The Vines public house

The Vines is a public house built in 1907 by architect Walter W Thomas for the brewery Robert Cain & Sons. It is designed in a Neo-Baroque style and occupies a prominent corner site at the junction of Lime Street and Copperas Hill in Liverpool.

Construction and Materials

The building is constructed of sandstone ashlar with a pink-granite ground floor and slate roof coverings.

Plan and Siting

The pub has a V-shaped plan with a north corner infilled at ground-floor level by a former billiards room. Principal elevations face both Lime Street and Copperas Hill, with the building bounded by these streets to the south-west and south-east respectively, and by adjoining buildings to the north-east and north-west.

Exterior

The Vines rises three storeys plus an attic and basement. The Lime Street elevation has nine bays, the south corner is canted, and the Copperas Hill return has six bays. Each elevation has its own entrance. A steep slate roof sits behind ornate Dutch gables and a balustraded parapet. The ground floor features banded rustication in pink granite, lit by large bow windows containing original patterned brilliant-cut glass alongside replaced etched glass. Upper floors have casement windows set within carved surrounds.

A cornice projects above the ground floor on both the Lime Street and Copperas Hill elevations, topped by later gold lettering reading 'WALKERS WARRINGTON ALES', with additional lettering on Lime Street reading 'THE VINES'. Above the first floor runs a stringcourse interrupted by segmental floating cornices over some windows. Between the windows are floriated drops attached to corbelled pedestals that support Ionic engaged columns between the second-floor windows.

The Lime Street elevation features two large Dutch gables with scroll detailing, elaborate finials, paired casement windows with elaborate surrounds, and oculi at the gable apexes. The Copperas Hill elevation has a single gable in the same style. A large bracketed clock projects from the right gable on Lime Street.

South Corner

The south corner has a tall doorway to the ground floor accessing the public bar, fitted with a decorative wrought-iron and gilded-copper gate. Behind lies a vestibule with a patterned mosaic floor incorporating the lettering 'RCS' (Robert Cain & Sons) and two partly-glazed and panelled doors, the right-hand one no longer in use. The entrance doorway is flanked by engaged Ionic columns with copper capitals and drops, surmounted by exaggeratedly large triple keystones and a segmental open pediment. The central keystone bears the inscription 'The Vines' in gilded lettering.

The first floor of the south corner has a glazed oculus with a festoon above incorporating a figurative head keystone, whilst the second-floor window mirrors those on the other elevations. Rising from the top of the corner bay behind the parapet, sandwiched between the Dutch gables on Lime Street and Copperas Hill, is a tall round tower topped by a dome with a squat obelisk finial.

Lime Street Elevation

The Lime Street elevation incorporates a second entrance at the centre of the ground floor, identically styled to the south corner entrance, though the lower section of the original gate has been removed and replaced by late-20th-century concertina gates. The vestibule behind is lined with pink granite and has a decorative plasterwork ceiling and a small bow-shaped window (possibly originally an off-sales opening, now covered with an advertising sign in 2019) directly opposite the doorway, with a multipaned segmental overlight above. Partly-glazed panelled doors to each side lead into the lounge and public bar on the left and right respectively; both doors have multipaned upper halves with brilliant-cut glass.

To the left of the main building on Lime Street is a lower, rendered single-bay addition comprising 79 Lime Street, part of an earlier (now demolished) building that was partly raised, altered and reused in the early 20th century to house The Vines' main accommodation stair. It has a tall doorway at ground floor flanked by Corinthian columns with two panelled doors and overlights; the left-hand door previously served a now-demolished part of the building to the left, whilst the right-hand door accesses the stair for The Vines. Single plate-glass sash windows appear to the right on two floors above, with the second-floor window altered and made smaller, presumably when the stair was inserted internally. Corresponding windows to the left have been blocked up but are partly visible internally.

Copperas Hill Elevation

The ground floor of the Copperas Hill elevation also has several entrances, including one with a doorway incorporating a scrolled floating cornice and prominent keystone that leads into the public bar and originally also a former snug (now altered into a kitchenette). A plainer doorway to the right leads to a stair accessing the upper floors at this end of the building. A single-storey flat-roofed section to the far right of the elevation with a plain recessed doorway is a later addition providing external access to the former billiards room.

Rear Elevations

The rear (north-east and north-west) elevations are plainer and built of brick with large casement windows, some incorporating Art Nouveau stained glass. The entire rear yard area is occupied by a flat-roofed billiards room with a large lantern roof over a stained-glass dome visible internally. A cast-iron fire escape provides access down onto the roof of the billiards room.

Interior

Internally the pub has a linear sequence of rooms from south-east to north-west comprising a public bar, lounge and smoke room, with a large former billiards room at the rear. High ceilings and carved mahogany woodwork feature throughout the ground floor, along with plasterwork by the Bromsgrove Guild and H Gustave Hiller.

Public Bar

The south corner entrance leads into a large public bar with a richly moulded plasterwork ceiling and a panelled mahogany bar counter at the north corner that originally ran down the north-east side of the room but was shortened in 1989. Rising from the bar counter are short mirror-panelled piers supporting a pot shelf surmounted by three twin-armed brass lamps, with a brass foot rail in front of the counter.

