Hello all,

Hope this is in the right section! I've been talking with my dad lately, and he was telling me that as a bakery machinery engineer/installer in the mid 60's, he used to visit premises he thinks were on Brownlow Hill (behind the Adelphi) known as Reeces bakery?
I have found references to Reeces Restaurant in the city centre, but none to the bakery - I'm not even sure if they are associated.
I've been to Liverpool last weekend to have a look if I could find where he mentioned - and there does seem to be some unused industrial premises on the left hand side of Brownlow Hill as you look up from the city centre - I am wondering if this could be the place he means? Looking through the broken windows, I really couldn't tell what it might have been, as it's been stripped out and is in a bad state generally.
If any of you learned people knows anything about Reeces Bakery, or where it was, or if this is the right place or indeed anything associated, I would be really interested and would love to pass the info on to my dad, who is almost 80 now.
We have a teaspoon with "Reeces" engraved on the handle which I presume came from the canteen or similar.
Many thanks in advance!
With all best wishes, Christine xx

Reece's were better known as a dairy, but checking the 1936 directory reveals that, in Hawke Street (behind the Adelphi Hotel), were their "Chief Offices, Dairy and Bakery".
Yes, the building (or part of it) is still there.

Thankyou for that info! and taking the time to look it up for me, I really appreciate that! I wonder if that's the actual building he worked in - it looks 60's-70's date - but walking round the back by the loading bay I saw there was an older part over the road too. Also you can see tiled walls inside, which tallies with food premises I assume.
Very interesting!

Yes, that'll be where he worked. The bit across the road is the power house, and would have once housed the boilers. Part of the premises is used as an undercover carpark whilst the rest remains derelict, and in some areas very bad condition.

I've just walked past there on my way into town, I'm surprised that such a large site has remained undeveloped for such a long time. It must have been the late 70's when it shut which was only just after a new system was put in place to freeze their cream cakes (IIRC it used liquid Nitrogen)

I remember the dairy.

The smell as you went past!!! :eek:

Amazing it has survived this long then - now is my memory playing tricks if I asked if there was a line of shops opposite it (this would be mid-sixties)? When we were kids, my dad would sometimes take us with him and we would wait in the works van across the road - I am sure I recall seeing pineapples in a shop window and wondering what on earth they were? (cos I thought they grew in tins I suppose) Or could this be just a touch of premature senility?
Thanks everybody for your info - great to find a forum not full of insecure egomaniacs at last!:)

I have a pic of an info plate on the power house which I'll put on later.
Cheers

There were no shops in Hawke Street.
The 1968 directory shows Reece's on the one side with St Nicholas' RC Church and Schools on the other side.

PS.
I've got a bit of an ego.
I think, but then I'm not so sure! :)

aaah - I think I mean on the opposite side of Brownlow Hill? Where there is a multistory carpark now?
Or perhaps it is my addled brain doing mix'n'match with times and places and coming up with the wrong answer?
I used to love coming to Liverpool when I was a child as I thought I might see the Beatles just strolling casually round the streets...wonder why I never did?:) Used to daydream we might be related as my maiden name was Starkey.......

"""""

An interesting plate on the power house building in Hawke St - shame some eejit has spraycanned it!

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w113/nishworld/General/reeces-substation.jpg

Hi again, yes, I live exactly 52 miles from the Albert Dock:)
If you can get any pics, it would be great - we took some video footage but it isn't great tbh. It seems Reeces was a dairy with a bakery attatched, but anything you can add to my paltry knowledge would be much appreciated.

Leave it with me a day or two and Ill find out where Julie worked and get a few piccies.

Gerard.
Reece's occupied all one side of Hawke Street, so everything that remains on that side is their's.
I've always meant to take photos, because W Aubrey Thomas designed some of it.

Gerard.
Reece's occupied all one side of Hawke Street, so everything that remains on that side is their's.
I've always meant to take photos, because W Aubrey Thomas designed some of it.


Thanks Phil.The Left side of Hawke St as you approached Brownlow Hill.
I can still see all the girls Now Smoking out of the Top floor windows and whistling at me :rolleyes:
Or did someone lose a Dog...:)
I'll get a few Piccies in the Morning on me way back from the Friday Asda big shop.

