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Pub Quiz! Which pub is this?" There are bunches of grapes hanging above the bar and models of small wooden horses, which one can guess are meant to horses from a fairground roundabout due to the vertical tube passing through the stomach, although they look more like horses speared with Zebra crossing lights!" ReviewA bust of Carl Jung is set into the exterior wall of Flanagan's Apple, beneath which is his famous quote, 'Liverpool is the pool of life'. It's ironic, and typical of Liverpool, that Jung's observation - unofficially adopted as a slogan for the city - was based upon a dream of his; Jung had never visited the city, but he knew the 'dirty' city he walked through on a winter's evening was Liverpool. There are two areas in Flanagan's Apple: a large main bar area and a slightly smaller area in the cellar. Bands play nightly on a small stage in the cellar, around which is a rail for either stopping the sizable Irish bands from spilling into the audience or to prevent heaving spectators from cramming onto the stage. Both the cellar and the main area have a large bar, at which getting served is usually easy regardless of how busy the pub is. This building has a varied history: a café, a record shop and 'The Liverpool School of Language, Music, Dream and Pun'! Having taken the role of Irish Bar in 1984, Flanagan's Apple contains the typical assortment of dust-encrusted tat hanging from the rafters, including bicycles, a penny-farthing, tin hats, lamps, tin adverts, children's toys, torture devices, trolleys, suitcases, ship pictures, port and starboard lamps, and traffic cones! Antiquated black and white photographs of unknowns hang on the brick walls, overlooking the bar, in an attempt to authenticate the pub's dubious aging. Painted onto the windows of the pub are seven pictures of small, green people, who smile eerily to the passers-by and boozers inside. The pictures show a drummer, fiddler and double-bass player, a bride and groom dancing a jig, a drunk supporting himself on a barrel and somebody who appears to be doing a shit behind a log. It's de rigueur for Irish Pubs to paint inane quotes onto the (usually) grimy, cream-coloured walls. At Flanagan's Apple the walls are far too pseudo-grimy to see the cream paintwork, so the absurdities hang from the ceiling on their own small blackboards. 'Welcome to Liverpool,' one exclaims, obviously an afterthought; there are no ferry terminals near the pub, no railway stations nearby, no airport to bring in tourists, and Mathew Street is pedestrianised, so it's obvious visitors to Liverpool have been welcomed already. Flanagan's Apple is not an international border. Perhaps the welcome is for the visiting aliens who land outside and are lured into Flanagan's Apple by the paintings of themselves on the windows. One of the quotes contains a significant question mark where other self-assured pubs would use an exclamation mark: "The best barstaff in Liverpool?" As it's a question the answer is no, they're probably not the best barstaff in Liverpool; as far from eye-candy as can be imagined, several old women serve at the bar and insist upon singing along with the Ibiza anthems. It's not normal. There are several Fruit- and Quiz-machines in Flanagan's Apple, one of which has its back to a bench, on which any wag could sit, meddle with the back of the machine and unplug it if he wished.    Review by mr_psm Musical Liverpool and The BeatlesThis pub is on the Musical Liverpool and The Beatles pub crawl. Click here to see why or here to see the entire crawl Nearby:Pubs:
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User Comments:
Can I just say that the review I just read is both very poor and blindly condescending. The bar staff at Flanagan's are just fine, including some of what the narrow-minded reviewer would call 'eye candy.' The decor is authentic, and having been to Dublin 4 times, I can say FAR more 'Irish' than many a Dublin pub! There are two train stations within 400 yards, and the ferries are all of half a mile away - which apparently the reviewer thinks is a whole world away!
This pub is a fantastic meeting place, ideally positioned in one of the world's most famous streets. A night out, starting in Flanagans, and then pub crawling throughout the bars in Matthew Street, is one of the great 'nights out' anywhere in the world.
Both the ferries and the stations bring people from Wirral - Birkenhead and Wallasey - and the Northern Line, so hardly conveying hordes of tourists. I think the reviewer (correctly) believes the 'Welcome to Liverpool’sign is aimed at people who don’t actually live there (or nearby).
Great night out. Went one Monday night and the place was buzzing. Live Irish music. We will visit again when in Liverpool. from -Irish Murphy
You will not find a livlier pub in Liverpool and the ceiling hosts a huge amount of antique bric a brac which is worth seeing. The music is always foot tapping music and you will not be able to stand still to the rythem on any given night. Saturday night is fantastic there with three floors to choose from.
We went to liverpool to celebrate st patricks night and what a night we had!. Flanagan's apple was so good we never left it all night long. The cellar was the place to be the whole evening. "The paddy wack" band were fantastic. The people were so friendly. It took a while to get served at the barbut this is only understandable seeing itwas a very busy night for the bar staff. Well worth a visit (toilets pong a bit though)
I agree with athenry the toilets do pong! The place should be torn down its such a shit hole! Dunno wot pub in dublin you were in but irish pubs do not look like that! No way is it an irish pub, o'neills is an irish pub to me, go there 4 st patricks day
I would love to know what part of the country the reviewer hails from, not Liverpool anyway, I would hazard a guess. What qualifies him to review bars? His prejudiced oozes out of the review, so much so as to give a biased view, ohh dearie me it’s in that dirty old Liverpool, and ohh golly there are, you'll never believe this, old people, yes OLD PEOPLE behind the bar. Better than some disinterested dolled up bint, leaning against the back of the bar chatting to her mates, who might deem to run a condescending eye over you before wearily coming over to ask what you want. And my god they asked him to sing. I would imagine your average older Scouse lady would tie this kind of kid up in knots and spit him out. To quote superintend Chalmers, my god the rod up this man butt, has got a rod up its butt. Don’t listen to him Flanagan’s isn’t your average Irish theme bar, what the hell is an Irish theme bar anyway, when you go into the bars in Ireland, they are exactly the same as the average English bar, unless you are out in the country.