Former Alma de Cuba is about to reopen - here's how the famous altar will look

The former Alma de Cuba, one of Liverpool’s most distinctive historic venues dating back to the late 1700s, is about to reopen as St Peter’s Tavern.

New owners 1936 Pub Company, which has most recently been behind the restoration of The Vines and The Monro, has spent the past two months renovating the grade II listed former church into St Peter’s Tavern.

It has carefully returned features to their original condition, including the famous altar where a DJ booth has been stripped out to leave the focus on beautiful old frescos.

MJ King from the company’s operations team says the building was so stunning it was more about revealing things rather than adding anything too dramatic.

Credit: St Peter's Tavern — Credit: St Peter’s Tavern

“We’ve built a track record for ourselves now of looking after these kinds of spaces and really enhancing what’s naturally in place,” she says.

“With the altar, how could you even consider doing a single thing to it besides honouring the way that it is and trying to bring it to a place that is as near to its original state as possible?

“The aim is just to have it as the main focal point for the building, and it is going to be strictly visual. We’re not going to be putting any seating up there, we’re not going to have entertainment up there, the altar is there to provide historic ambience for the venue.

“Previously there was a DJ station there which we’ve taken out and that’s not something we’re going to be considering replacing.

“You have these beautiful painted and gilded frescos on the walls around the altar, and we didn’t want anything to obscure those, so other than beautiful tall pillar candles we’re not going to be doing anything.

“We just want to do minimal damage and the most restoration as possible.”

MJ says another feature which will now be on show is the building’s beamed ceiling which had been blocked from view by an additional private hire space.

“The previous owners built in a large second floor structure so they’d be able to do private hire for weddings etc, and we understood that from a hospitality point of view, but it completely cut off any visuals of the original wooden beamed ceilings so we have taken that entire floor out.

“Now if you’re on the ground floor or first floor and you look up you can see the architecture right up to the ceiling again.”

1936 Pub Company’s attention to detail is also evident on the outside of the site on Seel Street, which is due to reopen within the next 10 days.

MJ explains: “The building dates back to 1788, that date is carved above the entrance, so that’s something we’ve made sure to highlight. The painting outside is as close to the traditional colours as we could find, and the date has been highlighted in black so it stands out.

“We’ve just come off the back of winning a national design award for historic conservation with The Vines and that was a real honour for us.

“With St Peter’s Tavern we don’t want any gimmicks or to do anything over the top or crazy, we just want to be able to gift it back to the city as a piece of history.”