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Thread: Liverpool's Toy Shops

  1. #1
    Re-member Ged's Avatar
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    Default Liverpool's Toy Shops

    I've seen requests galore over the years on this and other forums for a photograph of Hobbies toy shop in Basnett Street, a place I frequented quite often. There's a n ew book out today, the 2nd in a series covering the decades, and being one not to let the grass grow when it comes to adding to my library here it is.

    With everything from Subbuteo to Jigsaws, air pistols, board games, plastic animals and soldiers, matchbox, dinky and corgi cars, Meccano and Hornby sets and airfix models. I still have boxes full of the stuff.






    Let's get a thread going covering this important area in our lickle development. There were floors dedicated to toys in the liks of Lewis's and Blacklers and does anyone remember Tumbles by the bubble bus stops, the games shop at the bottom of Manchester Street, city models in Elliot street and King Kong in Bold Street.



    More photos to follow, i'm sure.




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    Creator & Administrator Kev's Avatar
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    Fantastic thread Ged

    Can we post existing toy shops too?
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    Re-member Ged's Avatar
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    Whatever you want mate, it's your site Let's gettem on
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    aww I lovely photo Ged! I can just imagine how many thousands of little noses that have been pressed up against that glass for all those years!

    Sometimes for a treat when we went to town my mum would buy me a Britain's farm animal from Lewis's , in fact I've just looked and see they still make all the little people and animals and they still look exactly the same! http://www.toyandmodel.com/farmanimal.html, and my brothers always had a Matchbox car .

    We used to have a toy shop called The Toy Centre on Allerton Road years ago too.

  5. #5
    Re-member Ged's Avatar
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    Thanks Kev and Mollie. As a subject that's touched us all, i'm sure there'll be many happy memories shared. There was a thread on here somewhere mentioning some of these shops but I couldn't find it.

    There was a little kiosk in Exchange Station too where I remember getting a pack of little workmen with drill, pick axe, spade etc - I'd be about 19 .
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    paddy Paddy's Avatar
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    Default Toy Town.

    I think but I am not A1 positive that there was a Toy shop at Penny Lane . I remember one grotto that you saw the toys displayed and they had numbers,bit like Argos. You selected your toy and Daddy Crimbo gave it to you when you went in.
    Last edited by Paddy; 05-09-2009 at 08:41 PM.
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    Martin hmtmaj's Avatar
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    Thinking back, I remember one under the flats in Old Swan, was it Nurseryworld ? Anyway, thats where we got our toy soldiers and gun emplacments ! There was also the Bike shop in Broadgreen Road, superb for the airfix models, Sullivans, for Subbuteo sets. Oh, just remembered... When my dad used to take us on the ferry, over to New Brighton, when we got back to Liverpool, I'm sure we'd walk through town, see "The Buckets", then onto prescot Road and along by the Ice Rink used to be C.Vans ( hope I got the name right ). It was an aladdins cave of toys, fantastic for young kids to get a list together for Santa, in JUNE !

    Just remembered too, I got Striker one year for Christmas, it only lasted a couple of days, my eldest ( heavy handed brother, god bless him ) pressed too hard on the heads and crushed them ! ( sorry for going off thread ! )
    Mart

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    Senior Member GNASHER's Avatar
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    Toyland on Breck Rd.between Sedley St and Holy Trinity.

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    Smurf Member scouse smurf's Avatar
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    Cool pic, Ged.

    I used to like the toyshop that was on the corner of whitechapel (or around about there). I dunno what it was about it, maybe it was nice welcoming sign it had when I was on the bus with my mum, I think it said Games, didn't it ?

    I remember my mum buying me a electronic baseball game from there almost the same as this. How simplistic it was but I played with it for ages

    Just notice Ged mentioned the shop in his first post, but I'm not correcting my post

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    Senior Member squiggs's Avatar
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    Great picture of Hobbies !, I loved that shop, my Dad bought me my first set of Meccano there and got lots of Lego too....
    What about the "Dolls hospital" I got some lovely putfots there for my dolls and also one very sick doll of mine got a "hair transplant" at the hospital.
    Lewis's had a great toy depatment a whole floor, spent many a happy hour in there !.

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    Senior Member gregs dad's Avatar
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    I used to buy my balsa wood and different materials used to make flying model aircraft there. Moorfields had a model shop as well which moved to Dale St,also Orrell Lane had one.
    Hobbies had a very large meccano set which was contained in a chest of draws which was a nice piece of furniture on its own it stayed in the window for years as the price was far out of reach of ordinary people
    Last edited by gregs dad; 05-09-2009 at 09:01 PM.
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    Tracywheelchair tracywheelchair's Avatar
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    There was a Toy shop on County Road called Buchanans for around 30 years which I believe has now recently closed. That was always where I went to pick my toys from as a child, and my nieces and nephews toys over past few years. It is so hard to find shops that just sell toys now without queing up in deparment stores.

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    It's great reading about the old toy shops. I can't recall being in any "toy shops" when I was younger. My toy shops where the department stores which had everything a young lad could want. I think a lot of my toys came from the likes of Blacklers,Lewis's and Tj's
    I can remeber Hobbies in the precinct.

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    Re-member Ged's Avatar
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    Would this be the one smurf, another fave of mine.





    I got a jigsaw of this very pic out of there which hangs in the Walker, of Horatio Nelson dying on his ship, the Victory at Trafalgar.






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    Point of order: theres two in the Walker next to each other
    Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
    Time held me green and dying
    Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

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