Whistling at you?
Sex equality in them days?

Whistling at you?
Sex equality in them days?

Lol...:handclap:

Hey Gerard, I,m running round the forum after you.

Where is my post you told me to look at:)

Hey Gerard, I,m running round the forum after you.

Where is my post you told me to look at:)


Ha haaa..Dyer remember that Piccie of St Johns Tower and you said you used it or something and put "Chippie Rides again"..
Well Ive put a proper "Chippie Rides again" on it for yer without my Watermark..
But I dont know where it is Now ??...Somewhere on the site..
That'll keep yer busy for a week or so lookin' for it.
Its doin' me 'ead in trying to remember where it is Lad.


Chippie..stay here for 5 minutes..Ill see if its still on my Computer and post it here if it is ..ang on

For you Gerard ....anything

Deleted..Gone !..Bit the dust...

For you Gerard ....anything


Thank You Sir :PDT11

Thanks Gerard, done it. You must be trawling these threads like nobody,s business. I,m turning in now. Good night..watch the bed bugs don,t bite.:ninja:

Amazing it has survived this long then - now is my memory playing tricks if I asked if there was a line of shops opposite it (this would be mid-sixties)? When we were kids, my dad would sometimes take us with him and we would wait in the works van across the road - I am sure I recall seeing pineapples in a shop window and wondering what on earth they were? (cos I thought they grew in tins I suppose) Or could this be just a touch of premature senility?
Thanks everybody for your info - great to find a forum not full of insecure egomaniacs at last!:)

I have a pic of an info plate on the power house which I'll put on later.
Cheers

That has brought back a few memories, yes there was an old fashioned greengrocers in Brownlow Hill during the early 70's along with a couple (or even just one) shops clinging on while others on that block were boarded up.

""""

AND NOT A CAKE IN SIGHT.

This has all brought back a memory.

I was at the Uni in 1969-1973 and I remember that where is now the multistory was a waste-ground car park, presumably where the previous buildings had been knocked down.

At the bottom end was a huge placard sign - "Rathbones Bread" in big letters, and "Stll undeniably the best on Merseyside" in smaller letters.

One night, heading for a bus home down into town, full of alcohol and, OK just alcohol :unibrow: , while some of my mates could read "still undeniably"etc etc. a couple of others could read "Rathbones Bread". Me? I said "What sign?"

Not quite as bad as the night when while Liverpool buses were usually green they introduced advertising- now de rigueur. My head took days to settle from seeing a huge Barclaycard turn the corner and approach me :)

:handclap:Fantastic Liverpool views as usual Gerard:PDT11

:handclap:Fantastic Liverpool views as usual Gerard:PDT11


Thank you Kev.

Those are fantastic pictures Gerard! You have a great eye for a picture! Really enjoyed looking at those - thankyou for sharing:handclap:

I also found a reference to the site as a whole in a list of what the council considers to be the major eyesores to be dealt with (sounds a bit sinister:ninja:) - I'll put a link to it just now.

So was the Reece's Restaurant in the city centre anything to do with it, or just a coincidental name?

Also quite relieved to find I may not have spent at least part of my childhood hallucinating pineapples..........bless you for that Billo........

www.businessliverpool.co.uk/uploads/liverpool_environmental_detractors.pdf -

It's an "environmental detractor" apparently......good job they've never seen my house then.....

Yes, the same firm.
The 1968 street directory lists them as:
"REECE S. & SONS LIMITED, wholesale & retail dairymen; creamery proprietors; wholesale & retail bakers & confectioners; caterers; Chief Offices, Dairy & Bakery, Hawke Street, Brownlow Hill."
It goes on to list 5 restaurants and about 40 shops throughout Mersseyside.

""""

Great photos, Gerard.
I didn't realise it was such a big site.

Here's a photo from 1928.
(And before you ask, NO, I didn't take it!)

John Lennon had his wedding reception here in 1962, because his parents had their's here, too.
(Gerard will know all about that.)

Reece's (like Express Dairies) also delivered the daily pintas to your doorstep.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/157/374991118_2a5fa14091_o.jpg

""""