Crows Nest, Liverpool

Has a brick and rendered first floor with green glazed brick frontage on the ground floor added in Edwardian times, when the pub was refitted and is little altered since then. Note a good display of etched glass – the name of Higsons the brewers in the front windows and the names of rooms in several other windows. The public bar and snug are excellent intact survivals. Front right entrance leads into a vestibule with both etched and frosted and stained and leaded panels and a 'Snug' etched and frosted panel in the door. The door from the left of the vestibule originally led into the off sales - the ceiling indicates where the partitions were originally so the hatch on the front was the off sales one. The snug is entered from the right-hand doorway and is an intimate, L-shaped space with 'Higsons Genuine Ales' exterior windows. It has an Edwardian bar counter with match striker and over it a screen containing both etched and frosted panels left and right, and three stained and leaded ones above an arch shaped opening for services similar to that at the Prince Arthur. The snug has old dado panelling but locals say the fixed seating was added in recent times, and there is a 'Snug' etched and frosted panel in the rear door.

A part-glazed partition separates the snug from the public bar on the front left. The screen has both decoratively etched and frosted panels and stained ones above. There is another smaller opening in the screen on the street side. The public bar has a 'Bar' in the vestibule door and the one from the passage at the rear. It retains the original counter (but modern pot shelf) and fixed seating, an 'Higsons Genuine Ales' exterior window.

At the rear a passage ran all the way along and in the 1970s a partition was removed to open-up the two rear small rooms to the passageway. There is old fixed seating in both areas and a Victorian-style fireplace in the right hand area. The rear right room operated as a 'Men Only' space prior to the 1970s and the left hand room was used by women. Down the left side of the pub are both 'Parlour' and 'Lounge' etched and frosted exterior windows - in this part of the country 'Parlour' is the local word for 'Lounge'. The present glass and woodwork over the corridor is modern work. Service to the rear rooms is from a doorway and flap to the back of the servery. In this pub you can still get table service in the rear right lounge most days, but not when busy, particularly not on Fri and Sat - only a handful of pubs still do this regularly including the nearby Volunteer Canteen, Waterloo.

This is one of the last pubs using a filtration system to return beer to the cask. Using tight sparklers means that froth as a glass is filled runs into a deep tray - separate ones for each beer. Every hour or so beer is carefully placed into marked and clean stained steel buckets and put back into the cask using a filter. This system has been in operation here for many years. The outside gents is still in use.