A pub which once had the unenviable reputation as one of the roughest in the city, was the place where Ricky Tomlinson left half-way through his own gig after a shocking incident.
The Bow and Arrow pub used to be on the corner of Yew Tree Lane and Princess Drive before it called time for good in 2008. Sitting on the border of Huyton and West Derby, people still dispute as to exactly which area the pub belonged.
Whenever the question is raised as to what was the roughest pub in Liverpool, you can count The Bow and Arrow to be among the contenders. Back in 2008, the Liverpool ECHO ran a feature on notorious Liverpool pubs from the past.
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It was then, we spoke to ex-Brookside and Royle Family star Ricky Tomlinson about his own close shaves playing Liverpool pubs before finding TV fame. In a former life, Ricky was a pub and club entertainer who went by the name of Hobo Rick.
With his trusty banjo, he travelled around Merseyside with a band playing in some pretty rough places along the way. He recalled the time he and his band got into hot water at a gig at the Bow and Arrow pub following an ill-chosen joke.
Ricky said: "A local scrap dealer, who was a huge man with a hard reputation, brought along his family and sat right up front. But I didn't think twice about taking the p*** out of him because he knew I meant no offence.
"On this particular day, things were going well and I started telling this joke about the Pope. There was apparently a shout from the back of the bar, but I didn't hear it and simply carried on with the joke.
"Then the place went very quiet. Everyone had focused on this hard-case from a well-known Catholic family who was on his feet. He had heard enough and wasn't happy.
"He started yelling at me, but I returned fire with a few ad-libs and everyone was laughing. Although this, not surprisingly, just served to make things worse.
"He turned to his wife and told her to hand over her bag. He then pulled out a revolver and aimed it right at me.
"I turned to my bandmates and said 'Get your stuff together, lads. Being heckled is one thing but I'm not getting shot'.
"We made a sharp exit, but were told later - whether it was true or not I don't know - that we left chaos behind us as the scrap dealer was furious that the show had been suddenly curtailed."
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Ricky isn't the only one to share a colourful, if terrifying, anecdote about The Bow and Arrow. In a discussion thread on the Liverpool Way website forum on rough pubs, one user shared their story about a particularly eventful New Year's Eve at the pub.
Nominating the pub, one member said back in 2007: "[I've] Been there about four times but the New Year's Eve I went there for was far and away the worst. Its gets to half-past 10 and a mad fight breaks out - so the DJ goes, 'Sorry guys, I'm going to have to call New Year because the fighting is too mad.'
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"So I'm standing there with me bird, there's two girls smashing bottles on each other, a guy getting thrown through the bar, a guy getting a fruity dropped on him and there's a s*** load of people firing party-poopers singing Auld Lang Syne at half 10. Good times."
Back in the 1970s, several pubs in Knowsley - including The Bow and Arrow - came under the spotlight for "troublemakers" who were said to frequent them. In 1976, pub managers called for a ban on the culprits, with one brewery spokesperson quoted in the Liverpool ECHO claiming Huyton was "the toughest district in the North West".
The managers of several pubs got together to draw up a "blacklist" of known troublemakers and had printed notices put up warning anyone who assaulted staff, customers, or caused damage would be barred and prosecuted.
Jimmy Staunton, who was at the time manager of the Quiet Man pub in Longview Drive, organised the coalition of pub managers. He told The ECHO: "99% of our customers are well behaved. But you can lose good customers if a known baddy arrives on the scene."
Does The Bow and Arrow pub awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
Despite this action, the pub continued to make negative headlines in the 1980s and 1990s for incidents including violence, drug dealing and shootings. The pub eventually closed in 2008 and has since been completely refurbished and the premises turned into a popular Chinese restaurant.
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