In my good books

This gorgeous tiled welcome is in Duke Street, Liverpool. The sign on the handsome building tells us something of its history - it housed Liverpool's first public library. It was built around 1800 and was originally the Union Newsroom, becoming a library in 1852. It's now offices and they've kept the lovely tiles and the sign. 

Bread and beer - no flies on us

I thought I’d pick a pretty picture to start the New Year. This gorgeous mosaic sign decorates the doorway of the Fly in the Loaf in Hardman Street, Liverpool. The bar takes its name from the slogan of the Kirklands bakery which once occupied this spot – they claimed there were “no flies in the loaf”. Already appointed as bakers to Queen Victoria, Kirklands opened this building in 1888. According to a Liverpool Mercury article at the time, the bakery was designed to be “a perfectly sanitary bakehouse, combining all the best health arrangements”. It continued as a bakery until the 1970s.