everysinglestreet

#everysinglestreet [11/11/20] All the roads off Holt Road with Dr Solomon

Graham Holland   

Stats

  • Wednesday 11th November 2020
  • 34 streets – Anglezark Close, Balm Street, Bradfield Street, Brae Street, Cameron Street, Chiswell Street, Clearwater Close, Cliff Street, Cotswold Street, Tottenham Street, Deane Road, Dell Street, Denman Street, Dial Street, Fell Street, Frost Street, Gannock Street, Gilead Street, Holdsworth Drive, Holt Road, Ingrow Road, Lennox Way, Ling Street, Minto Close, Needham Road, Odsey Street, Quorn Street, Redgrave Street, Solomon Street, Stamford Street, Toft Street, Wedgewood Street, Wimpole Street, Wrenbury Street.
  • Total: 1,712 (30.45%)
  • Remaining: 3,911

Notes

There’s a Jewish cemetery on Deane Road, owned by the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation (LOHC). It’s the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Liverpool having opened in 1837 and closed for regular burials in 1904, with the last plot being filled in 1929.

The large, red church on Edge Lane is now a Hindu Temple.

There are two houses on Cameron Street wit the original red and cream checkered brickwork. Nearly all of the other houses have been painted, although there are still a few single houses that remain untouched. I’m sure it would have been quite a sight to see the whole street when it was first built.

Dial Street has both original and modern versions of street signs. One house has a polar bear on the bay roof with stars above.

There wasn’t enough space to put a full width house on the end of the terrace on Needham Road at the junction with Chiswell Street, so they made it side on instead.

On Holt Road there’s a cycle shop called Onya Bike.

I’m curious as to the purpose of a particular architectural feature on one row of houses where there’s a ‘fake window’ straddling two properties. Is it just to look nice?

St Cyprians Church on the corner of Edge Lane and Durning Road was consecrated in 1881, and closed in 2006. It’s now student accommodation. I’d always thought it was a Greek Orthodox church but I can’t find any reference to it online.

Wimpole Street has long since been knocked down but they’ve left a road sign in place.

I bet people who aren’t from Liverpool would be really confused by a pub called ‘The Liver Vaults’!

There’s a Quorn Street and an Anglezark Close. I looked for a Noahzark Close but couldn’t find one. A very old ‘Housing Department’ sign says Cycling and Ball Games Prohibited. Why cycling?

There are three streets together – Solomon Street, Balm Street and Gilead Street. These were inspired by a piece of local history. At the back end of the 1800s an Irish Jewish doctor – Doctor Samual Solomon – started selling a medicine which he called the Cordial Balm of Gilead. The drink was simply brandy flavoured with herbs, but just like the snake-oil salesmen of the Wild West he marketed it as a miracle medicine which he claimed cured everything from impurity of blood and feverous disorders, to bilious cases and lowness of spirits. Doctor Solomon cleverly adopted a biblical name for his medicine to tap into the religious beliefs of the population.

Samual also wrote and printed his own book entitled “A guide to health, or, Advice to both sexes in a variety of complaints: with an essay on the venereal disease, gleets, seminal weakness, and that destructive habit called onanism : likewise, an address to parents, tutors, and guardians of youth” which (you probably guessed what’s coming) recommended taking Cordial Balm of Gilead to cure all those ills. Doctor Solomon died an exceedingly rich man.

You’re probably wondering why I know all that about Doctor Solomon. Well… back in 2012 I was approached by someone from the Kensington Regeneration Company. They were putting on an event to celebrate local history and were looking for someone to write a song about the good Doctor to be performed at the event. “Oh, by the way, we will pay you.” “Also, will you perform it on the night? We’ll pay you for that too.” So that’s where The Ballad of Doctor Solomon came from. If you’d like to listen to it I’ve just uploaded it to SoundCloud.

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