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Tony Nelson (left) at The Casa on Hope Street<\/p>\nPart pub, part community centre – it’s more than just a bar<\/p>\n
12:26, 26 Jul 2025Updated 12:26, 26 Jul 2025<\/p>\n
Tony Nelson (left) at The Casa on Hope Street<\/p>\n
If you’ve walked along Hope Street, chances are you’ve passed a pub with a name that means “home” in Spanish. The Casa is more than a place to grab a pint or celebrate a birthday; it’s one of Liverpool\u2019s great community hubs, built from the ashes of one of the city’s most hard-fought industrial struggles.<\/p>\n
It’s been 25 years since a group of sacked dockers turned heartbreak into hope. The 850-day Liverpool dockers’ dispute, which began in 1995, was one of the longest and most symbolic in modern British labour history. When it ended, a group of those same men – with support from the likes of Ken Loach and Jimmy McGovern – decided their story wasn’t over.<\/p>\n
“We didn\u2019t just want to walk away at the end of it,” said Tony Nelson, 68, one of the founding dockers behind The Casa. “We wanted to give something back.”<\/p>\n
Thanks to half the profits from Loach and McGovern’s 1999 Channel 4 drama Dockers, The Casa opened its doors on Hope Street in December 2000. Today, it\u2019s part pub, part community advice centre, and fully embedded in the life of the city.<\/p>\n
Tony told the ECHO: “Over the last 25 years we’ve raised more than \u00a323 million to support the community. All the trade unions meet here. All the charities meet here.”<\/p>\n
Walk into The Casa on any given day and you\u2019ll see two things: a warm, welcoming pub serving affordable drinks – including continental beers and a daily happy hour – and a quiet but vital support system operating behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
Tony explained: “It\u2019s basically a walk-in centre for people who just want help. People will come in, we\u2019ll fill forms out for them, help them out and facilitate their needs. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve done over the past 25 years.<\/p>\n
“People walk in off the street and ask for help – we have a coffee and a chat. Over the years, hundreds of people have come in for help. I can\u2019t remember us ever turning anyone away. We can at least point people in the right direction.”<\/p>\n
He added: “It\u2019s not formal – go to your solicitor, they\u2019ve got a suit on, there\u2019s usually a shiny office and all the rest of it. We just want someone to be able to walk into a building, sit down, and have a coffee”<\/p>\n
Upstairs, the charity side of The Casa operates. In the back room, trade unionists and campaigners gather. Every Wednesday at 2pm, there\u2019s a free community storytelling group – part of a growing effort to tackle loneliness.<\/p>\n
Tony said: “Loneliness is the biggest killer, especially in old people – it’s a terrible disease, loneliness – so we try to get people in every Wednesday, in the back, to come and tell their story. That\u2019s 2pm every Wednesday. It\u2019s free for everybody.<\/p>\n
“That\u2019s what we\u2019re about; people can just walk into The Casa and talk to somebody.”<\/p>\n