I notice that the adjoining building (on the north side, towards Birkenhead) has similar lettering in its ground floor windows. Was this also part of the pub. It's certainly on the land that the 'new' pub is built on.
You're quite right, the building next door does indeed have the same 'Allsop's Burton Ale' lettering on one of the windows, indicating that it had obviously been purchased by the Brewery to extend the original pub. The full extent of the pub is clearly shown on the 1909 OS map below.
As far as the date of the photos goes, Derek, they aren't dated, but as there are no tram tracks in the road they must be from before 1901, as that's when the Higher Tranmere tram route along Church Road opened. As for the road surface, clearly in those days there wasn't much of one! The photos I posted were cropped to concentrate on the Black Horse; I've posted the uncropped versions below, showing amongst othr things the old cottages that use to stand on the corner of Well Lane.