The bar-back behind forms part of a carved, arcaded and panelled screen running down the north-east side of the public bar, incorporating stained, leaded, and cut glass, and two openings. The right-hand opening has lost its original panelled infill, which would have been in similar style to the bar-back, whilst the left-hand opening is an original open doorway with a broken segmental pediment above containing a clock face that gives the appearance of an outsized grandfather clock, with the doorway positioned through the pendulum case.

The screen separates the public bar from a rear corridor and drinking lobby that accesses toilets and leads through to the lounge and smoke room at the opposite end of the pub. Bench seating and a mahogany and tiled fireplace with a carved overmantel exist on the public bar's south-west wall, and a small late-20th-century stage has been inserted at the south-east end of the room.

At the north-west end of the room adjacent to the Lime Street entrance is a panelled and stained-glass arcaded screen with an integral drinking shelf that conceals the bar service area, possible off-sales and basement access from view. In the eastern corner of the bar adjacent to a lobby off the Copperas Hill entrance is an altered glazed screen covered with modern signage chalkboards that probably originally led through to another small room or snug, now a kitchenette.

Behind the public bar, the corridor or drinking lobby's north-east wall is panelled and incorporates a wide arched opening at the centre with early-20th-century signage plaques with incised and gilded lettering and arrows pointing towards the ladies and gents lavatories, which are accessed through an inner screen with Art Nouveau stained glass and a vestibule with panelled doors. Off to the right is a doorway through to the altered snug and access to a stair leading up to the first floor.

Lounge

The lounge is accessed from the Lime Street entrance and shares a bar servery with the public bar, although the bar counter in the lounge is set within a wide arched opening and is more elaborate and wave-shaped with a decorative beaten-copper front. Above the counter are brass lighting rails with paired globe lights.

Ornate carved and fluted Corinthian columns stood atop panelled pedestals support the room's ceiling, which continues the same richly decorated plasterwork as the public bar. Similarly detailed pilasters also exist on the walls, which are panelled. On the room's north-west wall is a tall mahogany and marble fireplace with a decorative beaten-copper panel depicting torches and swags, a beaten-copper Art Nouveau fire hood, and large caryatids to each side supporting an entablature and segmental pediment above.

Two doorways either side of the fireplace with their doors removed (one of the doors with an etched-glass upper panel reading 'SMOKE ROOM' survives on the second floor in the Lime Street range) lead through into the smoke room, which has a back-to-back fireplace with the lounge.

Smoke Room

The smoke room has booth seating set around three walls separated by baffles with Art Nouveau stained-glass panels and fluted octagonal uprights surmounted by paired lamps. The walls above the seating have highly decorative mahogany panelling with fluted pilasters, carved mouldings, marquetry detailing and built-in bell pushes set within decorative plates.

At the top of the walls, set below a coffered ceiling that incorporates a large plasterwork oval at the centre depicting the signs of the zodiac, is a deep plasterwork frieze depicting putti in various Arcadian scenes. The room's elaborate fireplace is also of mahogany, marble and beaten copper, with a semi-circular panel depicting Viking ships in relief and flanking fluted octagonal columns with Art Nouveau floriate capitals supporting an entablature.

Former Billiards Room

At the rear (north-east side) of the ground floor, accessed from the lounge and rear corridor, is a vast room (probably originally a billiards room and now known as the Heritage Suite) with an exposed floorboard floor, wall panelling incorporating doorcases with shaped heads, giant Corinthian pilasters, carved festoons and cartouches, and a coffered ceiling with a massive oval stained-glass domed skylight at the centre with a plasterwork frieze at its base depicting apples, foliage and lion's heads.

On the south-west wall is an elaborate carved mahogany and marble fireplace with a large mirror built into the panelling above, and on the south-east wall survives original built-in bench seating. At the north-west end of the room is a later panelled bar counter with a substantial bar-back behind incorporating Roman Doric columns supporting a deep entablature and flanked by later shelving. A doorway in the east corner leads through to an altered entrance foyer off Copperas Hill.

Upper Floors

A steep, narrow stair off Copperas Hill leads up to the first floor and rooms in the south corner and south-east end of the building. The stair has modern tread coverings and has lost its balusters, but an original newel post and handrail survive.

The main accommodation stair serving the upper floors in the Lime Street range is contained within the neighbouring single-bay property of 79 Lime Street and rises from a ground-floor foyer with later inserted partitioning. The stair is a wide dog-leg stair with substantial carved newel posts and balusters, pendant drops, a closed string, and a glazed-tiled dado.

The upper floor rooms at the south-east end of the building have been modernised to accommodate en-suite bathrooms and toilets, but the floor plan largely survives with only minor alteration, including boxing-in on the second-floor landing. The rooms and landings retain plain moulded cornicing and door architraves, and a mixture of original four-panel and modern doors. Chimneybreasts also survive, and most rooms retain Art Nouveau cast-iron and tiled fireplaces. A stair flight up to the second floor survives with closed strings and turned balusters and newel posts.

On each of the first and second floor landings is a doorway through to the upper-floor rooms facing onto Lime Street, which are no longer in use. These spaces, except for the main stair at the north-west end, have been altered and modernised, along with the attic rooms.

The attic at the south-east end of the building and the basement were not inspected.