when did ''coopers'' church street liverpool close down

[hobblehobble]

when

it was a food place

[ItsaZappathing]

Hobblebobble where have you been. ?
Don't know the answer to that because I'm too young. :PDT11

[wsteve55]

when

it was a food place

It was in the early/mid 70's,I think!? (You could get a bus to it then,too!) :nod:

[ItsaZappathing]

Hobblebobble where have you been. ?
Don't know the answer to that because I'm too young. :PDT11

Arl Ged will know or Gregs Dad.

[Doris Mousdale]

Coopers was facing Hendersons in Church St I think Next is there now.
It was a proper delicatessen/grocery store and sold wonderful fresh ground coffee and rum baba cakes
Lots of wood panelling and big marble counters.Hams and cheeses, roast beef and all sorts of exotic stuff, Turkish delight and crystalised fruits, a bit like Harrods foodhall. Staff wore long white aprons and cut the cheese to order.
There were also a number of Kardomah Cafes in Church St and Bold St again selling good fresh ground coffee and serving sandwiches, coffee and cakes and great meeting places.
Reeces was on the corner bottom of Bold St by Central Station and they did afternoon tea with big toasted teacakes( flat currant buns slit and toasted)Further up Bold St on the same side as the Gas showrooms were more excellent Italian style cafes La Bussola and El Bussola, very continental and huge places selling Bistro style food and again espresso and cappucino, they too had deli counters for takeaways as did Sampson and Barlow in London Road. Liverpool lost these treasures with the invasion of fast food outlets.
Lewis' also had a very good foodhall in the basement.I can also remember a Lyons Cornerhouse in Church St by Marks and Spencers

[collegepudding]

Wow ! some of those places Doris was fortunate to have visited sound extremely exotic, I dont recall having been taken to any of them . It was only on a a very special occasion when they could afford the luxury of treating me at TJs cafe, the more norm for eating whilst out shopping was the Good old Chippy

collegepudding

[Ged]

Arl Ged will know or Gregs Dad.

I'm younger than you zaps ;)

[lindylou]

There were also a number of Kardomah Cafes in Church St and Bold St again selling good fresh ground coffee and serving sandwiches, coffee and cakes and great meeting places.
Reeces was on the corner bottom of Bold St by Central Station and they did afternoon tea with big toasted teacakes( flat currant buns slit and toasted)Further up Bold St on the same side as the Gas showrooms were more excellent Italian style cafes La Bussola and El Bussola, very continental and huge places selling Bistro style food and again espresso and cappucino, they too had deli counters for takeaways as did Sampson and Barlow in London Road. Liverpool lost these treasures with the invasion of fast food outlets.
Lewis' also had a very good foodhall in the basement.I can also remember a Lyons Cornerhouse in Church St by Marks and Spencers

Yes, when you think of how fast food outlets have replaced these lovely old establishments. It's a shame they are gone.
.. digressing slightly but I have friends in Buenos Aires and they showed me pics of the beautiful ornate coffee houses and restaurants still popular there. For example, here's a few pics - scroll down to bottom of page- http://akworld.net/BAweekly/?p=648[COLOR="Silver"]

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/rubinda/confiteria-la-ideal.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/rubinda/2094411526_717aea087a.jpg

There are lots more like this.

[Ged]

I have a book with some interior shots of Coopers, I'll see if i'm allowed to post some up after checking the credits.

[lesley1]

One of my duties as office junior in my first job, was to run errands for the boss.
There was one time I was sent to Coopers for some exotic ingredients, things I wasn't familiar with.
Didn't know my way around Coopers, all I knew was the smell of coffee and that it was posh.

I was told to go to a counter called delicatessen, I thought they were having me on.

When I went into the store I felt really intimidated, everything in there was so grand, and completely beyond our needs.

[burkhilly]

Just reading Doris' information and the "Kardomah" cafes. I went to a Chinese Resturant in Bold Street a couple of years ago and it had big columns similar to the pictures posted by Lindy. Does anyone know where the Kardomah was in Bold Street?

(Although I am much younger than either Zaps or Ged - I do remember Coopers - or rather being in town with my mum and smelling that coffee smell, so it must have closed sometime in the 70s.)

[hobblehobble]

any specific date of when it closed

[dot]

It closed around 1968/9 if i remember correctly, i used to go in and treat myself to weird and wonderful foods, i remember the cross breed of orange and tangerine called ortoniques ? spelling, i had buckled fingers trying to peel it, so tough, the segments also had a tough fibrous coating, gave up and binned it, never really been a coffee drinker but loved the smell of the coffee there, there was a small shop in Bold St some 12yrs back or so also called Coopers Emporium any connection ?

