Background
The pub is a Grade II listed building and has been likened to a
Mississippi river boat due to its quirky appearance- the front
end of the pub (known as the bow, as in the front of a ship) is
curved in much the same way that New York's Flat Iron Building is- all
that is needed is a paddle wheel at each side to complete the image.
The street on which the pub is located is part of Liverpool's dock road, this particular section is called Wapping and it is from this street name that we get the title of our brewery- Wapping Beers (more about our splendid, prize winning beers later).
What has the pub got to offer? Let me first tell you what the pub doesn't have. We don't have gaming machines, we don't have a juke box and we don't have a pool table. Oh no, I hear some of you cry, but we regard these minuses to be pluses. What we do have is helpful staff, excellent beer brewed on site, delicious food, good conversation, friendly regulars who welcome visitors (we have visitors from every corner of the globe) and a log burning stove to toast your toes by on a cold winter's night. The Baltic Fleet is in essence a traditional British pub, what more could you want?
Imagine if you can your favourite Ealing Comedy: "The Titfield Thunderbolt" perhaps, or" The Maggie"- the individual or small group of like minded people, battling to preserve the best of a disappearing British way of life. Defying conglomerate pressure and corporate chrome and glass facelessness; this is The Baltic Fleet and Wapping Beers, a quirky one-off, an oasis in a fast changing Liverpool. The Baltic Fleet is not a nostalgia driven theme pub by any means; it is a true gem, a survivor in a time when so many other traditional pubs fall by the wayside by being insensitively refurbished by national giants, selling only fizz beer, or by closing down altogether. Long may The Baltic Fleet and its values flourish.
Some frequently asked questions concerning The Baltic Fleet
Q. There is a street in London called Wapping, why is there one in Liverpool?
A. A wapping or a warping was a long straight stretch of land close to a dock area where large thick ropes were made or warped (twisted). The word is pronounced whopping.
Q. How old is The Baltic Fleet?
A. There is evidence of a hostelry on the site going back to the late seventeenth century; some of the original sandstone plinth is still to be seen at the south end of the pub. The structure as we know it appears to have been built or modified in three stages-
Stage 1. The part of the pub that currently comprises the rear or easterly facing was probably built in about 1780.
Stage 2. The rest of the pub, not including the bows was built in about 1812.
Stage 3. The bows were added in 1880 or 1890.
These of course are estimated dates based upon what we have been told by local historians or architects
Q. Are there tunnels running from the cellars in the pub? Were they used for smuggling?
A. yes there are two tunnels running under what is now the main road in front of the pub. These tunnels have been bricked up so that there is about fifteen feet of each remaining. The tunnels were built prior to the dock buildings (1855) that now stand across the road to the pub, and would have led to the beach or strand, which in those times would have been under what are now the dock buildings. As far as we know they were built to facilitate the bringing of barrels up from the beach, but the more romantically minded amongst us would prefer to hear stories of press gangs and smugglers- who knows? There is, however, a possible third tunnel so far unexcavated, which if this was indeed a tunnel, appears to run towards Shaws Alley. In Victorian times this alley was notorious for ladies of the night and sailors would frequent this area for obvious reasons: might this not have been an ideal way for sailors to escape the clutches of the notorious press gang who preyed upon merchant seamen during the time of the Napoleonic Wars? Or perhaps it was a convenient way for these ladies of dubious character to enter or leave the pub with their prospective paramours so as not to give the pub a bad name? This is pure speculation of course, the tunnel even if excavated will have been truncated by successive building woks behind the pub, so it's true destination or usage will probably never be known, lost in the mists of time.
Q. Is the beer really brewed in the cellar?
A. An emphatic yes; the award winning Wapping Beers are brewed by Stan Shaw our resident brewing genius, who has been weaving his magic in the cellar of the pub since January 2002.
The street on which the pub is located is part of Liverpool's dock road, this particular section is called Wapping and it is from this street name that we get the title of our brewery- Wapping Beers (more about our splendid, prize winning beers later).
What has the pub got to offer? Let me first tell you what the pub doesn't have. We don't have gaming machines, we don't have a juke box and we don't have a pool table. Oh no, I hear some of you cry, but we regard these minuses to be pluses. What we do have is helpful staff, excellent beer brewed on site, delicious food, good conversation, friendly regulars who welcome visitors (we have visitors from every corner of the globe) and a log burning stove to toast your toes by on a cold winter's night. The Baltic Fleet is in essence a traditional British pub, what more could you want?
Imagine if you can your favourite Ealing Comedy: "The Titfield Thunderbolt" perhaps, or" The Maggie"- the individual or small group of like minded people, battling to preserve the best of a disappearing British way of life. Defying conglomerate pressure and corporate chrome and glass facelessness; this is The Baltic Fleet and Wapping Beers, a quirky one-off, an oasis in a fast changing Liverpool. The Baltic Fleet is not a nostalgia driven theme pub by any means; it is a true gem, a survivor in a time when so many other traditional pubs fall by the wayside by being insensitively refurbished by national giants, selling only fizz beer, or by closing down altogether. Long may The Baltic Fleet and its values flourish.
Some frequently asked questions concerning The Baltic Fleet
Q. There is a street in London called Wapping, why is there one in Liverpool?
A. A wapping or a warping was a long straight stretch of land close to a dock area where large thick ropes were made or warped (twisted). The word is pronounced whopping.
Q. How old is The Baltic Fleet?
A. There is evidence of a hostelry on the site going back to the late seventeenth century; some of the original sandstone plinth is still to be seen at the south end of the pub. The structure as we know it appears to have been built or modified in three stages-
Stage 1. The part of the pub that currently comprises the rear or easterly facing was probably built in about 1780.
Stage 2. The rest of the pub, not including the bows was built in about 1812.
Stage 3. The bows were added in 1880 or 1890.
These of course are estimated dates based upon what we have been told by local historians or architects
Q. Are there tunnels running from the cellars in the pub? Were they used for smuggling?
A. yes there are two tunnels running under what is now the main road in front of the pub. These tunnels have been bricked up so that there is about fifteen feet of each remaining. The tunnels were built prior to the dock buildings (1855) that now stand across the road to the pub, and would have led to the beach or strand, which in those times would have been under what are now the dock buildings. As far as we know they were built to facilitate the bringing of barrels up from the beach, but the more romantically minded amongst us would prefer to hear stories of press gangs and smugglers- who knows? There is, however, a possible third tunnel so far unexcavated, which if this was indeed a tunnel, appears to run towards Shaws Alley. In Victorian times this alley was notorious for ladies of the night and sailors would frequent this area for obvious reasons: might this not have been an ideal way for sailors to escape the clutches of the notorious press gang who preyed upon merchant seamen during the time of the Napoleonic Wars? Or perhaps it was a convenient way for these ladies of dubious character to enter or leave the pub with their prospective paramours so as not to give the pub a bad name? This is pure speculation of course, the tunnel even if excavated will have been truncated by successive building woks behind the pub, so it's true destination or usage will probably never be known, lost in the mists of time.
Q. Is the beer really brewed in the cellar?
A. An emphatic yes; the award winning Wapping Beers are brewed by Stan Shaw our resident brewing genius, who has been weaving his magic in the cellar of the pub since January 2002.