Warwick Street Remembered

A Memory of Toxteth.

I was born in 1946 and lived in Lamport Street, just off Warwick Street in Toxteth. We lived there until I was about 6 years of age. Because of town planning we had to move to Hawkstone Street but what I remember of Lamport Street was my dad’s builders yard, great place to play. I can’t remember the family but I do remember the house that had chickens running up and down the lobby, fantastic memory. I first went to Harrington Board School, which was on the corner of Grafton Street and Stanhope Street. I started there in 1950. The main thing I remember about this school was it had a tiny swimming pool in its basement, but it was not used for swimming, they used it to store coal for the school boiler. Does anyone remember the fair that was on the Hollow (pronounced Olla) in Mill Street opposite Warwick Gardens, What about the bakers on Mill Street that had the ovens right next to the pavement in the cellar, even in the winter you could sit on the pavement because of the heat from the ovens, ahh I can still smell those hot Barm Cakes even now. Some great shops. On the corner of Park Road and Warwick Street was Miltons Pawnbroker, Whitakers cake shop and café, Yaffies. Further down on Park Place was Capaldi’s Milk Bar and Fredricks Building supplies next to St Patricks School. Who remembers Costigans on Mill Street, they had the same cable pulley system that the Co-Op shops had. The shop assistant would put cash in a container and then attach it to the pulley system pull the wooden handle that would send the container shooting across the shop to the cashier.

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