Walking into the Throstles Nest pub - the only one left on Scotland Road - is like stepping back in time.
The decor and furnishing are basic in the extreme, there is no music, and the only concession to modernity are two large flat-screen TVs showing the racing. On a Thursday afternoon, a handful of regulars are nursing their drinks, in a scene that could be taking place decades ago.
But even this could soon be consigned to history as the Throstles Nest and its adjoining guesthouse have been put up for sale, with an asking price of £650,000. On a street once synonymous with boozers on every corner filled with local characters, it could leave Scotland Road with no pubs at all.
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The pub has been run by Kevin McMullen since 1984. Now aged 78 and a grandad-of-three, he is Scotland Road through and through. He once ran six pubs in the area, and still has vivid memories of "three fights a night, whether you wanted it or not."
He said: "I was fighting almost every night, but at the same time Scotland Road was one of the friendliest roads you'd ever see. The pub would be packed and you wouldn't be able to see the door for all the cigarette smoke.
"We looked after everybody and they looked after us. But as my dad used to say, if anyone hits you, you hit them back. It's calmed down a lot now."
Kevin is now the only survivor of a family of 10 children from Hopwood Street on the east side of Scotland Road. Even before his long spell managing local pubs, he'd led a full and varied life, working as a steward on the transatlantic liners and living in South America for two-and-a-half years.
He then ended up in London for six years, working on the building sites after taking up with a woman who was a "professor of sociology". But it was a phone call from his mum to say one of Scotland Road's toughest pubs - the Honky Tonk - had become vacant that lured him back to his birthplace. With a bank loan of £10,000, he bought the pub and has never moved since.
About 20 years ago, Kevin and his wife Karen converted the disused upper floor of the Throstles Nest, once used as a hostelry for overnight travellers taking the coach to Scotland before the advent of the motor car in the early 1900s. They did it up as a 16-room guesthouse, 14 of which were ensuite, and enjoying views across the grounds of neighbouring St Anthony's church.
It quickly gained a reputation as an ideal base from which to explore the city or attend Anfield or the Grand National meeting at Aintree. The guest book testifies to satisfied customers making return visits or coming from as far afield as the USA and Israel to stay at the Scotland Road hotel, which has its own entrance separate from the pub.
Kevin said: "At busy times, like when Liverpool were playing or the Grand National was on, I could have sold the rooms 10 times over. It was chocka. We'd get lots of Scandinavians and I've even been interviewed by a radio station over there who got to hear about us.
"One frail old lady once asked to be shown round because she remembered when it was still a hostelry run by her dad when she was a little girl. She used to slide down the banisters and when she saw them and how they hadn't changed, she burst into tears and said 'now I can die happy.'"
Kevin has mixed feelings about finally walking away from something which has been such a large part of his life, but he has no regrets. He said: "It's time to move on. I'll be sad if it does stop being a pub because it will be the end of an era.
"But the smoking ban and then the pandemic have killed off pubs like this. People now want to drink at home or pay extra for something a bit special. Our customers are all locals who still live round here. But I like to think I took Scotland Road by the neck and made it okay."
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