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Pub Quiz! Which pub is this?"It's reassuring to enter a new pub and see the comforting little man, brew in hand, peering out from his glass box on the bar, hypnotising you to try his cheap, Ayingerbrau beer. I often wonder if this character is legless for a reason!" ReviewA person who is absent from work without permission is a skiver, a skiver may choose to spend his malingering days in a pub, and an ideal pub would be cheap, down-to-earth and unquestioning. JD Wetherspoon's pubs are inexpensive and modest, and Liverpool's newest is the Welkin on Whitechapel. 'Welkin' is the old English word for 'skive'. Has the Welkin been named as a cloaked criticism of the Liverpool stereotype? Has anybody in Liverpool figured this out, or are they too busy bunking off to notice? Situated in the building occupied by a former clothes store, the Welkin is not, surprisingly, a Lloyds No.1 Bar, as it's far too trendy and classy for a lowly JD Wetherspoon pub. From the exterior it seems badly lit inside, and entering the pub causes a moment of stunned disorientation while one's eyes adjust to the combination of a very bright bar and dark seating area. Contradictory to being a conversion of an old building, the design and layout of the Welkin is modern, with the trappings of a contemporary, purpose-built bar. Situated on two floors, the upstairs area has JD Wetherspoon styling: closely packed tables, booths, a no-smoking area and another bar; downstairs is seemingly little more than a table-lined walkway from the Whitechapel entrance to the rear bar. The design above the bar, beside the single barrel, is like a chessboard of large black and white panels, the black ones being replaced with shelves filled with wine bottles. The walls in the Welkin appear to be made from thick, black piping, and troughs built into the ceiling carry orange light all over the pub. Tall tables and fruit machines nestle between the potted palms and plants, and pictures on the walls depict the Planets. Bulbous protrusions in random places throughout the pub betray the excess of cameras.    Review by mr_psm Musical Liverpool and The Beatles
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User Comments:
Sorry to spoil the pub, but "welkin" is an old English word for the vault of the heavens. The name draws attention to the glass-vaulted ceiling, visible in the photo above.
As for the pub, it's not bad for a 'Spoons and very well situated for a revitalising pint during a break from Saturday afternoon shopping or an affordable pub lunch. In the evening, I'd rather go to one of the many better pubs in Liverpool city centre nearby.
My colleagues and I have been to this pub many times and can’t recollect a ‘glass-vaulted ceiling’. The glass frontage to the pub, as seen in the photograph above, is a void - inaccessible to the drinkers. Don’t be misled into believing you’ll be drinking in a greenhouse!