LOVERS of Liverpool’s history despaired when construction of Everton FC’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium in the working Bramley Moore Dock was a major contributor to losing the hard won and highly prized UNESCO World Heritage Site status.

But in a bizarre and unexpected twist, the new waterfront stadium, sitting like a giant misshapen toffee in Bramley Moore Dock, has seemingly ensured the future of a much-loved nugget of Liverpool’s heritage.

The historic Pig & Whistle pub’s fate which was under intense scrutiny by its owner Heineken’s Star Pubs and looked bleak has now had a five-year reprieve at least, with highly enthusiastic new landlord Bobby Dix, 43, (above left).

In a totally ‘you couldn’t make it up’ scenario, Heineken’s Northwest senior director is an Evertonian, and he expects business to be boosted soon by Blue fans travelling along the Dock Road to the 52,888-seater stadium. Bobby said: “We’ve been doing pretty well without the stadium, so it’s more the icing on the cake.”

This is a fantastic twist of good fortune for a hostelry that has been on this site since around 1790, with Thomas Tittle, listed as landlord in Gore’s and Lewis’s Directories. The Pig & Whistle name seems to have been around indirectly from about 1816 and is confirmed by its 1828 appearance in adverts.

What a shock to realise the pub would be closed in this guise within a pewter tankard’s throw of its bicentenary, which is almost shared with the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, opening a year later in 1829. Having survived the Napoleonic and two World Wars, the 1918 pandemic and Depression, ‘the Pig’ never recovered from the 2020 Covid lockdown.

Legend has it that ships’ crew bars the world over are nicknamed ‘the Pig’ due to the number of sailors who drank there when the Pier Head was a web of docks and Princes Landing Stage was packed with vessels trading across the globe.

But it might be the other way around, according to whom you listen to, with the pub named after the ships’ bars.

In more recent years ex-Chief Liverpool Pilot Stuart Wood recalls the pilots nipping into the ‘Hog & Trumpet’ for a few swift pints before going on duty at 11am.

Yet ‘the Pig’ has had many lives, including a stint as a brothel in the 19th century. Even this dubious role is now celebrated (monetised?) with a t-shirt bearing the slogan ‘Not a brothel since 1875’ available in four colours at £20 with a fiver going to charity.

In a classic Liverpool stark contrast, ‘the Pig’ also served as a boarding house for emigrants waiting to sail away for a better life, while across Convent Garden is the former gentlemen’s Racquet’s Club (now Hotel), a haven for those who owned the shipping lines and ran the city.

Paradoxically, ‘the Pig’ boasts a flotilla of famous names who would seem more likely to be guests at The Racquet Club: star footballers Ronnie Whelan and Brian Labone, actor Steve Coogan, Zootons lead singer Dave McCabe and Royal Naval officer HRH Prince Philip, no less, in WWII. Barbra Streisand, while shooting her film Yentl stayed next door at the Atlantic Tower Hotel (now Mercure) and was brought here by its receptionists!

Not missing a trick, the pub presents ‘Liverpool’s most dubious Beatles attraction’, The McCartney Steps, where Paul and Mike McCartney (allegedly according to the latter) sat waiting for father Jim to enjoy his pint after work at the nearby Cotton Exchange in the 1950s.

Bobby moved to Liverpool from High Wycombe in 2018 to help his friend Neil Langfield, who now runs the nearby Cross Keys, in Prussia Street. Like ‘the Pig’, this was a fixture for us Liverpool Daily Post & Echo hacks over many decades (do journalists still drink?).

Even if the press let him down, Bobby reckons enough post-pandemic custom has returned with patronage split three-ways into residents, workers and visitors. Office workers once again fill the restored giant India Buildings, and hotels circle the pub like Wild West wagons. On my visit, I chatted with a lovely couple from Cork, Ireland, in Liverpool for a long weekend (right).

Hired by Heineken on the recommendation of his former boss Neil Langfield, whose father and grandfather drank in the pub, Bobby says: “I believe in this place. It’s far more potential than people ever realised.

“I call myself a landlord, as it’s a proper boozer. I feel like only bars have managers! With my ideas and making the decisions, I think there’s a good chance that we can get it back on its feet in better shape than ever.”

Surrounded by what looks like a bombsite, but in fact was due to City Council 1970s clearances doing Hitler’s work for him 30 years after the Blitz, the shabby exterior is no advert for ‘the Pig’s’ potential.

Bobby has counteracted this by what he calls ‘Piggisms’, signs informing us: ‘We’re not closed, just ugly’, ‘The façade only a mother could love’, ‘Never judge a pub by its cover!’ and more practically ‘Just 20 minutes’ stroll from Bramley Moore’.

“Heineken has already made a real investment by fixing the leaking roof. We’re well aware the exterior is in a bad condition and looks semi-derelict, but a major refurb will start in the second half of August, if all goes to plan (below left).

“Then people will know something fun is happening here and it could be back on the Scouse round of great pubs offering a warm welcome, drink and music as it was famous for back in the ‘60s and ‘70s.”

Presently there are 13 products on draught and a cheap low-quality alcohol is promoted as ‘The Shelf of Shame, and Dirty Doubles’.

Back in May, Bobby gave refuge in the pub to around 80 people, some “knocked out of the way” by a car causing chaos as fans were leaving The Strand after the Reds’ Premier League title-winning parade.

Such dedication by this team, whose privilege it is to be the latest curator of this two and a quarter centuries of liquid Liverpool history, deserves to succeed. We should all drink to that – preferably at the Pig & Whistle – or if you’re a thirsty pilot, the  ‘Hog & Trumpet’.