Recollections of Old Liverpool

by James Stonehouse

	Till 8 o’Clock.	Till 9 o’Clock.	Till 10 o’Clock.	Till 11 o’Clock.	Till 12 o’Clock.
One Argand.	£ s. d.	£ s. d.	£ s. d.	£ s. d.	£ s. d.
No. 1,	3 0 0	3 18 0	4 16 0	5 12 0	6 8 0
No. 2,	2 14 0	3 5 0	4 0 0	4 14 0	5 8 0
No. 3,	2 2 0	2 14 0	3 7 0	3 18 0	4 10 0
One Batwing.	2 14 0	3 5 0	4 0 0	4 14 0	5 8 0

Just fancy such a tariff to be in existence at present!

Lord-street, previous to 1827, was very narrow; it was not so wide even as Dale-street. The houses and all the streets in Liverpool were just as we see in third-rate country towns, having bowed shop-windows, or square ones, projecting from the side of the house. I recollect Church-street and Ranelagh-street being paved in the centre only. Cable-street, Redcross-street and Park-lane were only flagged in 1821; and nearly all the houses in these streets were then private dwellings. In Ranelagh-street the houses had high steps to the front doors. The porches of the old houses in Liverpool were remarkable for their handsome appearance and patterns. Many still remain but they are yearly decreasing in number. I recollect when the only shops in Church-street were a grocer’s (where part of Compton House now stands) and a confectioner’s at the corner of Church-alley. Bold-street was nearly all private houses, and there were very few shops in it, even some forty years ago. Seventy years since there was scarcely a house of any sort in it. I have been told that where the Athenæum now stands in Church-street, there was once a large pond on which the skaters used to cut a figure, and that a farm-house stood at the corner of Hanover-street. Some houses in Hanover-street

will be noticed as being built out at angles with the street. This was to secure a good view of the river from the windows. At the corner of Bold-street some ninety years ago was a milkman’s cottage and dairy. Whitechapel, when I was a lad, was a dreadful thoroughfare. I have seen it deep in water, and boats rowed about, conveying people from house to house, in times of flood. There used to be a channel with water running down the centre of the street, which was considerably lower than it is at present. It was no uncommon thing for the cellars of all the houses to be filled with water, and even now, I believe, some portion of the neighbourhood is not unfrequently rendered damp and uncomfortable. In the cellars under the Forum, in Marble-street, there is a very deep well which is at all times full; this well drains the premises. This Forum, about fifty years ago, was a well-known and much frequented arena for disputations of all sorts. Many a clever speaker has addressed audiences now passed away. Speaker and spoken to are for the most part gone. A great change took place some forty years ago in the locality where St. John’s Market now stands. There was a ropewalk here which extended from where the angle of the building faces the Amphitheatre, as far as Renshaw-street. There was a field at one time to the north of the ropery skirted by hedges

which went down the site of the present Hood-street, and round to where there is now a large draper’s shop in the Old Haymarket; the hedge then went up John’s-lane, and so round by the site of the lamp opposite the Queen’s Hotel, along Limekiln-lane to Ranelagh-street. These were all fields, being a portion of what was anciently called “the Great Heath.” It was at one time intended to erect a handsome Crescent where the cab-stand is now. The almshouses stood on this ground. Limekiln-lane, now Lime-street, was so called from the limekiln that stood on the site of the present Skelhorn-street. Here were open fields, which extended to the London-road, quite famous for the assembling of all sorts of rough characters, especially on summer evenings, and on Sundays. Cock-fighting, dog-fighting, and pugilistic encounters used to be carried on daily, and scenes of the utmost confusion took place, until public murmurings compelled the authorities to keep order. It was in the fields about where the Lord Nelson-street rooms stand, that my grandfather recollects seeing three, if not four, men hung for being mixed up in the rebellion of ’45. They were hung there in chains for some time, and afterwards buried at the foot of the gallows as a warning to evil-doers.

