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#everysinglestreet [29/04/21] Norris Green: Part 6 – On Broadway for one night only!

Graham Holland   

This was the last chunk of Norris Green, Liverpool’s largest housing estate. I ran round Circular Road West and Circular Road East. I also ran ‘round’ Broad Square. One of the circles has open green space in the middle, the other is fenced and hedged off with a bowling green. The square hosts a primary school.

I came across a house with a blue plaque remembering William Ralph ‘Dixie’ Dean, Everton Football Club’s legendary striker who scored 60 league goals in 39 games in the 1927-28 season. I don’t know if this is the house where he used to live or if it’s just the home of an ardent Everton fan.
UPDATE: Thanks to Colin Batho who informed me that Dixie Dean lived on the Wirral.

Townsend Avenue and Utting Avenue/Utting Avenue East meet and cross each other at the railway bridge. This junction is famous locally for its two roundabouts, one each side of the bridge. For the unwary driver it can be a scary prospect, and many a new driver taking their driving test from the nearby Norris Green Driving Test Centre has come unstuck here. But don’t worry because Automatic Driving Lessons have created a video showing you how to drive each of the possible routes round the double roundabout!

Broadway is a curved shopping street running from the roundabout at the end of Utting Avenue East to Broad Lane where Clubmoor railway station was situated. The Liverpool district of Clubmoor is found the other side of the former railway line (now the Liverpool Loop Line). When Norris Green estate was first built the city planners took the decision to not allow any pubs to be built there. If the residents wanted a drink they had to go to one of the large pubs such as The New Broadway in neighbouring districts. They also built the majority of houses before any shops were built which led to scores of illegal shops opening up across the estate.

The first shops opened on Broadway in 1929, and in its heyday it boasted a public hall (Broadway Hall) and a cinema (The Regal), plus all the shops and amenities you would need. Now it seems somewhat tired and run-down. It’s sad to see the upper windows and the three arched doorways of Broadway Hall bricked up, and the Regal empty and boarded up.

The Regal was the first cinema in Liverpool to be purpose built to screen ‘talkies’. There was no upper circle and instead it adopted stadium-style seating with a higher bank of seats behind a lower bank. It opened in 1930 with the appropriately named Broadway Melody, staring Charles King. It screened its last film (Carry On Spying) in 1964, and survived as a bingo hall until 2007 when it eventually closed reportedly after suffering from the indoor smoking ban. The property is available to buy or let if anyone is interested. property.liverpool.gov.uk

Stats

  • Thursday 29th April 2021
  • 30 streets
    Broadway, Agar Road, Altham Road, Angus Road, Asser Road, Bellairs Road, Bellew Road, Birdwood Road, Bridgeway, Broad Square, Cavan Road, Circular Road East, Circular Road West, Durrant Road, Ferguson Road, Flawn Road, Kilrea Close, Lowerson Crescent, Lowerson Road, Monash Road, Morningside Place, Morningside Road, Morningside View, Morningside Way, New Hall Lane, Parlow Road, Townsend Avenue, Utting Avenue East, Wapshare Road
  • Total: 3,472 (61.26%)
  • Remaining: 2,196

Photos on Facebook

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

To view them click here.

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Great North Run

I’m running the Great North Run for the first time on Sunday 12th September, raising money for Alzheimer’s Research UK. My mum has Alzheimers so this charity is close to my heart. If you can spare a couple of quid to help me reach my target I would be extremely grateful.

justgiving.com/fundraising/grahamsgreatnorthrun2021

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