[Doris Mousdale]

[QUOTE=collegepudding;379780]Wow ! some of those places Doris was fortunate to have visited sound extremely exotic, I dont recall having been taken to any of them . It was only on a a very special occasion when they could afford the luxury of treating me at TJs cafe, the more norm for eating whilst out shopping was the Good old Chippy

I wasn't taken to them I went under my own steam and paid my own way.There were no supermarkets in Liverpool 8 so you shopped in McCanns in Canning St or walked down Hardman St to Scotts Bakery or down to Church St to Coopers. The smart cafes were good places to meet up before going out for the night or after you had done your shopping.That was what shopping was like in the 60s and 70s in town. Bold St was classy,with good furniture shops( Waring and Gillow), clothes shops ( Lucinda Byre) and smart cafes.Up around Bold Place were the very first designer boutiques, there was a Virgin record and clothes store ( Virgin Rags) top of Bold St.Right down to Lord St where I imagine Liverpool One is now were good shops Walker and Hall Boodle and Dunthornes Times Furniture and off Victoria St, Watson and *****ard.Dunns etc. There were Fish Restaurants in Cases St and Oyster Bars by Old Hall St. What London and Manchester have now and gloat about Liverpool had too but demolished.
Kardomah in Bold St was half way down on the lefthand side with a basement and ground floor with lots of booths and tables.
You have also missed out on how fantastic St John's Market used to be. Literally packed with stalls and every stall was packed with goods. There must have been twenty or more butchers same with fish and fruit and flowers bread,cakes and sweets you name it they sold it and the businesses had been there for generations. You could even buy kittens and pups and budgies around in the back st of St John's.If you look up Leeds Market which has been kept and imagine what Liverpool demolished you will have some idea of how the city has been short-changed by its planners.The cheap shoddy nasty building that is St Johns has nothing to do with the glass and cast iron building it replaced. Liverpool was a thriving city of millions and yes there was poverty and hardworking poor but it was also Mecca of shopping for those living in North Wales and up to Manchester/Cheshire and even the Isle of Man.

[collegepudding]

Thank you for that post Doris, you paint a very vivid picture in my mind of how vibrant and diverse the city centre commerce was before the bulldozers destroyed it. I too ,do remember some of the shops you describe, but the others I can only imagine or be informed via old images & books kindly provided by the likes of Colin Wilkinson and Ged Fagan etc , and posts such as yours. I must confess i do regret the fact that i wasn,t able to witness it first hand and information such as yours and others act like a time machine transporting me back to those lost times...... :handclap:

collegepudding

[lindylou]

I wasn't taken to them I went under my own steam and paid my own way.There were no supermarkets in Liverpool 8 so you shopped in McCanns in Canning St or walked down Hardman St to Scotts Bakery or down to Church St to Coopers. The smart cafes were good places to meet up before going out for the night or after you had done your shopping.That was what shopping was like in the 60s and 70s in town.

Yes, people from L8 used the places you mentioned - or the grocers shop in Falkner st (can't think of the name just now - it was at the end of Falkner - Hope st end ).



I wasn't taken to them I went under my own steam and paid my own way.

When I was in my 20s, working and established with my own place, I would sometimes shop after work in Binn's Food Hall (formerly Hendersons) or Lewis's basement food hall. Binn's Food Hall was nice.

[Ged]

(Although I am much younger than either Zaps or Ged.)

I want to know do the posters who say things like this manage to keep a straight face whilst typing it ;)

[ItsaZappathing]

I know what you mean Ged. (You must be grinning now). lol

[Ged]

:PDT_Aliboronz_24:

[irishseashipping.com]

It was March 11, 1972 that Coopers Closed - it eventually became WH Smith after a while.

I was only quite young at the time but I recall being taken into Coopers by my mother and grand mother on their shopping expeditions. My grandmother used to like buying glass jars of fruit jelly which I recall had tin lids a bit like jam but contained various flavours of jelly some of which had fruit in them.

There was a coffee roasting machine which vented through a side window into the now disappeared Church Lane - obliterated by the extension of C&A

Around Easter they used to have baby chicks in the window on Church Street.

The Cooper's in Bold Street was no connection - though from what I recall when that store opened it was announced in the Daily Post and / or Echo that it aimed to be like the original Coopers. I don't know if it was though.