ess066 clarke's basin
everysinglestreet

#everysinglestreet [22/12/20] Chapel Street, Old Hall Street and Tithebarn Street

Graham Holland   

Stats

  • Tuesday 22nd December 2020
  • 29 streets – Back Leeds Street, Bixteth Street, Brook Street, Cockspur Street, Cockspur Street West, Earle Street, East Street, Edmund Street, Exchange Passage West, Fazakerley Street, Freemasons Row, George Street, Highfield Street, Old Churchyard, Old Hall Street, Old Leeds Street, Ormond Street, Pownhall Square, Prussia Street, Rigby Street, Rumford Court, Rumford Place, Smithfield Street, Spellow Place, St Paul’s Square, Tithebard Street, Tower Gardens, Union Street, Westmorland Drive.
  • Total: 2,302 (40.94%)
  • Remaining: 3,321

Notes

The Church of St Nicholas – known as The Sailors’ Church – looks out over The Strand at the bottom of Chapel Street. My Auntie Prue and Uncle Grahame were married here. The Grade II listed Simpson Fountain can be found in the retaining wall and could do with a bit of preservation work. It was built in memory of William Simpson who owned a refreshment stall on the Mersey Ferry landing stage where he raised thousands of pounds collecting money for charity. When he died the drinking fountain was funded by public subscription. You can read the rather glorious obituary from the Liverpool Mercury here.

The Pig and Whistle is one of a number of pubs that were left standing when the buildings surrounding them were demolished.

Rumford Court can be found off Rumford Place and is like a little pocket of Dickensian England! One of the buildings – Charleston House – has plaques marking the contributions some Liverpool residents and businesses made to the American Civil War (1861-65) in support of Confederate forces.

Cotton House is a 1970s office building that replaced part of what was originally the Cotton Exchange. This is where Richard and I held our Partnership ceremony in 2002 and our Civil Partnership ceremony in 2005. The original building had a stunning facade with columns along the front and towers on either corner but it was demolished in 1969 in what has been called “an act of unthinkable vandalism”. The statue outside is ‘The River Mersey’, one of a number of statues rescued from the original facade.

91-93 Old Hall Street were build as offices for the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Built in 1792, Clarke’s Basin was the westernmost terminal basin where the cargo (mainly coal) was unloaded. The basin closed in 1886 when Exchange Station was expanded and new terminal facilities were built further north. For many years these cottages were part of St Paul’s Eye Hospital. What’s noticeable is how low the doors are!

At the end of Old Hall Street is a work of art called The Face of Liverpool. It has 32 portals, each one featuring the face of a local resident with overseas ancestry.

The Cross Keys pub is where the Everyman Folk Club moved to when the old Everyman Bistro closed down. Just round the corner is Orleans House with its plaque declaring that John Newton – clergyman, slavery abolitionist and author of Amazing Grace – lived here.

Bereys Building on Bixteth Street between George Street and Ormond Street has dragons on the front! The building across the road has a plaque stating that George Stubbs – artist and anatomist – “near here lived”. I guess they knocked his house down…

Windsor Building used to be at the end of George Street before Berey’s Building came along. The original street sign is still visible on what would have been the corner of the street.

If you like your whisky then you’ll love Turmeaus. Originally based in a pokey little unit on Fenwick Street, a few years back they moved into a much larger basement property on Old Hall Street. Turmeus sells whisky and cigars. They even have a room with a special license that allows you to smoke inside.

Liverpool Exchange railway station was opened in 1850. It was the only one of Liverpool’s four terminal stations that wasn’t accessed by tunnel. The station had two names because the companies that jointly owned it couldn’t agree what to call it. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway named it Liverpool Exchange Station, while the East Lancashire Railway called it Liverpool Tithebarn Street. It wasn’t until the companies merged in 1859 that the name Liverpool Exchange was settled on. Following the Beeching Report in 1963 many of the routes into Exchange were axed, with those remaining being re-routed to Lime Street Station and the new Merseyrail network. Exchange eventually closed on 30th April 1977, with only the original frontage remaining. The approaches to the station still exist in the form of the old brick viaducts on Pall Mall near Leeds Street.

There’s an empty space on Highfield Street and Pownall Square. It’s currently being used as a car park, but there used to be a pub here called Time Out. This was the first gay bar I ever went to. It was popular for those who didn’t particularly want to go to a gay bar on ‘the scene’ and preferred a quiet drink in a safe environment. It burned down (mid 90s?) and was eventually demolished.

At the end of Tithebarn Street stands Superlambanana, designed by New York-based Japanese artist Taro Chiezo. Half lamb, half banana, it is a commentary on the dangers of genetic modification. The statue was created in 1998 as part of the ArtTransPennine Exhibition and was loaned to the City of Liverpool where it generated a lot of negative opinions. However, the city grew to love it and Chiezo agreed in 2008 that Liverpool could keep it.

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