Among the more upmarket restaurants and cocktail bars of Liverpool's business district there's still one proper pub where they "take care of their beer."
The Slaughter House has been a mainstay on Fenwick Street for years now, perhaps even hundreds of years. The pub is familiar, cosy, and offers something perhaps more authentic in nature than the more expensive cocktail bars and restaurants the area is known for, though those places aren't in competition with the pub, according to those who work there.
Tom Dalton, who's worked at the pub since it was taken over in 2007, said the pub's unique place in the area is why they "work so well." He told the ECHO: "If you go out near here and spend £100/£150 on a meal that's a lot of money, but you come in here and you're getting two drinks for under a tenner.
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"We do get a lot of people coming in who've just been for food and think oh yeah let's go to the Slaughter now because four or five drinks are only £20 or £30 and you can relax.
"All those [restaurants and cocktail bars] on Castle Street are great for us. They're helping us, they're bringing a lot more people to the area.
"Our customers are varied, we tend to get a good crowd, a lot of older and a lot of younger people so it's a good mix. It's busy over the weekend because we've obviously got the comedy on and the music straight after, so it's a lot busier then.
" We get a lot of solicitors and barristers and people like that working around here who come in, you can see they’re more sophisticated and they just want a good pint. That’s the thing, we look after our ale.
"We’ve got awards for the guinness because we look after it, which is a big big thing for a pub."
The pub isn't the only thing occupying the centuries-old building.
The Laughterhouse is based beneath the pub, in a warm, perfectly sized venue for visitors to enjoy an intimate show with some of Liverpool's (and the UK's) best comedians. Adam Cairns, show manager, said one of the best parts about the venue is the local intimacy that lets some of the bigger names try out new things and really shine.
"It's great when they're doing arena tours, like a while back Jason Manford had just started one and he was trying new things out that he wanted to use on the tour. So he turned up with a piece of paper and he just went through it trying them all out.
"You can see the difference when someone like John Bishop comes compared to them on TV, they're more gritty. They're so much better, you're never going to forget it, it's such an experience."
The building itself is a little funny - a bit of an enigma - not just because no one is certain how long exactly it's been a pub (an old photo suggests its was at least as early as 1937, though it could be as far back as the 1800s ), but because it also seems to be fairly haunted and even featured on Most Haunted.
In 2017, when the show visited, they investigated a shadowy figure which stared at people. According to host Yvette Fielding, the figure, called Albert, “looked after horses” and may have been pushed down The Slaughter House stairs.
Adam said: "No one could convince me that it isn't haunted. There's something so strange going on.
"I remember standing at the back, bagging stuff and I looked up and I would swear now that I saw someone peaking around the door. I'd thought it was just my imagination but then I swear I heard someone say my name."
You can find The Slaughter House and the Laughterhouse on Fenwick Street. Neil Fitzmaurice, of Peep Show and Phoenix Nights fame, is currently doing a residency at the comedy club.
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