Uh-uh. Keith's was originally just the one next door. They grew into the corner one- a former butcher's- later. I, too, remember it opening and being made up as they stayed open half an hour after the Albert closed so you could nip across for a quick last one in there- even though it was wine... (hadn't then developed the boundless appetitite for the stuff I have now!)
Their food was brilliant though, right from the start (couldn't say how it is now) and was cheap enough for even students and dole-ites to eat there regularly. My regular snacks were their soup or pate and bread. Also the cheesecake was gorgeous.
Keith's was the first of its kind in the lane. There were no other wine bars / restaurants / who knows what like there are today. It was all much more work-a-day shops.
Ah, the Albert and Masonic. I tended to inhabit the former mostly. It was a toss-up, however, which of them had the most mardy barmaids- a breed only found in Liverpool pubs who seemed to consider everyone under the age of 40 a 'student' and treated them accordingly..
I was later involved in a business in Lark Lane (does anyone remember it?) called 'Curiouser and Curiouser'. It was a weird mixture of junk shop- postcards, wind-up gramophones, old bottles, crap from Paddy's Market- second-hand bookshop and leather goods emporium- that was my bit. I had a tiny workshop at the back but, weather allowing, preferred to sit and make my stuff outside the front of the shop. Used to make belts, handbags, sandals etc. It was a decent living all in all. (Strangely, after pursuing a photographic career for the last couple of decades, I've just got back into the leather and am again enjoying it greatly).
http://www.bwpics.co.uk/leather.html
Later was a member of the Liverpool Wholefood Collective (later 'Dancing Cat Wholefoods') which started out in a small room in the old Police Station before later moving to Lodge Lane.
Later again, after a long spell in London I lived for a while in a spectacularly squalid squat round the corner in Linnet Lane- a vast house with, apparently, no known owner.
Don't get back to visit the Lane very often now but always immediately feel at home there when I do.
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