{"id":692976,"date":"2026-01-13T10:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T10:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/692976\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T10:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T10:30:16","slug":"award-winning-merseyside-pub-confirms-rumours-about-its-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/692976\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Award-winning’ Merseyside pub confirms rumours about its closure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pub’s closure follows several others dotted throughout Merseyside, just weeks in to 2026\"The<\/p>\n

The Horse and Jockey in Upton has closed its doors from Tuesday, January 13(Image: Colin Lane\/Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

A Merseyside pub has announced it will be closed from today. The Horse & Jockey is a venue that prides itself on being a “great British pub at the heart of the Upton<\/a> community”.<\/p>\n

Its menu is said to be bursting with traditional classics, desserts and, according to the team, “award-winning”<\/a> kids’ dishes. Behind the bar, customers were spoilt for choice with an extensive selection of beer, cider, wine and cocktails on offer. Out the back was a dog-friendly beer garden retreat, to ensure every member of the family was involved.<\/p>\n

However, all of the above is no more, with the company behind The Horse & Jockey confirming it has shut. The confirmation comes after people were speculating online, with one customer saying he arrived on Sunday, January 11, to find the doors locked.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson from Star Pubs told the ECHO<\/a>: “We can confirm that The Horse & Jockey in Upton will be closed from Tuesday, January 13, as the operator has decided to leave. The departure is amicable, and we wish them all the best for the future.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Horse and Jockey in Upton has closed its doors from Tuesday, January 13(Image: Colin Lane\/Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

“We are keen to reopen the pub as soon as possible and are in the process of recruiting a new operator. The Horse & Jockey has lots of potential and is in a great location in the centre of Upton.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s got all the facilities a good local needs, including spacious bar and lounge areas, a function room and a games zone kitted out with pool, darts and screens showing Sky and TNT Sports. It also boasts a large garden and carpark and comes with accommodation that has four bedrooms.”<\/p>\n

Anyone interested in running The Horse & Jockey can find out more information online. The news follows several other closures of establishments around Merseyside. Hooters on Water Street, Liverpool<\/a>, The Tree House and Inside No4 in Crosby<\/a>, and The Hightown Pub in Sefton<\/a>, have also served their last set of customers.<\/p>\n

The Hightown Pub is set to reopen in a few weeks’ time, the ECHO understands. The Sefton venue initially shut after its owners said they were forced to close due to the worsening climate<\/a> of the hospitality industry and the cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n

However, the Lower Alt Road site was temporarily saved when GSG Hospitality, the team behind Duke Street Market<\/a> and NORD, stepped in and put executive chef Daniel Heffy at its helm. Daniel, alongside partners Matt Farrell and John Ennis, transformed the space into a “dynamic hub of hospitality”, under the new name The Hightown Inn.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Hightown Pub and Kitchen(Image: Bernard Platt)<\/p>\n

However, fast forward to January, and the venue has closed once again. Writing on Instagram to thousands of fans, The Hightown Inn, said: “It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that we have decided to step away from The Hightown Inn and the pub will be handed over to new owners in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

“We are incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved at The Hightown Inn, we feel we have reinvigorated the pub for the village and created a place we truly believed in. We hope that legacy continues long into the future.<\/p>\n

“We have never been willing to compromise on quality, from well-sourced ingredients to the standards we hold ourselves to, and this is getting tougher in the current hospitality climate. This decision has been shaped by a combination of ongoing challenges, the recent budget, wider government policies and broken promises.<\/p>\n

“All of this together has made it unsustainable to continue in the way we believe mirrors our culture at GSG.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pub’s closure follows several others dotted throughout Merseyside, just weeks in to 2026 The Horse and Jockey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,15650,16,15,199772],"class_list":{"0":"post-692976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-liverpool-pubs","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-upton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}