Princess Parkway

A Memory of Toxteth.

I lived for a very short time with my gran in Liverpool 8, now infamously Toxteth. She lived in two flats on Parkway off Princess Parkway. She was a nurse and walked to the hospital so it must have been nearby. Think it was near Granby Street and Upper Parliament Street. The first flat was owned by two very old sisters (think they were Jewish) called Vernicks - could have been Wernicks. Gran rented from them. She had a yard at the back and the top of the walls had broken glass cemented into it to stop invaders of all sorts. Also the staircase went through the flat so anyone could walk around the area - it was not private. Gran just had a set of rooms, kitchen and lounge at the front and bedrooms, bathroom at the back with the staircase in the middle.

I used to go to the shops for Gran and used to go to a store run by a dark chap (indian??) called Ali. He used to give me free (2d old pennies) ice creams. You could buy single cigarettes off him (as a child!!) for 3d (three old pennies). The shops were across a zebra crossing onto the beautiful boulevard and then across another zebra crossing. The streets were cobbled. This is around 1963-65 I think. My memory is very vague as I have no-one to share it with. We used to go up to Sefton Park where there was a statue of Peter Pan. Is it still there?

We used to go to the Rialto Cinema on Saturday mornings where they showed black & white children's films. They used to have a "jackpot" where they would put sixpences in the ice lollies. I won one but I didn't know about the jackpot so didn't tell anyone. I thought the sixpence had fallen in!!

I went to school in Toxteth for a very short time. The school was called St Margaret's and was next to a church. The classrooms had very high windows and wooden/glass dividing sliding doors to divide the classrooms to make them smaller/bigger. Has it been knocked down? I know the flats on Parkway have gone. They were old Victorian buildings in that yellow brick. I know the Rialto was burnt down in the riots and Parkway has been redeveloped but can't find any photos/reference to it.

They also used to have bonfires in the middle of the street on 5 November.

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