Tributes paid to 'charming, funny' former city landlady

TRIBUTES have been paid to a “legendary” Liverpool landlady who died last month.

- By JAMIE GREER

Christina Anne Rutter, known to those close to her as Tina, worked in several of Liverpool’s pubs and clubs over the years.

Tina, 72, ran The Coffee House pub in Wavertree for decades before stepping down 14 years ago. She was originally from Kensington, but lived above the pub while she worked there and moved to Childwall.

Paying tribute, her close friend Lily Spry, 58, who lives in New Brighton, told the ECHO Tina was a “salt of the earth Liverpudlian”.

Lily met Tina when she went to work at The Coffee House in the 1980s. She said Tina's life is “interwoven into the tapestry of Liverpool’s pubs and clubs” from the 1960s onwards.

Tina had her training in the pub trade at The Vines on Lime Street, one of Liverpool's most loved pubs and known to many Scousers as The Big House.

Tina then worked in Tiffany's nightclub, where she met her husband Harry, who worked as a doorman there.

Lily said: “She had a very happy marriage of 50 years with three children. She ran quite a few different pubs. Her family is from an Irish background. She was just a perfect host and was renowned for the parties she'd throw.