The Liverpool bar that beer lovers from far and wide are flocking to

Builder Rich Midgley had always been interested in beer, so when he finished building a pub, he took a plunge.

Originally from Wales but now living in Mossley Hill, Rich had worked with the team behind Evil Eye when they turned a Smithdown Road butcher's shop into a bar. In 2016, when they looked to open another venue on the road, Rich was called again to work on that project.

After building Craft Taproom - now known as Black Cat - Rich decided to make a big career change.

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Leaving building behind to follow his interest in craft beer, Rich became a co-owner of the venue, along with Andy Scott and Chris Welsh. The bar has established itself as a firm favourite on Smithdown Road and is part of its burgeoning offering of craft beer bars and independent restaurants.

Rich, who also works at Speke-based brewery Big Bog, has not looked back since swapping his tools for pulling pints. Before the bar opened for business on Friday, the ECHO spoke to Rich and Andy about Black Cat's origins and how they are preparing for the return of students to Smithdown Road later this month.

Speaking about the bar's start to life, Andy, 41, from Maghull, said: "I lived around here for ages and ages. I wanted there to be somewhere that I would want to go for a pint.

"A friend of mine left his job as a manager of a pub. I'd pulled pints and he said 'do you want to do something?'.

"We found an old butcher's and it was £500 a month and thought we'd give it a shot. We had no idea what we were doing, we just went in there with a hammer, started battering it and then Rich fixed the mess.

"I then started chatting with Kev (Kevin McArthur who owns the Handyman pub on Smithdown) after we