The pub has has become increasingly popular in recent yearsDan Haygarth Liverpool Daily Post Editor and Regeneration Reporter
16:46, 02 Jun 2025
The Excelsior pub in Liverpool city centre(Image: Iain Watts/Liverpool Echo)
A Liverpool city centre pub has closed and will reopen in four weeks following a refurbishment. The Excelsior on Dale Street announced on X (formerly Twitter) today that it has shut its doors for work to begin.
In a brief message, the pub’s account said: “The doors are closed and the refurb has begun. See you all in four weeks.”
In December, the ECHO spoke to The Excelsior’s manager Rachael O’Donnell as part of our pub profile series. Asked about working at the pub, she said: “It’s loads of fun, I really enjoy it. It’s like my social life as well – I love it.
“We’ve definitely picked up, Christmas time is when we go really, really busy all the time and through the week. We love our fireplace as well – that’s a big talking point in here in the winter.
“It’s a great sport for Christmas, we have Christmas parties booked out, you can hire the back room for free. We have all sorts of parties.
“We’re also a massive Everton pub, so Everton games go absolutely massive in here. We’re busiest at weekends – Everton games are our biggest days. Christmas time is busy and at weekends we get really, really busy quickly.”
The Excelsior has become a go-to spot in the city centre for Toffees – along with The Denbigh Castle on Hackins Hey and the newer arrival of The Lock Up on North John Street.
The Excelsior pub in Liverpool city centre(Image: Iain Watts/Liverpool Echo)
About her pub’s football connections, Rachael said: “We’re a family of Blues. Matchdays are great, you can’t move in here on matchdays.”
“People think this end of town is more of a midweek thing, but it’s definitely not. We get a lot of the students in at the weekends now, because they just live up the road.
“We get a lot of them in the night-time before they are going out. We’ve got a really good regular base as well, even though it’s a city centre pub, we’ve got a lot of regulars and it just seems like word is spreading everywhere.”
There is more to The Excelsior than football, however. A pub is only as good as its beer, but they are renowned for theirs, as Rachael explained.
“Our ales go really, really well”, she said. “We’ve won a few awards, we’re now part of the Timothy Taylor’s Champions Club and fewer than 500 pubs have got that.”
“Our Guinness is excellent here. We’re very well known for our Guinness here. We’ve got really rave reviews and it’s definitely a point of pride.”