Pubs in Formby, Merseyside*

The place to go for a lazy afternoon, pub quiz or last call

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• The Freshfield, great for real ales, regular live entertainment, great pub grub, and a lovely real coal fire. Lovely bar team, a very well run establishment. Love the place...
• Having visited The Pinewoods very recently (20th March to be exact) I found it to be a very warm friendly and welcoming pub. The staff were very efficient and friendly and the food was excellent. Well done to the managemnet for turning The Pinewoods into an excellent venue!
• The grapes The Railway
• Most pubs in Formby are rubbish and unoriginal. The Grapes is full of young wannabees, most of whom havn't stepped foot out of Formby.
• Railway is expensive but attracts a rather random...shall we say...Croupy crowd! Monday night quizzes are the best. Wednesday's is ROCK HARD!
• The Railway, The Bay Horse
• Try them all, do pub crawl form Formby Station, Railway to Pimewoods to Freshie to Grapes to Bay Horse to Cross House to Royal to Lighthouse, try Village Inn and other watering holes in the Village on way home, you will have a good time but will not remember anything after leaving the Freshie.
• Your entry on the Railway in Formby applies to the pre-refurbished pub (couple of years ago). It has since been gutted and kitted out with the kind of phoney ethnic ornaments and 'rent-a-pub' furniture popular with corporate pub chains, but universally despised by regulars of the old place. Even the brilliant Wednesday night quiz has moved elsewhere (to the Lighthouse, an extraordinarily dull pub worth visiting on Wednesday evenings only). The Bay Horse, I'm told, used to be an exquisitely pretty place with original fittings and decor complementing the 17th century building. Unfortunately, this was well before my time. It is now stripped, extended and repainted into a 'Toby Inn', a vast ugly neon sign and white picket fence destroying any attraction the old place once had. It is, however, inexplicably popular. The Royal is a surprisingly rough pub (for Formby), possibly something to do with the pool table and slightly seedy atmosphere. That's not to say it's not worth a visit, though - it's unpretentious unlike many places in the town, and the bar staff are friendly. If nothing else, it's worth going to get an idea of what the Raily used to be like. The Beefeater and the Cross House and one and the same, the latter being the new name for the former. It's housed in a handsome Victorian building, and is nice enough inside despite the fakey oirish decor. Small beer garden outside next to the main road. Pinewoods is a forgettable estate pub with little to recommend it. We only ever visited during pub crawls for completeness' sake, as it's in the middle of nowhere and everything about it is average. Ditto the Lighthouse. Shorrocks (not Sherrocks) Hill is an unbelievably pretentious nightspot in an admittedly pretty spot in the pinewoods. It's overpriced, tacky and popular with the kind of people who would spend more on a taxi to and from Formby than they would travelling to a far better place in Liverpool. It even - incredibly - has a VIP section (with electronic thumbprint security!) selfishly taking up almost a quarter of the floorspace, populated largely by overweight middle managers and their leathery, leopard-skinned wives. Avoid. Finally, the Grapes. THE choice location for young Formbyites since time immemorial (well, at least as far back as I can remember), it's noisy and showy but great fun and always bursting on Fridays and Saturday evenings. Housed in yet another imposing Victorian building it has a large bar and a beer garden, and acres of seating space inside. Though the drinks are more pricey than elsewhere in Formby, and the days when Louise and Jamie Redknapp visited are long gone, it's unashamedly a more classy place and at least isn't faux-antiqued like so many of the others.
• The Grapes is the only half-decent place in Formby unless you're over 50 and drink Real Ale.
• GRAPES
• the railway refit: what a miracle
• Grapes is me fav. especally when I see the Hollyoaks or Brookside lot in there, not to mentuon the odd footballer.:)
• The Lighthouse on Wednesdays (from 06/06/01) & The Cross House on Tuesdays have quiz-nights hosted by the FormbyQuizmasters - the most successful quizzes in Formby.
• The Railway, The Grapes, The Freshie, The Royal, The Cross-house Inn, The Bay horse
• The Freshfield, towards the more refined end f Formby, is set in beautiful grounds affording wonderful views of the local architecture. Frequented by passing travellers and local characters, there's never a dull moment within it's willowy insides. Les and Maureen run a tight ship placing emphasis on customer safety and service. A must try for an authentic pub lover
• Unfortunately the Railway has gone down hill some what since it was taken over by Bass and a new landlady has taken over. Expect poor service.
• Railway next to Formby station is good and serves a rather young looking clientel
• The Royal!
• THE GRAPES: Heavily populated with very pretty girls. On this basis alone it is worth visiting. THE RAILWAY: In terms of enjoying a local with a wide range of clientel stretching across the whole of the social spectrum, this is a gem.
• The Grapes is the place out hang out if you're young and trendy. Catch Jamie Rednapp and Louise Nerding, many of other footballers and Space here on a regular basis

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Last updated: 2010-01-02