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Monday 29 June 2020

L is for Lakeside Inn


The World Famous Wrigley head Morris Men outside the Lakeside Inn


The Lakeside Inn in Southport will always be one of my favourites. I've not been in there for a while, but when we first moved to Southport it became our local, despite it being a 5 minute drive from home.

It holds a claim to be Britain's smallest pub and it has appeared in the Guinness Book of Records. It has always provided good beer. Recent extensions have now provided plenty of outdoor drinking areas.



The pub is housed in a former boathouse and the building is owned by Sefton Council.

When we were regulars the pub was managed by our friends Jan and Joe.

The regular gang were an eclectic bunch of characters, including Gerry(our resident drunkard) Tim who organised the varied social events, our great friends Roy & Margaret and our old chum Little Joe.

Despite its size, we had many great nights there including regular quizzes(that were always fixed to make sure that the same team didn't always win), Last Night of The Proms nights, a Chinese Banquet  for 40 and Fancy Dress nights amongst many others.

Joe & Jan used to keep several photo albums behind the bar which we featured in on many occasions.

Many stories came out of this pub, many of which I daren't reproduce here.

One story safe to tell concerns a famous dwarf, Kenny Baker. Kenny is best known for being the actor inside R2D2 in the Star Wars films. He often appeared at Southport Theatre as one of the 7 dwarfs whenever Snow White was on as a pantomime. 

When shows were on at the theatre the cast often called into the Lakeside for drinks after each show. Many well known actors who drank in the pub had their photos on the walls. Sadly when Joe and Jan left the pub many of the photos left with them.

Kenny had a photo on the wall but he also had another memento in the gents toilets.

The gents at the Lakeside were very small(like the pub) before they were extended recently. The door handle to open and close the door on the inside was set at a normal height. This used to cause problems when Kenny paid a visit, so Joe had an extra door knob installed specially for Kenny at a reduced hight.

"Kenny's Knob" therefore became legendary amongst those in the know!








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L is for Lakeside Inn The World Famous Wrigley head Morris Men outside the Lakeside Inn The Lakeside Inn in Southport will always be one of ...