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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Lee Grimsditch

Liverpool's lost streets, why they vanished and what replaced them

While some of Liverpool's most impressive and historic buildings have been lost over the years, so has its streets.

As commercial and residential areas of Liverpool continue to redevelop, many streets have been lost to time. When this happens, it's not just street names that disappear but also family homes and businesses are lost as a result.

While Liverpool city centre continues to grow and adapt to the needs of a modern city, inevitably some of its old streets have disappeared off the map. Outside the city centre during the 20th century, Everton has seen some of the most prominent redevelopment, resulting in uprooted communities and vanished streets.

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Despite the inevitable march of time, luckily some of these streets have been preserved in photographs and the memories of those who remember. To celebrate this, the Liverpool Echo has compiled a list of some of Liverpool's most characterful, lost streets.

This list below offers only a small selection of streets that have either gone completely or are only a shadow of what they used to be. If you have suggestions or memories of any more of the city's vanished streets, let us know in the comments below .

Gloucester Street

Gloucester Street, Liverpool, 1954 (Getty Images)

Before Lime Street Station was extended, Gloucester Street ran from Lime Street to Copperas Hill. The above image, dated 1954, found in the Getty archives shows the view from Gloucester Street, looking down past St George's Hall and into the heart of the city centre.

The extensive changes around Lime Street since this photo was taken in the mid-1950s, particularly following the Lime Street Gateway Project which commenced following 2008 Liverpool's European Capital of Culture year saw the demolition of the aging retail parade in front of the station.

The improved frontage and public plaza constructed in its place has seen the area completely transformed over the years. Gloucester Street itself was believed to have been built and named around 1814.

Fairy Street

Fairy street, L5, looking westwards from the junction with St George's Hill. July 13, 1967 (Liverpool Central Library and Archives)

The long gone Fairy Street in Everton was one of the classic steep streets off Netherfield Road that are still fondly remembered. Many of the streets full of terraced houses were demolished in the 1960s as part of the controversial slum clearances although there are still references to Fairy Street in the British Newspaper Archive (BNA) up until the mid-1980s.

Ken Rogers, author of the best selling Lost Tribe book spoke about Everton's lost streets with the Liverpool Echo in 2011. Ken said: "No doubts many of the old houses were in desperate need of repair and even demolition. But just about everything was wiped out - every street, every corner shop and most of the famous pubs that were all part of the community."

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Fairy Street also suffered heavy damage during the 1941 May Blitz during WWII. References to the street in the BNA go back to the mid-19th century.

Manchester Street

Corner of Victoria Street and Manchester Street, Liverpool early 1970s (Angies Liverpool (@angiesliverpool on Twitter and Instagram))

Manchester Street which used to run alongside the entrance to the Queensway Tunnel in Liverpool city centre was once a popular street for shops and cafes. Before the tunnel was built, the street had a more prominent role, linking Victoria Street with Dale Street.

Following the construction of the Churchill Way flyover, Manchester Street became little more than "dog-leg" of a road cutting back on itself to Victoria Street. The flyover has since been demolished and the lost Manchester Street is now part of Old Haymarket.

Glamour Cinema Club, Manchester Street, Liverpool. March 1976 (Mirrorpix)

Among some of the street's attractions over the years was the X-rated Glamour Cinema Club, Shank's Bar, Yates's Wine Lodge, an amusement arcade and the Royal Tiger nightclub. On the corner of Victoria Street and Manchester used to be a shop called Game which sold board games and fantasy role playing game paraphernalia.

Hale Street

Hale Street, L2, running north westwards from Dale Street. Circa 1930s (Liverpool Central Library and Archives)

Hale Street was a narrow alleyway connecting Dale Street and Thithebarn Street (between Moorfileds and Vernon Street). Although, technically, a remnant of the street is still present in the city centre and can be found on Google Maps, it's not the atmospheric side street of yesteryear.

One of the most prominent buildings on the street was Hale Street Warehouse, which was a group of former courtyard structures, built to allow smaller businesses to operate in side streets and alleyways that backed onto Dale Street. The buildings were said to be reserved for those involved in manufacturing and craftsmen.

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Much of the original street vanished following post-War development in the city centre. Thankfully, similar alleyways such as Hackins Hey and Eberle Street have survived.

Everton Terrace

Netherfield Road leading to Everton Terrace. May 5, 1927 (Liverpool Central Library and Archives)

Everton Terrace was more akin to a series of multi-level streets interconnected by steep steps leading to rows of terrace housing. The photograph above, dated May 5, 1927, shows the Netherfield Road entrance to the terrace which was demolished in the 1960s.

Following the slum clearances, some of the housing was replaced by high-rise flats in the 1960s, such as the group of 14-storey three tower blocks nicknamed "the Piggeries". They were unpopular and soon fell into disrepair and subsequently demolished in the 1980s.

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The clearances radically transformed the landscape of Everton, opening up the environment that still presides over the city with lofty views of the docks and skyline from its hills. The land once occupied by Everton Terrace eventually made way for Everton Park which was built in the 1980s.

Havelock 'Mountain' Street

The mighty Havelock Street, once considered Liverpool’s steepest street, was an imposing blacktop in the heart of Everton. The joke went that you needed an oxygen mask to make the ascent towards one of the highest points in Liverpool, according to Ken Rodgers, author of the 2010 book ‘Lost Tribe of Everton & Scottie Road’.

The Everton ‘Mountain’ was such a vertical challenge it needed a free-standing handrail to give local residents a chance of reaching the top. Everton has its fair share of steep streets - but there was nothing quite like Havelock Street.

In the 1960s, the bulldozers took to the street and local residents who occupied the terraced houses in the neighbourhood were scattered far and wide to random destinations across the city. These days the terraced houses that flanked Havelock Street have gone, along with all the others that swept down from Northumberland and Everton Terrace.

A steep path with wide steps replaces the old Havelock Street, rising up through the trees of Everton Park.

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