The Good Beer Guide
The Good Beer Guide is completely independent, with listings based entirely on evaluation by CAMRA members. The unique breweries section lists every brewery – micro, regional and national – that produces real ale in the UK, together with their beers. It was also known as the “beer-lovers bible”.
The First Good Beer Guide
The Good Beer Guide 2021 Edition is in fact the 48th printed edition and as you would expect there have been massive changes to the beer industry since the first printed guide in 1974.
The first ever guide was actually produced way back in 1972 and was just 18 pages long. It cost 25p. Rather than it being a professionally published volume, it was just a collection of sheets of paper stapled together which was then posted out to CAMRA members. CAMRA then stood for “The Campaign for the Revitalisation of Ale” with a HQ in Salford.
There were no real ale pubs recorded for Liverpool in the 1972 guide (But 6 for Manchester).
There was no guide published in 1973
The first professionally printed edition was published in 1974, and contained the comment on Watney's brewery as: "Avoid like the plague". This generated a lot of media attention and caused the publisher, Waddington, to recall the first print run and revise the description on Watney's brewery to: "Avoid at all costs".
The 1974 edition, which cost a staggering 75 pence, and included a whopping 96 pages contained information and details on around 1,500 pubs. Its brewery section listed just 105 brewing companies.
The beer range available in 1974 was primarily composed of milds and bitters, with a smattering of winter and Christmas ales. The contrast with today could not be sharper, with the latest Guide listing nearly 2,000 breweries, producing more than 13,000 beers (as part of their core range) in 12 styles.
In 1974 pubs serving real ale were rather thin on the ground. Leeds had just five pubs that served real ale, Liverpool and Manchester had nine and 13 respectively. The entire county of Norfolk had just eight.
An abstract for the Liverpool entries which were still listed under its Lancashire location list the 9 as follows:
Liverpool
Carnarvon Castle - Tarleton Street
The Carnarvon Castle opened in the 1880s and sometime in the 80’s(?) foolishly lived under “The Famous” sign for a while, until a new landlord, Robbie Carney, took the chance to remove it during a tasteful refurb of the place. It is the only survivor out of eight pubs which used to be on this street.
One of the previous licensees had a fantastic collection of Dinky and Corgi model cars displayed in glass cabinets all around the pub.
Nice little booza in the middle of the city centre where you can drop in for a few pints then carry on shopping
Court House - Lime Street. c1975
The actual address of the Court House was 3 Commutation Row. It was incorporated into a facade of buildings named Commutation Row. It was demolished to make way for an office block.
Also lost in the demolition were:
The County, 2 Islington, Threlfalls/Whitbread on the corner of Islington (just in front of the bus), sometime prior to demolition it was renamed Peppers in memory of a long-lived landlord name - of Pepper.
The Hare and Hounds 6 Commutation Row (in the middle Tetley’s Ales).
The Court House 3 Commutation Row is on the right (Higson’s Double Top).
A view of Commutation Row taken from the top of the Wellington Column. There is a clear view of the shop fronts on Commutation Row. From left to right, from the corner of Islington The County Hotel, H. Abraham's tailor, British Workman Public House Co. Ltd. cocoa rooms, Dairy Outfit Co. Ltd. dairy engineers, Lawless & Co.Ltd. dairy utensil agents, Stanbury & Co. cycle manufacturers, the London City and Midland Bank, The Fitzgerald's Hare and Hounds Hotel, Waddington & Sons piano makers and, finally, The Court House pub.
The Court House - just behind the front of second green bus
