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#everysinglestreet [12/02/21] All the roads in Chinatown on New Year’s Day #CNY

Graham Holland     

Happy Chinese New Year! It’s a new lunar year, the Year of the Ox. So obviously I was going to run around Chinatown!

Liverpool Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in Europe. The first ship direct from China arrived in Liverpool in 1834 to trade goods such as silk and cotton wool. Chinese immigrants arrived in the late 1860s as many Chinese seamen were employed by the Blue Funnel Shipping Line.

I started at the end of St James Street at the junction with Great George Street, famous for The Wedding House on the corner. Both sides of the building are covered by huge murals, and there’s artwork on the fencing round the back. Upper Frederick Street used to run all the way from Great George Street to Paradise Street, but is now divided into chunks separated by new housing. Lower Frederick Street is mentioned in the song The Leaving of Liverpool but I don’t know where it used to be.

St Vincent De Paul RC Church was completed in 1857 and designed in the style of the 13th Century. It has a striking open timber bellcote at the west end. It has an impressive priests’ house at the side. Opposite this is Chung Wah, our regular Chinese supermarket.

The land off Great George Street is fenced off. There was supposed to have been a ‘New Chinatown’ development here, but five years after it was approved there’s no sign of any work starting. You can read the Liverpool Echo investigation here.

Nelson Street today was sad. It should have been bustling with activity ahead of the weekend’s Chinese New Year celebrations, but instead it was all but deserted. There were still red lanterns suspended across the street, but who is going to see them? Two dragons guard one end of the main Chinatown street. You can tell which is male and which is female because the male rests one paw on a ball, and the female rests one paw on a lion cub.

The Black-E (formally The Blackie) is on the corner of Nelson Street and Great George Street. It was originally a Congregational Church before it closed in 1967 when it was converted into a community centre. It got the Blackie name because at the time the exterior was black from atmospheric pollution. The first chapel on the site was built in 1811. This was replaced by the current building, which seated 2,000 people, in 1841.

The Chinese arch – paifang – is the largest multi-span arch outside of China. It was constructed in Shanghai (twinned with Liverpool) and erected in 2000. Just for fun I’ve included a photo of me and Richard standing by the arch in 2003.

On Cornwallis Street there’s a building, built in 1869, that used to be “Liverpool Workshops for the Out Door Blind”. I’m not sure what ‘outdoor blind’ are.

Bailey Street is a back street running parallel with Nelson Street. I was surprised to find a short section of terraced houses. All of the front doors were protected by metal doors.

St Michael in the City is on Upper Pitt Street. The previous church building with its impressive tower and spire was destroyed in the May Blitz of 1941.

Stats

  • Friday 12th February 2021
  • 17 streets
    Bailey Street, Cookson Street, Cornwallis Street, Cummings Street, Duncan Street, Great George Place, Great George Street, Grenville Street South, Griffiths Street, Hardy Street, Kent Street, Nelson Street, Pitt Street, Prince Albert Mews, Sankey Street, St James Street, Upper Pitt Street
  • Total: 2,704 (47.84%)
  • Remaining: 2,948

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All of the photos from this run are in a publically viewable Facebook album.

To view them click here.

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