The building has a long history in the cityThe Pig and Whistle in Liverpool city centre is almost completeThe Pig and Whistle in Liverpool city centre has a long history(Image: Liverpool ECHO)

A famous Liverpool pub located on a historic city centre street is the “only” one in the city to be located “above a shop”. Situated on the corner of Chapel Street – one of Liverpool’s original seven streets – and Covent Garden, the Pig & Whistle has a long history.

The pub is celebrating its 150th anniversary, with the building it calls home dating back to the early 18th century, when it was both a boarding house and a brothel. The building first became a pub back in 1875, named after the crew bars on ships, which are commonly known as the Pig & Whistle, or Pig for short, as it served plenty of dockers and seafarers.

The pub, now owned by Heineken’s pub arm Star Pubs, stands alone on its block, with its neighbouring buildings all demolished. An urban legend meant many in Liverpool long thought that it was due to the Blitz, but the surrounding structures were actually all knocked down by the city council in the 1970s, leaving The Pig as the “last man standing”.

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Current licensee Bobby Dix worked at the pub under the previous landlord and has been in charge since last summer – but the team recently uncovered another chapter of the building’s past that is still remembered by generations while the site is undergoing a revamp. Beneath the historic pub, many will remember a shop operating through the decades, whether that be a greengrocers or a sandwich shop.

While work was underway to breathe new life into the Pig & Whistle, the team uncovered a ghost sign on the brickwork at the front of the building, which says “go down” in white font and has an illustration of a hand pointing downwards. Bobby Dix, 43, told the ECHO: “On the building, you can see where it’s been rendered in some places and I was being a bit fussy about the finish of it.

A ghost sign uncovered at the Pig & Whistle in Liverpool city centre, signalling to the lost shop beneath the buildingA ghost sign uncovered at the Pig & Whistle in Liverpool city centre(Image: Photo courtesy of Bobby Dix/The Pig and Whistle )

“I wanted it to be smoother than it was, so the team just started stripping that part and chunks just kept coming off. The more they stripped, eventually it uncovered this ghost sign to what I think was called The Nutshell.

“A lot of older people still say this is the only pub in Liverpool above a shop. The sign has got to be 30 or 40 years old, probably older than that, because it looks faded and faint underneath.

“It’s been there years and years and just by virtue of trying to improve the finish on the building they stripped it and uncovered it. I’ve not been really allowed on site until very recently and it was only when I was passing by having done the Liver Building tour that I was walking back up and came over and took a picture.

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“It’s been painted over now and if we’d have known what we were going to find and we had more time, we might have tried to preserve it in some way. But we know it’s there now and the history is still on the walls.”

Many will remember the days of when a greengrocers and sandwich shop were once located beneath the famous pub. On August 10, 1976, as part of the Liverpool ECHO’s onlooker’s diary column, one reader wrote in to the paper to share their thoughts on the shop beneath the site.

At the time, Bill Bothwell wrote: “I’ve just met a couple of greengrocers who are such rabid Everton fans that it hurts them to sell tomatoes. John Reid and Eddie hall have taken over the only fruit store in Liverpool under a pub.

On June 27, 1991, the lost shop beneath the Pig and Whistle pub featured in the Maghull & Aintree Star, under the complete lunchtime guide for city centre workers. On June 27, 1991, the lost shop beneath the Pig and Whistle pub featured in the Maghull & Aintree Star(Image: British Newspaper Archive/Maghull & Aintree Star)

“It is what used to be called The Nutshell and is located under the Pig & Whistle at the corner of Covent Garden. They took over when former owner, Charlie McGuiness, who’d been there for 40 odd years, retired a short time ago.

“Charlie wanted to keep the ‘Nutshell’ name for himself so now the shop is called ‘The Fruit Cellar,’ quite a play on words, you might say.” In later years, the space also became known as The Fruit Cellar Sandwich Bar.

On June 27, 1991, the Fruit Cellar Sandwich Bar featured in the Maghull & Aintree Star, under the complete lunchtime guide for city centre workers. Bobby said the shop beneath the pub has had a number of lives over the years – but they hope in the future to utilise the space once more.

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He said: “Older generations remember it as a greengrocer. More recently people know it as Time to Eat, which was a sandwich shop and with the previous landlord, it was briefly Porky’s as well, as another local sandwich shop.

“I think it might have been a barber as well at some point. It’s not really been anything for two years now.

“If you’re on any Facebook thread on all the pub groups about Pig & Whistle, they say it’s the only pub in Liverpool above a shop. I love the building – it was two buildings that have been merged into one.

Bobby Dix, landlord at the Pig & Whistle in Liverpool city centreBobby Dix, landlord at the Pig & Whistle (Image: Iain Watts)

“That has meant that there’s various buildings and rooms that have been chopped off and blocked in. We found in what is now the gents toilets, in what was the ladies toilets, a mirror with a little toilet behind it., sort of three feet of up in the air, and there must have been access to to it at some point.

“But nobody’s ever told me that there used to be a toilet. We just found a whole room no one knew was hidden back there.

“You never know what you’re gonna find in this place.” In August 24, the pub closed its doors temporarily to allow a refurbishment to take place, with work still underway.

Licensee Bobby worked at the pub under the previous landlord and has been in charge since last summer. It was closed briefly before he reopened it in September, having worked to smarten it up and add his own flourishes.

Bobby has worked hands-on to revive the pub, making cosmetic changes – including interior decoration, new upholstery and some exterior additions, including flower beds and new light-hearted signs. It is expected to reopen at some point this month.