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I am guessing at the year 1890. It certainly is not much later, the Bon Marche building (with a flag on top) was built in 1878 and still looks quite new. On the right is St Peter’s Church, which was dismissed by architectural critics as being a poor copy of the school of Christopher Wren. [...]
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Hi Colin,Quote:
Originally Posted by Colin Wilkinson
trying to figure out the white 2 storey building,right after M&S, and apparently,in front of "Bon Marche" ????
Steve.
Hi Steve, it was the original Bon Marche - eventually bought out by GH Lee and rebuilt in the 1920s.
Hi Steve again. I have dug out a great view of Bon Marche which I will post tonight. It shows the store in 1891 when fully operational, What the photo suggests is that the white building you pointed out was part of the original street line which appears to have been moved back.
If my deduction is correct (I will need to look at a street plan for 1875 or therabouts), the white building is about to be demolished to make way for Bon Marche.
Certainly - as you will see from the photograph I am posting - there is no other building on the corner of Basnett Street. This would date the original photograph as 1877 not 1890. Quite a difference. Thanks for your observation.
great photo Colin.....are you the same Colin Wilkinson who wrote Streets of Liverpool ect?
Thanks for that Colin,Quote:
Originally Posted by Colin Wilkinson
it's just that I've seen that pic'before(along with some others) and wondered what these smaller buildings were,as they are often overshadowed by more illustrious neighbours! Church st's dimensions seem to have changed considerably over the years!
Steve.
Thanks robbo176. I am the same person - although the book was more pictures than writing. I had been annoying the City Engineer's Department for years to get permission to print some of their amazing archive but they kept saying they had plans of their own. Eventually they realised that they were not going to do anything - so I published a small selection of their collection. Security of their archive was not very good - I often see prints in circulation which should not have left the premises. With the demise of the Photography Unit in 1998, the collection went over to the Record Office (and safety). The building of a new archive is about to begin in June, so in a few years time the collection will be in state of the art storage. There is also an ongoing digitalisation programme - which will eventually give much better public access to the photographs without having to handle the original negatives. All good I hope.
Hi Steve, Church Street was changed over the years, particularly in the inter-war years. The opposite side, for instance, saw the loss of the original Athenaeum Club (it moved to Church Alley), to accommodate a change in the road line.
Hi Steve, I have your book The Streets of Liverpool and was gonna put some pictures from that book on here. Good job I never now.
Love your book though and Ged said that you had another, so now i'm looking out for that.
There's about half a dozen Pabs and they're all great LRO pics.
I'll have a mosey for them. Thanks Ged. Why did the LRO take all these pictures, was it just for memories. Are they still doing it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ged
In the late 1800s the City Engineers Department started recording slum clearance programmes and delapidated courts about to bite the dust. Achievements such as sewer building, road building, street lighting etc were also recorded as were new builds such as tenements and houses along the new boulevards etc.
In the 1960s,70s and 80s Harry Ainscough used to make treks from Sheffield to Liverpool to photograph thousands of streets, these too were bequathed to the LRO and are a brilliant record of life as it was with vehicles and fashions of the day captured too.
You could spend months in the search room of the Central library Pabs.
Many of these now are of course on my site.
Just a quick note on Harry Ainscough's photos. He actually sold copies to LRO - he did not bequeath them. Harry had the idea of photographing the streets of Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield. He reckoned he could make a living by selling copies to the central libraries of each city.
As it happened only Liverpool and Sheffield (his home town) were interested and he made a weekly trek over the Pennines, take photos, stay at his aunt's house near Ormskirk and return the next day. He would sell the prints for £2 each - enough to make a little bit for his endeavours.
One point arising from all this is that David, his son, has copyright on all of Harry's photos and has his own site (www.copperbeechstudios.co.uk - although it seems to be in the process of being rebuilt) and he is trying to make a side-living from his dad's work. So if you want to use his images - contact him either through his website or I will redirect any enquiries.