Byrom Street 1950's

[Wallaby]

Can anyone remember the shops in Byrom Street circa 1950's ?

If you remember, Byrom Street, began at the bottom of Scotland Road & finished at the Queensway Mersey Tunnel.

I remember, a shop, which seemed to be a big shop, when I was little, which sold food, toys etc... I thought it was the Co-op. But, I can't find a Co-op on the old directories in the Liverpool Records Office.

This shop had brass chains hanging across the ceilings, which held little brass cylinders that money was put into from the tills & when the chain was pulled, the brass cylinders would glide across the ceiling to a room, which was probably the cash-office.

Can anyone confirm if this was a very early Co-op, or did it have another name?

I remember another shop called "Cundles" (I think) or something beginning with "C"... can someone please refresh my memory.

Wallaby

[dickiesam]

Hi Wallaby,
I remember Byrom Street. Like you, my first thought was that the big shop you referred to was a Co-op. I think it was the building called Unity House as in this photo http://streetsofliverpool.co.uk/dale-street-1960s/

Byrom Street had one of our favourite shops in the 50s, the original Army and Navy Stores. A big rambling place, it was at the Hunter Street and Tunnel end on the right as you left the tunnel. We bought blankets and loads of other stuff there after we were married. And I've still got a fur-lined parka we bought in 1958! My kids, now in their 50s, won't let me get rid of it because they still regard it as their shared 'blankie'!

And I well remember those overhead cash transfer systems between the counters and the cash office. Also remember the pneumatic systems where the cylinder was put into into a tube and 'fired' to the cash office by a blast of compressed air.

Dickiesam

[Wallaby]

I can remember getting lost in this big old store & I remember it as being called the Co-op, but I wasn't sure & I couldn't find it in the old street directories at the LRO.

I remember it was opposite the old Army & Navy Store. So, if you came out of the Tunnel, it would be on the left side of Byrom Street.

Thanks for this link & the info, I'll take a look now.

Cheers,

Wallaby

PS. Yes, if it was the Co-op offices, then it was probably also a Co-op store too. Thank for this. I'm writing a book & wanted to check my memory was not playing tricks & I had my facts correct..

[dickiesam]

Hi,
RE:

PS. Yes, if it was the Co-op offices, then it was probably also a Co-op store too. Thank for this. I'm writing a book & wanted to check my memory was not playing tricks & I had my facts correct..

I am convinced that because it was located in the HQ building of the Liverpool Coop Society, that the part of the building facing onto Byrom Street was the a Coop store as I remember it.

Just mentioned this post to my wife who says she remembers going into the Byrom Street Co-op, opposite the Army and Navy, and using my mother's Co-op 'dividend' number when she bought a set of plates.

Dickiesam

[Wallaby]

Ahh thank you for this. I feel better putting it into print now. I didn't want to get it wrong & look like the Co-op Divi lol!

Thanks again Dickiesam!

Wallaby

[dickiesam]

You are welcome, Wallaby.

Bear in mind my memory, and my wife's, may be playing tricks because we also used the Co-op in Grange Road, Birkenhead after we moved to Rock Ferry.

But, I just looked at Byrom Street in the 1901 census. Numbers 5 to 29 are what appears to be a pretty big drapery store with many live-in employees, mainly Drapery Assistants [31 of them], 10 'domestic servants' and 3 'drapery porters'.

Moved on a decade, using a crystal ball and mirrors of course [can't mention the unmentionable MCMX1]. 5 to 29 Byrom Street still had the same use with the same occupations and this time include a cook and kitchen-maids.

DS

[Wallaby]

I remember I was about 3-4 years old when I got lost & I wondered outside & stood on the pavement looking back at the store. To me, it seemed like a huge department store. I remember my uncle bought me a white straw basket & a little brown teddy bear. I'm sure it sold curtains, furniture, toys, clothes & some food too. What you've found on the census sounds about right. I had no idea the employees lived on the premisses too.

Thanks for your help. I wonder if anyone else reads this thread they would have a photo of the front of the store or the inside with the chains gliding across the ceiling.

[dickiesam]

Hi Wallaby,
Not the full-frontal you are after, but I think this may be the Co-op in 1966 in the distance across from the end of Hunter Street where it joined Byrom Street.

With acknowledgments to http://inacityliving.piczo.com/?g=44843738&cr=7



DS

EDIT: The building across from the end of Hunter Street would now appear be probably Cundles bike shop.

[Wallaby]

Yes, you could be right ! I'll try to enhance it & see can I get it clearer & closer... Gosh thank you for all this help!

Wallaby

[daggers]

QUOTE "chains gliding across" - My memory is that the money carriers were on wires. Milletts in Church Street, next to Woolies had the same sort of system.
Did Cundles sell motor-bikes and kit for them? They may have turned up in Whitechapel later.
D

[Wallaby]

Yes, I think you're right about Cundles selling bikes, but I remember the money set-up in the Co-op as being brass chains, or at least there was a lot of shiny brass involved somehow. But maybe Millets had a wire version of a similar set-up.

W

[dickiesam]

With acknowledgments to http://inacityliving.piczo.com/?g=44843738&cr=7

Byrom Street in 1966 showing Cundles bicycle shop and Fontenoy Gardens tenement development across Great Crosshall Street.



DS

[Wallaby]

Oh, you did well finding this.
Yes, I think the Co-op was further along to the left, so out of this picture.

Tantalisingly close tho!

W

[dickiesam]

I was just about to amend my previous picture post and say the building at the end of Hunter Street actually looked like the frontage of Cundles once I had looked closely at the Cundles photo.

DS

[Wallaby]

Yes, I think you're right & I remember the Co-op being further along towards the tunnel.

W

[Tina]

G'day Wallaby from the Wombat
This is 1938 Directory which I thought may bring back memories for you and D.S
Cheers
Soz you'll need your magnifier for the 2nd pic..

[Tina]

Gr8 photo 1927

[Heli]

Thanks for the memory. In the late 1950's I worked for Berry and Warmington who had their showrooms just along from Unity House in Byrom Street, although we had to use the staff entrance in Fontenoy Street. I remember all the shops mentioned in the posts especially the sweet shop, which sold upmarket brands. Sorry I can't add anything about Unity House.

Heli

[dickiesam]

Hey Tina!
What a brilliant fotie! Just a year or two before my time but great all the same. But I do remember that baccie shop in it and the directory. My dad used to buy his Capstan Full Strength there often because he was born and grew up just up Byrom Street a couple of yards and around the corner in Hunter Street and was living there in 1929 when he married my mum.

Wallaby will be pleased to see that picture!

Ta dear,
DS

[Wallaby]

Yes, I am thrilled to see this picture Thank you Tina! I was brought up just off Hunter Street too & I remember playing on those steps when I was a kid.

I also remember the Tobacconist further along under the canopied shops- I think it was called the 98 shop, run by an Irish family. Or was the 98 shop opposite in Scotland Place by the Morning Star Pub ?

My grandmother used to send me there for her Snuff... 2 oz of Fine Irish from the 98 Shop & change out... is what she used to tell me to ask for & she would wrap the money up in paper & I would get a qtr of sherbet lemons while I was there. I remember the Irish woman who owned the tobacconists had curly grey hair & glasses & walked with a stick, she had a canopy on her leg & a small back Poodle.

(The small black Poodle was not strapped to her leg lol!)

Wallaby