Stats
- Friday 1st January 2021
- 35 streets – Addison Street, Addison Way, Blackstock Street, Carruthers Street, Chisenhale Street, Eaton Street, Edgar Street, Ford Street, Gardner’s Row, Great Crosshall Street, Holy Cross Close, Islington, Lace Street, Marlborough Place, Marlborough Street, Marybone, Midghall Street, Naylor Street, Oriel Street, Pall Mall, Paul Street, Phillips Street, Pickup Street, Punp Fields Road, Saint Staphens Place, Standish Street, St Anne Street, St Bartholemew Road, Stockdale Close, Wardron Close, Henry Edward Street, Bevington Bush, Wellington Street, Aldersey Street, Nicholas Street, Gladstone Street, Lanyork Road
- Total: 2,472 (43.96%)
- Remaining: 3,151
Notes
Those of you who’ve been following my runs for #everysinglestreet will know I’ve been fascinated by the history of the railways and canals. Old Hall Street remarkably still has some old buildings standing where Clarkes Basin marked the end of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. When Exchange Station and the approaches were extended, this section of the canal got cut off, and a new terminus was built along with a realigned section of canal alongside Pall Mall.
I’ve created some images with the original canal route and the revised route overlain on a current map. The newer 1898 version also shows the train lines running into Exchange Station, plus the line running from Edge Hill to Waterloo Station through the Waterloo Tunnel (which still exists). The area between Gasgoyne Street and Leeds Street is where the new terminal basin was located. It’s now a car park.
Warehouses were built on Pall Mall alongside the new section of canal. One of the main buildings still stands, as does much of the outer wall. On the building there’s a plaque (not visible because of the hoardings) explaining how Pall Mall was known as ‘Little Wales’ because of the large Welsh population. The area where the canal used to be has been filled in, but from the air (via Google) a row of large, white blocks that were part of the canal edge is visible (since been covered over).
On Chisenhale Street there’s a metal bridge that used to take the road over the canal. In the 1960s the canal basin was filled in from the terminal all the way up to to the Chisenhall Street Bridge, with the stretch the other side filled in in the early 1980s to create the Eldonian Village after the Tate and Lyle sugar refinery was demolished. There’s a really interesting website called towpathtreks.co.uk that documents this section of the canal.
The original Chisenhale Street bridge was made from stone. There’s an image of this bridge in 1814 and the metal one in 1900 on the De Quincey in Everton site.
The Blackstock Gardens Memorial on Vauxhall Road commemorates 21st December 1940 when a German bomb hit the full Blackstock Gardens air-raid shelter killing at least 70 men, women and children.
I ran alongside the Kingsway Tunnel entrance. The Kingsway Tunnel is one of two road tunnels under the River Mersey, the other being the older Queensway Tunnel. I had the pleasure of running through Kingsway during the Mersey Tunnel 10k in 2019.
I ran past John Sutch Cranes. They must all be hiding because I saw no sutch cranes.
I was delighted to come across Bevington Bush. This was one of the streets in the old Scotland Road community, demolished in the 1960s. You may recognise the name from the opening verse of the song Seth Davey.
“He sat on the corner of Bevington Bush
Astride of an old packing case.
And the dolls on the end of his plank went a dancing,
As he crooned with a smile on his face.”
I took some photos of what remains of the Churchill Way Flyovers. It’s still strange seeing an expanse of sky instead of concrete. You can now see the back of the buildings on William Brown Street, including the names of people on the new library.
I ran past the entrance to the Queensway Tunnel but will cover that on a future run.
The Holy Cross Pieta Statue on Standish Street used to be inside Holy Cross Church until it was demolished in 2004. The shelter contains stained glass and a stone cross from the church, and the small garden is now used as a place of remembrance. On the front gate there’s a plaque marking the spot where Saint Patrick’s Cross used to stand. Tradition has it that St Patrick preached from this spot in AD 432 before sailing to Ireland.
Follow me onMore maps and photos. pic.twitter.com/Gd2jL6YnoK
— Graham runs… 小光頭 🏴 🇬🇧 🇹🇼 (@itsafrogslife) January 3, 2021
