street called Rainford Gardens, is a traditional pub, The WHITE STAR, named after the shipping line that owned the Titanic, which was Liverpool-registered. The pub has changed little since the 1960s when the Beatles would occasionally pop in there.

In the last few years, all sorts of bars have opened in Mathew Street and its approaches. Looking for niches in the market, some play 80s' music, some 70s' while some blast out dance music. On Friday and Saturday nights, after 10pm, Mathew Street tends to be loud and crowded. Many people enjoy it, but I believe that at those times Mathew Street sometimes loses some of its charm.

GAY
Liverpool has a limited gay scene, but the 40 yards stretch of Stanley Street between Dale Street and Victoria Street seems to be evolving as a focal point. In Stanley Street, there are bars with a reputation as gay-friendly, such as Paco's, Superstar Boudouir, The Navy Bar, The End and The Lisbon.

Off Victoria Street, in Temple Lane is The Curzon. In side streets off Dale Street are Addiction and Masquerade in Cumberland Street, and G-Bar in Eberle Street. Gay-friendly clubs are Garlands in Eberle Street, and Society which is half a mile away in Duke Street.

For more information, see the web pages of Liverpool Students Union Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Society: http://www.l-s-u.com/main/cs/soc/lgb/gayliv

REAL ALE
Stretch the legs a little further afield and there is a great range of pubs for the real ale enthusiast. Most, if not all, serve food.

First, in the heart of the Cavern Quarter, there is The WHITE STAR (0151 231 6861), in Rainford Gardens. It's very close to THE GRAPES which serves the locally-brewed Cain's ales.

Alternatively, you might wish to do a tour of pubs along Dale Street, which runs parallel to Victoria Street (further away from Mathew Street):

Let's start at the top of Dale Street, by the Birkenhead tunnel entrance, at THE SHIP AND MITRE (0151 236 0859) which is a big favourite with local members of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). One reason is it serves ale in glasses with a marked pint line. Sells plenty of German and Belgian lagers too. Thirty yards along Dale Street, towards the river, is THE EXCELSIOR (0151 236 6486), popular with students. Another 50 yards walk along Dale Street is THE VERNON ARMS (0151 236 4525).
Further along Dale Street is one of Liverpool's oldest pubs, RIGBY'S (0151 236 3496), so old that legend has it Lord Nelson drank there. Well refurbished in 2003 by the Manx brewery Okell's.

The Ship and Mitre, Excelsior, Vernon and Rigby's all stand within 300 yards of each other, on the same side of Dale Street, and those four pubs constitute a good walk. If you wish to go a little off Dale Street, there are three other real ale pubs nearby.

Leaving The Vernon, look across Dale Street and you will see a side street called Cumberland Street. On the left-hand side is THE POSTE HOUSE (0151 236 4130). Among those reputed to have drunk in this time-stands-still pub is Bob Dylan and Adolf Hitler who, according to the legend, stayed for around a year with a family member he had in Liverpool. On leaving The Poste House, return to Dale Street then walk up Moorfields to the grand, former Exchange Railway Station building and on the corner is the LION TAVERN (L2 2BP, 0151 236 1734). Inside this Grade II listed building is a tiled trip back in time where you could imagine waiting for a steam train to Carnforth. Around 25 yards away, in Chapel Street, is THE RAILWAY (0151 236 7210).
Please note that one or two of the real ale pubs may be closed on Sundays. (May 2004)