159 Brownlow Hill

[BarbaraW]

I am trying to pinpoint exactly where in Brownlow Hill this house was. I've been up and down on Google maps and I just can't work it out.

Somewhere (??) I've seen it was opposite to Bedford Street but it escapes me.

Also on Google maps I can see a large red bricked building (opposite Greggs ) which is possibly/probably University digs now but what was it before that?

[Bertieone]

Pembroke St or Brownlow St no longer end at Brownlow Hill, Great Newton St/Brownlow Hill is close.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.40575 ... 312!8i6656

The Building?
http://vgm.liverpool.ac.uk/plan-your-vi ... o-find-us/

[BarbaraW]

Thank you once again Bertie.

I'm ashamed to admit that I've never even heard of this museum.

Another one for the bucket list methinks.

[Blue70]

The numbering here agrees with Bert about the location:-

c1950





Blue

[MaryA]

I've never even heard of this museum.

It is certainly very interesting, put it on your list for your next visit to Liverpool, you will enjoy it, bit weird and wonderful.

[BarbaraW]

I've never even heard of this museum.

It is certainly very interesting, put it on your list for your next visit to Liverpool, you will enjoy it, bit weird and wonderful.

I like weird and wonderful.

[Fledge]

I used to have lunch in there frequently - lovely old building. Some good exhibitions too.

[BarbaraW]

I like the idea that they lived surrounded by these important buildings. Only 4 doors away from the Ladies Charity Lying in Hospital.

At this period there also existed in Liverpool, the Ladies' Charity. This had been set up in 1796 with the object of alleviating the suffering of poor families by various means, including the provision of a midwife and where necessary, a doctor. By 1832 the Charity was described as being "... supported by subscription for the relief of poor married women in childbed at their own houses" (see Gore's Directory of Liverpool, 1932, Appendix, p. 96). The Ladies' Charity divided the town into districts, each district having its own midwife and accoucheur. During the 1860's it came to be felt that the Ladies' Charity and Lying-in Hospital should be united and in February 1869 the amalgamation of the two bodies was finally agreed. Thereafter the hospital was known as the Ladies' Charity and Lying-in Hospital.

After much dispute in the period 1879 - 1882 the gynaecological and maternity functions of the Hospital were separated and a new Lying-in (maternity) Hospital was erected on a site at the corner of Brownlow Hill and Brownlow Street. This was completed in November 1884 and opened to patients in February 1885. The hospital remained in these premises until its move to the present [1984] building in Oxford Street. The foundation stone of the Oxford Street hospital was laid in March 1924 and it was officially opened in September 1926. From this time onwards it has been known as the Liverpool Maternity Hospital.

[BarbaraW]

I hope it wasn't too near the workhouse though.

[MaryA]

Right across the road from it.

[BarbaraW]

Right across the road from it.

How awful, they must have seen some terrible sights. Mind you it would make you keep your nose to the grindstone so as not to end up in there.

[Peter James Redhead]

I believe "Liverpool Maternity Hospital" is a modern title as we always called it just "Oxford Street Hospital".
I was born in the 1930s and according to my mother on the third floor in a delivery ward on the corner of the building.
From the window it was then possible to see both the unfinished crypt of the Catholic Cathedral (on the site of the Workhouse) almost opposite and looking to the left along Hope Street the cranes on the unfinished Anglican Cathedral.
For many reasons it was always a source of pride that we in Liverpool were constructing two such buildings.
Peter.

[MaryA]

What a historic view your mother had, lovely that she appreciated the history she was seeing being made.

[BarbaraW]

My 86 year old mother would like to know what kind of house they lived in. Would it have been your basic terraced house or something a bit posher?

[MaryA]

Any help? although I can't confirm just where in Brownlow Hill this was http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h ... FAodej8N3Q

and if you look at it side by side with modern googlemaps streetview, it would seem that the above photograph would have been more or less opposite the Workhouse.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.40575 ... 312!8i6656

[BarbaraW]

Thanks Mary that gives me an idea of how it was.

William Brown, bootmaker left almost £1000 in his will in 1886 (apparently about £65,000 in todays money) so he must have been doing well, maybe it was the sight of that looming workhouse out the front door that kept him going!!

[retiringtype]

Daughter Mary Brown was still at 159 Brownlow Hill in 1911. The house had 6 Rooms and she was operating a boarding house there.

[BarbaraW]

Daughter Mary Brown was still at 159 Brownlow Hill in 1911. The house had 6 Rooms and she was operating a boarding house there.

I do have that but thank you anyway.

I now believe 159 Brownlow Hill was a shop with the family living over it. In his will William Brown is called a Boot and Shoe dealer and leaves all his stock to his son Thomas who is employed as his Shopman and Boot and Shoe Maker. In one of the censuses one of the daughters is called a shoe shop manageress.

I've found 2 ads in the Liverpool papers from 1885 and 1894 looking to employ a youth in the trade so I'm thinking it's more than simply a bootmaker working in his parlour!!