Formerly known as the Flying Saucer, the venue had a eventful end to its life as a pub
18:30, 11 May 2026
The Mill House, Speke(Image: Andy Teebay/Liverpool ECHO)
A former pub that was at the centre of a gangland war is to go under the hammer. The Mill House, Speke, has had several lives since its closure.
Formerly known as the Flying Saucer, the venue had an eventful end to its life as a pub. The ECHO described it as being “at the centre of a gangland war” in 2014, when two days of violence culminated in a stabbing there. The violence came three years after an incident in which a gang took over the pub and locked themselves inside when police arrived.
Described by The Merseyside Pub Guide as a “classic 50s estate boozer”, The Mill House became a day nursery for a few years before closing in 2019. The building is now split in two with a firm that conducts medical trials occupying the ground floor, and the upper floor occupied by a seven-bedroom residential unit.
Next month the former pub will go under the hammer in an online auction with a guide price of £500,000.
Shut down ‘in the interest of public safety’
The building goes to auction on June 10(Image: Andy Teebay/Liverpool ECHO)
In 2014, the Mill House was closed by Merseyside Police after two days of gangland violence in the area culminated in a stabbing at the pub.
On September 2 that year, an armed gang attacked a nearby house, trying to get at a man inside, according to ECHO reports from the time.
A short time later a man was found stabbed in the chest and that evening a shotgun was fired at a nearby home in Blackrod Avenue.
The following afternoon a man was stabbed inside the Mill House, later being treated by paramedics at a house in Harefield Road.
Merseyside Police moved to shut the pub down “in the interest of public safety” warning there was likely to be more trouble at the pub involving rival gangs.
‘There was an awful lot of blood’
While the pub has long since closed, the building still sports The Mill House name(Image: Andy Teebay/Liverpool ECHO)
Sgt Michael Hearty was quoted in the ECHO as saying: “The police were only informed by the ambulance staff. It didn’t come from the premises, which is a concern for me.
“There was broken glass at the pub and a damaged snooker cue. There was an awful lot of blood.
“A member of staff, whether innocently or not, was in the process of clearing up the blood. It was evidence for us. It could have been interfered with and potentially lost.
“Officers tried to view the incident on the pub’s CCTV, but it didn’t appear to be working.”
He said the pub’s CCTV tapes were blank, adding: “All the evidence for a stabbing which could have been a fatal attack has gone.”
At a licensing committee meeting, the pub’s licence-holder agreed to install CCTV approved by Merseyside Police and only sell alcohol “with the purchase of a meal or provision of substantial food”.
Surrounded by barbed wire
The Flying Saucer had always had a colourful reputation, with some suggesting it was given the name due to the mysterious objects that would often go flying across the room.
To this day It sports the Mill House signage, though is now surrounded by black fences topped with rolls of barbed wire.
Images from inside the former pub show rooms used for medical examinations downstairs and sparsely-furnished bedrooms upstairs. Two of the seven rooms are currently occupied.