When I was 11, it was the only place I was allowed to go shopping with my friend on our own…we felt so grown up. Her Mum would drop us off there & we were not allowed to go outside of Bold Street all day, we used to buy fake cigarettes from a little joke shop that puffed out some form of talcum powder and we’d sit on the benches trying to look older, pretending to smoke.
Years later Bold Street’s Café Tabac was the meeting place for my friends and I at the weekend before going on to Macs & the Mardi …what great nights out we had then. I had my 18th Birthday at the Four Seasons which was awful but cheap to hire and as I was too drunk to remember much of it, it’s of little importance where it was held.
I still love Bold Street, I can spend hours in Rennies, it’s like a second home to me.
Thank you to Carol Ramsay at the Liverpool Biennial for her memories.
From Denys Owen again! Re my earlier comment this evening, I have just seen a photograph on your website which shows BARCLAYS Bank on the upper corner, with what appears to be the Midland next door. So now we know.
I don’t see any historical reference to John Byrne & Son Ltd., diamond merchants from the early 1900s. I have a piece of jewellry in a box from this company. They also had an address at ?83 Hatton Garden, London.
Does anyone know of this company?
I have just purchased a silver set in a box with a crown and an address for John Byrne & Son Ltd., Diamond Merchants, 10, Bold Street, Liverpool.
Hi
My Great Great Grandmother was Mary Byrne (Hawkins) the sister of John Byrne of John Byrne and sons Bold St. He came from Co Wexford Ireland and lived with my Great Great Grandfather William Hawkins in 1861 in Court Cazenau St a slum off Upper Beau St near Scottie Rd.
He took 10 years to become a watchmaker and jeweller and had 9 kids one of whom (Dr Ferdinand Byrne) was a dentist. He moved to London to practice and his daughter Natalie married into the Wolff family. Her husban Freddie won an olympic gold medal in 1936 Berlin in the 400m relay. The family owned the London metal exchange and nearly all the family had MBE’s and whatnot. I have found references in very old telephone directories for Liverpool but little else after 1910. The family lived at Greenbank Rd, Toxteth Pk for many years and the large house is still there.
I would welcome any further info you may have from 1910 onwards, living in N.Ireland I get little chance to get over to Liverpool now.
I have two abiding memories of Bold Street from the 60s. The first was the El Kabala, which was THE place to be. I used to sit drinking coffee in there with friends, and we’d chat to Roger McGough and John Gorman. I used to smoke Sobranie Cocktail cigarettes, which cost a fortune but which were, oh, so cool!
My other clear memory is of the Jaguar car showroom, halfway up on the right hand side as you’re walked up from the city centre. There used to be a Jaguar E type 2 2 in the window, I think it was British Racing Green, though I might have made that up, but whatever, it gleamed, polished to perfection, and begged me to buy it every time I stood drooling over it.
I haven’t been to Liverpool in years, (I’ve lived in East Anglia for 35 years) but I’m up in September to look around old haunts, so I’ll be paying a visit.
Thanks for the memories guys. They’ve been a joy to read.
Zoe