The newly re-opened Ship & Anchor and Leo’s bar over the road have signs proclaiming real ale for sale. Both have nothing of the sort despite local Camra members reporting them to the awful Sefton Council.

The Ship does have bottles of Copper Dragon at least. The comely barmaid at Leo’s can offer nothing except her youthful beauty.

Neither had any customers when the SD called. Lesson?

There is, however, good craic at the Windmill – and as fine a pint of Black Cat as you can get.

Meanwhile the Oast house looks very sad and closed.

The saga of the Ship & Anchor in Southport’s Cable Street continues. After a brief time as the Dil Pickle, it’s back open as the S&A again. Newshound Jmensa has been on the case and writes:

There’s no cask ale on yet but (the new manager) says he’s “thinking about it after he has settled in”. Has sadly ‘adopted’ S&N but it is a Free House and he knows the benefits. In this climate I still think they struggle to survive and I hope they are paying the electricity account themselves!

Following the demise of the poor old Dil Pickle, it appears that the old Ship & Anchor it replaced may be coming back.

The pub building, which includes two flats, is up for sale for £500,000. Recently the old signs have been cleaned up and there is evidence of work going on inside. Update soon.

The Dil Pickle was shuttered up this evening following yet another mishap.

On Friday the electricity went off again, with manager Jane desperately trying to contact nPower, while landlord Rowland Adams ruefully supped his red wine.

This pub has had quite a history. Will it be plagued by the same problems that eventually did for the Ship and Anchor?

Breaking news courtesy of Jmensan.

Back to Southport’s pubs after my Lenten sojourn, my crawl was boosted by a range of locally produced ales.

I was welcomed like the prodigal son by lovely staff at the Guest House and ordered a Natterjack Bitter by the Southport Brewery.

In my opinion, this has always been the weakest of the micro’s brews and our merry band found ourselves underwhelmed by a Holts-like mouthfeel and metallic taste. This was explained when the barrel was changed and the brewery’s Golden Sands came on.

What a beer this is! One of my favourite ales: light, fruity yet intriguingly complex, I dare anyone to put it down.

Moving on to the new Dil Pickle on Cable Street, we were put out by the lack of atmosphere and the strange “art A-level” prints on the wall.

A lot of the old Ship & Anchor dead space is also still in evidence, making the Dil feel a bit ‘here today, gone tomorrow’. On reflection though, I think the Dil is geared towards night-time trade and should be judged on that criteria.

As for the beer, the Southport Brewery’s Carousel was the sole cask on and lived it up to expectations, if served a trifle cold as, regular collaborator, Jmensa recently pointed out.

Next up was the Baron’s Bar and a pint of Copper Dragon’s best bitter. I feel this session-style ale is the weakest of the Skipton brewery’s range and can’t say I was moved by it.

My pal Monty enjoyed a Crystal Wheat Beer, which is brewed on licence from the Beecham’s bar at St Helens College under the supervision of Stockport’s growing 3 Rivers brewery. He recommends this as a brew that is true.

After a look in the new, un-gayed little Crown on Cornonation Walk, where there is no cask beer and no reason for staying, we gave the hugely successful Phoenix a try, where there was a reasonable pint of Cains to be had for a wallet-loving £1.75.

Monty had a Bombardier, then a Deuchars IPA, both of which judged “OK”.

Finally I went home, to find the missus had hidden all the liquor and bought several potted plants. What can she be up to?

The Dil Pickle pub will open for business on Saturday, March 1.

Taking over the old Ship & Anchor, on Cable Street, Southport, the pub is aiming at the cool side of the market but will welcome the traditional ale drinker.

The name change reflects the new licensees’ love of cool jazz music. The original Dil Pickle was a speakeasy in Chicago during the Prohibition era, which had the motto “Step High, Stoop Low, Leave Your Dignity Outside”.

The pub will be run by Jane Cooper and her brother-in-law Alan Turner, who ran the original Bar Flava. They plan to have live entertainment every weekend, home-made food during office hours, and plenty of special events, including involvement with Southport’s jazz festivals.

They also promise to run three cask ale pumps, but are looking for advice on which ones to try.

I would say beers from The Southport Brewery, Skipton’s Copper Dragon, and the George Wright of Rainford would have everyone cheering, although it would be better for the new pub to keep one real ale well than let quality suffer by overstretching themselves.

The Ship & Anchor is to re-open with a new name and new tenants at the end of February.

Jane Cooper, who will be taking on the pub with pal Alan Turner, promises there will be “real ale , real food, live music and a great atmosphere”.

Alan has run nightclubs and bars in London and Liverpool, and managed the Kingsway Casino for years.  Jane comes from a catering background, she ran a restaurant in Yorkshire before coming to Southport where she met Alan and set up the original – and super cool – Cafe Bar Flava, which is now part of the new Vincent Hotel.

I’ll post more as soon as I get it. A history of recent events can be found here.

As predicted here not so long ago, the Ship and Anchor in Cable Street, Southport has now closed.

The pub managers, a couple from Skelmersdale, were evicted by the landlord on Wednesday over some money dispute.

He plans to reopen the pub soon, and put a temporary manager in as he searches for a new couple to take it over. 

The whole thing is very frustrating as the pub could have been a little beer drinker’s oasis in that clubland “quarter”.

But whenever I was in there, cask ale was off with a “manana” attitude or downright irritation that the last batch had sold out so quickly.

All in all though, I think the owners went in trying to make a fast buck rather than build up a good trade.

When the Ship and Anchor closed last spring it was a sad day for Southport’s barflys.

Although the Cable Street pub abandoned proper beer early on (probaby a factor in its demise) it was always worth a visit for the sheer exuberance of its customers, who literally drank the place dry of whatever alcohol the landlord managed to dredge up from the duty-free cache that time forgot.

I saw all manner of drunken life in there. To be a regular you had to be a nihilist, a hippy or a good honest-to-god drunk.

Like all that’s beautiful, it ended – shortly after the last drop of booze had been drained from the last dusty Ouzo bottle.

A couple from Skelmersdale took it on recently and promised a return to the good old days and plenty of cask ale, but on the two times I’ve visited, it has been a case of “manana” from the bartender.

There’s still some good characters in the place but where’s the beer?

Is the Ship and Anchor doomed again?