Dovedale Towers – intermittently styled as The Dovey – is a vast, baroque alehouse that has recently been renovated in the modern style of real ale / craft beer / gastropubs.
Ornate, eccentric and boasting plenty of house-clearance chic, it is situated in its own grounds – packed out with al fresco drinkers, diners and spectators in Summer, on Penny Lane. An astroturfed area outside provides plenty of space for kids, while there’s still a generous car-park. We can’t help wonder what a genuine garden could do for it, mind.
This slightly bizarre Georgian villa boasts a rich history – it was originally a merchant’s house and takes its name from a tower from which the Mersey and river traffic could be seen. Legend suggests The Dovedale Towers housed the likes of Freddie Mercury, Ian McCulloch and Courtney Love over the years in a former iteration as a guest house.
2 Steak, 2 sides and 2 Sauces for £20 tonight and every Monday. pic.twitter.com/WcqfqCZPrf
— Dovedale Towers (@DovedaleTowers) April 30, 2018
It’s had a more colourful history than Mr Bulsara too: The Dovedale has variously been an orphanage, a Russian embassy and church hall, which is where Paul McCartney comes in. He sang there as a choir boy and later played here with both the Quarry Men and The Beatles.
Due to its most recent refit (rescued by the same people who run The Lodge on Lark Lane, Tavern On The Green and Newington Temple) Dovedale Towers is now a modern real-ale pub that serves pub food – think steaks, roasts, sandwiches, salads, burgers and pies from the excellent Homebaked Anfield.
Dovedale Towers offers a wide selection of ales and lagers, with two regular handpulls in the form of the dependable Jennings Cumberland Ale and Timothy Taylor Landlord and a few assorted guests. In leafy South Liverpool it’s something of a real-ale oasis.
Yes The Weather! pic.twitter.com/UwVn4SwT2I
— Dovedale Towers (@DovedaleTowers) April 18, 2018
There’s far more keg available, with a large selection of bottled craft beers, lagers and IPAs. Beers that are delicate; beers that will make your head spin; light beers and dark beers. Dangerous beers, even. Try a Chimay Blue at nine per cent – and then move onto something else. Sample a Kwak – you won’t have seen a beer served like it before.
There are also quiz nights, film-night seasons and you can book a table for a gang of mates to watch the match on one of many wide-screen TVs. It’s dog friendly too. Upstairs features a huge function room (made up of two separate rooms than be opened up) for parties, conferences and wedding receptions with a total capacity for 120 guests.
Dovedale Towers is perhaps the most eccentric pub in Liverpool and, having seen it boarded up and apparently abandoned in the past, we’re simply glad it’s there and looking in fine fettle.
