{"id":34102,"date":"2026-05-11T21:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T21:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/34102\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T21:45:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T21:45:20","slug":"former-speke-pub-that-was-centre-of-gangland-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/34102\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Speke pub that was centre of ‘gangland war’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Formerly known as the Flying Saucer, the venue had a eventful end to its life as a pub\"liverpoolecho\"<\/p>\n

18:30, 11 May 2026<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Mill House, Speke(Image: Andy Teebay\/Liverpool ECHO)<\/p>\n

A former pub that was at the centre of a gangland<\/a> war is to go under the hammer. The Mill House<\/a>, Speke<\/a>, has had several lives since its closure.<\/p>\n

Formerly known as the Flying Saucer, the venue had an eventful end to its life as a pub<\/a>. The ECHO<\/a> described it as being “at the centre of a gangland war” in 2014, when two days of violence <\/a>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.<\/p>\n

Described by The Merseyside Pub<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Next month the former pub<\/a> will go under the hammer in an online auction with a guide price of \u00a3500,000.<\/p>\n

Shut down ‘in the interest of public safety’\"The<\/p>\n

The building goes to auction on June 10(Image: Andy Teebay\/Liverpool ECHO)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The following afternoon a man was stabbed inside the Mill House, later being treated by paramedics at a house in Harefield Road.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

‘There was an awful lot of blood’\"While<\/p>\n

While the pub has long since closed, the building still sports The Mill House name(Image: Andy Teebay\/Liverpool ECHO)<\/p>\n

Sgt Michael Hearty was quoted in the ECHO as saying: “The police were only informed by the ambulance staff. It didn\u2019t come from the premises, which is a concern for me.<\/p>\n

“There was broken glass at the pub and a damaged snooker cue. There was an awful lot of blood.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“Officers tried to view the incident on the pub\u2019s CCTV, but it didn\u2019t appear to be working.”<\/p>\n

He said the pub\u2019s CCTV tapes were blank, adding: “All the evidence for a stabbing which could have been a fatal attack has gone.”<\/p>\n

At a licensing committee meeting, the pub\u2019s 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”.<\/p>\n

Surrounded by barbed wire<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

To this day It sports the Mill House signage, though is now surrounded by black fences topped with rolls of barbed wire.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formerly known as the Flying Saucer, the venue had a eventful end to its life as a pub…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[61,290,15822,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-34102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-premium","10":"tag-speke","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116558136730271612","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}