{"id":963669,"date":"2026-05-16T11:03:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/963669\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T11:03:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:03:21","slug":"couple-went-to-view-a-flat-and-left-wanting-to-open-a-pub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/963669\/","title":{"rendered":"Couple went to view a flat and left wanting to open a pub"},"content":{"rendered":"

The venue has now been open for nearly seven years\"liverpoolecho\"<\/p>\n

Evelina Black<\/strong><\/p>\n

11:32, 16 May 2026Updated 11:33, 16 May 2026<\/p>\n

\"Michelle<\/p>\n

Michelle and Robin Jackson own The Black Toad (Image: Colin Lane\/Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

A couple had never considered opening a pub until they went to view a flat in Hoylake. Robin and Michelle Jackson, 48 and 45, both worked in retail when they were looking for somewhere to live after they first got together.<\/p>\n

After being made an offer by the building owner, they had an idea and decided to open a craft beer micropub and bottle shop called The Black Toad on Market Street in Hoylake in July 2019. The ECHO spoke to Robin, originally from Wallasey<\/a>, about what it\u2019s been like running the pub for nearly seven years, how it got its name and the unusual way they adapted to covid restrictions.<\/p>\n

How did you get into the pub industry?<\/p>\n

We were just looking for somewhere to live and we knew this woman who owned this building in Hoylake<\/a>. She\u2019d converted an old solicitors into a retail unit and a flat upstairs and when she offered us the flat she said she\u2019d do us a deal if we wanted to run our own business out of the unit.<\/p>\n

We considered it and we just thought let\u2019s see if we can squash a pub in the space and it went from there. I had very little hospitality experience outside of a few shifts behind bars but we both worked retail for ages which is quite similar.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m naturally more risk averse but my wife is a bit more gung-ho so she was saying \u2018come on, let\u2019s just take a risk and take a stab in the dark\u2019 and that\u2019s how it all started.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of information online about other little micropubs that have been converted from random retail units so there are resources out there. We also had help from the guys at The Bow-Legged Beagle<\/a> who have a few pubs now so they gave us a hand. Other than that we just winged it really.<\/p>\n

\"Michelle<\/p>\n

Michelle and Robin have been married for four years (Image: Colin Lane\/Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

How were you feeling the day before the opening?<\/p>\n

I was pretty nervous but we were confident that there was a gap in the market in Hoylake for our pub. We thought people would respond well to us so I think we were quite confident that it would go well but definitely not as well as it has.<\/p>\n

What is the significance behind the pub’s name?<\/p>\n

Sadly there isn\u2019t one and we keep meaning to make one up. When we were brainstorming we tried different animal names and then we landed on The Black Toad. It actually works quite well because we have endangered natterjack toads that live down here in West Kirby so maybe that\u2019s the significance.<\/p>\n

Has there been any big changes in the last seven years?<\/p>\n

Obviously covid was the big one which happened the year after we opened but apart from that we\u2019ve just kind of gradually adjusted things with the times and as we\u2019ve gone along. We\u2019ve done a few little renovations and expanded the beer garden a bit but we\u2019ve been happy just running this one cool little pub in Hoylake and hanging out with our regulars.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The pub opened less than a year before the first covid lockdown(Image: Colin Lane\/Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

How did the pub navigate covid restrictions?<\/p>\n

We were kind of lucky really because we got our name out there during covid by doing takeouts. It initially started as a way to sell off the stock we had and people would queue up at the door with their milk cartons to fill up with draught beer. It was nice because we were still able to communicate with people during lockdown and get out as much as we were allowed.<\/p>\n

It grew and grew and that\u2019s how we built the speciality bottle shop<\/a> aspect of the pub because people just kept coming back for more and more beer. We still do it and we still have empty milk cartons to fill with beer when people come in for it.<\/p>\n

What is it about your local community that you love?<\/p>\n

Hoylake is the best. It\u2019s just so nice because everyone\u2019s really cool and it\u2019s a lovely, chilled atmosphere. When you walk down the street everyone is friendly and it\u2019s just a lovely place to be because there\u2019s a sense of community. My favourite part of my job is just being behind the bar and feeling like part of the community.<\/p>\n

What is it like living above your workplace?<\/p>\n

I like it because it\u2019s nice to be able to nip down in my pyjamas when there\u2019s a delivery to let them in. Michelle goes down in the middle of the night to do some cleaning or decorating while nobody\u2019s around so it\u2019s handy to be able to get stuff done and then just go straight back up to bed.<\/p>\n

What makes you different from other pubs?<\/p>\n

There are other pubs in a similar vein to us but I think no one has our snack selection. We have unrivalled pub snacks and everyone who comes in says how it\u2019s the greatest pub snack selection they\u2019ve ever seen in their life. I think we have almost every snack available like every type of nut or scampi fries or flavours of pork scratchings.<\/p>\n

\"Michelle<\/p>\n

Michelle and Robin in the beer garden (Image: Colin Lane\/Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

What’s an unusual thing that’s happened at the pub?<\/p>\n

A toad appeared in the pub before we opened. I think someone had grabbed it out of the garden and shoved it through our letterbox as a joke. I picked it up and put it in the garden in the water but I thought it was a strange kind of signal to see a little toad looking at me in the pub before we\u2019d even opened in 2019.<\/p>\n

What is your favourite beer you currently sell?<\/p>\n

I really like a Liverpool brewery called Azvex. They bring out fantastic beers so I think any of their hazy IPAs are my favourites at the moment.<\/p>\n

Have you got any plans for the future?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no major upheavals that we\u2019ve got planned but after seven years there\u2019s a few things here and there that need repainting and things like that. That\u2019ll be in the works the next couple of months but apart from that we\u2019re happy with how things are.<\/p>\n

Is there anything you would have done differently if you could?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s probably a few minor things because obviously we\u2019ve made loads of little mistakes along the way that you learn from and never do again but there\u2019s nothing that jumps out to me. I don\u2019t think we\u2019d do anything different. I\u2019m quite happy with what we\u2019ve done and I think we\u2019ve done a good job.<\/p>\n

The Black Toad is located on 32 Market St, Hoylake, Wirral<\/a> CH47 2AF.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The venue has now been open for nearly seven years Evelina Black 11:32, 16 May 2026Updated 11:33, 16…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":963670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,786,4884,35552,179,15650,11653,16,15,8881],"class_list":{"0":"post-963669","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-food-and-drink","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-hoylake","13":"tag-liverpool","14":"tag-liverpool-pubs","15":"tag-premium","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-wirral"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116583925219362528","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963669","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=963669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/963670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}