The BlackToad

The Black Toad is a craft ale micropub at 32 Market Street in Hoylake, opened by Robin and Shell in July 2019. It is a genuine freehouse, unaffiliated with any brewery or pub company, built around a custom-made bar and rustic, close seating that encourages conversation over background noise. The pub keeps three cask ales and six kegs alongside flavoured beers, ciders, wines and more than twenty gins, rums and spirits, all rotating regularly, with roughly nine in ten pints sourced from breweries local to Merseyside and the Wirral. A beer garden sits at the rear for warmer evenings. Bo, a black cat from the neighbourhood, has become an unofficial fixture of the place and a favourite with regulars. The pub was named Wirral CAMRA's Pub of the Year in 2025.