There were several mills in this vicinity, one of which was called the White Mill, and there was a

very curious story once commonly current about it, in the town to the effect that the owner of it had been murdered by a friend of his who kept a mill lower down the hill. Whitemill-street is called after this White Mill. The lower mill stood where Hotham-street is now, which formerly was called Duncan-street. The mill occupied the site of the Quaker’s school, which was pulled down to make room for the railway yard. When this mill was razed to the ground, a grave was discovered in the foundation, in which was a skeleton, and it was freely said that this was the White Mill miller, who had so mysteriously disappeared some years previously. It was the talk of the town at the time, and crowds of persons went to the spot to look at the grave. When the mill in Duncan-street was taken down it was so rotten that it was razed to the ground in one day. Where St. George’s Hall now stands was the Infirmary. It faced Islington Triangle, afterwards converted into a market-place, being built round with small shops, having a pump in the middle. When this market was discontinued in 1848, the tenants were removed to Gill-street, on its opening in September of that year. The Infirmary consisted of two wings and a centre; at the back was a spacious garden or airing ground. On Shaw’s Brow lived the potters. There were upwards of 2,000 persons engaged in this trade,

which was carried on to a very great extent. Pottery in Liverpool was a considerable manufacture, and it is said that it was Mr. Sadler, a potter who lived in Harrington-street, that first discovered the art of printing upon earthenware, through seeing his children stick pieces of printed cotton fabric on some damaged plates they were playing with. There were many other large potteries in Liverpool at one period, besides those on Shaw’s Brow. There was one at the corner of Fontenoy-street, of which Alderman Shaw was proprietor. There was one at the bottom of Duke-street. This was kept by Mr. Drinkwater, who married Captain Leece’s daughter, after whom Leece-street is named. Pothouse-lane is a reminder of the old trade. There were other potteries on Copperas-hill. I do not recollect much about these potteries; but I have heard my father and mother talk about them amongst their “Recollections.” This trade seems to have departed from this town most strangely. The last remnant of it was in the works that were in operation down by the river-side near the present Toxteth Docks. Watch-making has always been a great trade in Liverpool. The first introducer of it was Mr. Wyke, who lived in Dale-street, on the site of the present public offices. Mr. Wyke came from Prescot, and carried on a large trade in watches about the year 1758. Mr. Litherland, the

inventor of the chronometer, died in Church-street. On Mr. Wyke’s premises and garden the Gas Works were afterwards erected, which were removed to Newington some few years ago. Amongst many others I have seen some very remarkable changes that have taken place about Bevington-hill. I recollect very well what is now called “Summer Seat” being gardens, and the view from them to the river quite uninterrupted. There was near them a house built by a shoemaker who had made a fortune by his trade; it was called “Lapstone Hall.” The inn called the “Bush” had a bough hanging out with the motto “Good Wine Needs no Bush.” The sailors were very fond of going up to Bevington-Bush on Sundays with their sweethearts, and many a boisterous scene have I witnessed there. The view was really beautiful from the gardens. Where the market stands in Scotland-road there used to be a large stone quarry. The houses in Scotland-road beyond the market are all of very late erection. I can well recollect open fields and market gardens thereabouts, and, indeed, all the way up where Scotland-road now is, there used to be fields. The Preston-road wound round up Bevington-Bush. The Everton range looked very pretty from the Kirkdale-road, especially when handsome mansions began to dot its crest. I recollect along this road cornfields, meadows and gardens.

Scotland-road is a comparatively newly-formed thoroughfare. Any one turning to the left at the bottom of Scotland-road, and going to Bevington-Bush will see, in those old houses on the right hand, of what Liverpool, in my young days, was composed. Very few specimens of the old town houses are now remaining, so speedily do they become modernized and altered. I like those quaint old buildings although they were not very comfortable within, from their narrow windows and low ceilings, but there has been a great deal of mirth and jollity in some of those old low-roofed houses in the town, in our great privateering and slave-dealing times.