Artist on mission to paint every pub in Liverpool

An award-winning artist has set himself the task of painting every pub in Liverpool, aiming to leave behind a lasting legacy of the city's drinking establishments.

Gary North, who was named Lancashire Artist of the Year in 2025, has already completed around 150 of an estimated 285 pubs across the city. He said that after winning the award last year, he wanted to shift his focus toward legacy rather than sales.

North, who is self-taught, told the BBC he had wanted to do something distinctive by painting the city as it is, deliberately steering away from modern shops in favour of Liverpool's pubs, which he described as fantastic and “beyond cool”.

He said the national narrative around struggling pubs closing at a rapid rate did not appear to hold true in Liverpool, where he said pubs functioned more like community hubs and were not closing in the way often reported elsewhere.

Since starting the project, only one pub has shut – The Winslow, near Goodison Park – a closure North linked largely to Everton's men's football team relocating to their new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. He said Liverpool's pubs were, in general, too old and too historic to close simply because of passing trends.

North said he had varied his artistic approach depending on the building, moving between watercolour and impressionistic acrylic techniques.

Asked which pubs had stood out, he singled out several favourites. He said the landlord of the Pig and Whistle had effectively “adopted” him, and described the Vines as a fantastic pub in a league of its own.

He also named the Ship and Mitre among his favourites, and said painting the Baltic Fleet had proved particularly memorable, as capturing a certain angle of the building – with its distinctive ship-like funnels – required standing in the middle of a dual carriageway, which he acknowledged was not advisable.

North said his ultimate goal was to create what he called “a pub crawl of my art” through Liverpool city centre, culminating at St George's Hall ahead of a beer festival on 24 September.