 |
Gerard Gardens. I lived in Thurlow House
and here from 1968
and throughout the 1970s.
|
In a city living 1
When I was looking for photographs of
places where I'd grown up, places I knew, close to my heart, I mainly drew a
blank. Sure, there were plenty of books concentrating on the important
buildings of the city centre but where were the ordinary street scenes, the
Holly Street flats, the tenement developments? I began photographing my old
area, many places that were due for demolition, the flats, the old bombdies
that had supplied my childhood bonfire nights with years of endless wood. I also
learned, just at this time that the Liverpool records office were archiving
thousands of city engineer photographs together with those taken in the 1960s
by an Ormskirk born Sheffield dweller by the name of Harry Ainscough.
Supplimenting my book with these photographs, I was able to add text, giving an
account of what it was like growing up in his area.
 |
Byrom Street and Fontenoy Gardens. Another area frequented
by I.
|
Being from the inner city, while
business leaders made their mark in the grand civic buildings of Liverpool's
cultural quarter, me and my mates were living just a stones throw from possibly
Liverpool's most famous and probably most architecturally magnificent street,
William Brown Street. Here in my first book, I capture an area within two
square miles in either direction of Gerard Gardens, the art deco corporation
housing that served as my home in those important and impressionable years.
Giving an informative and detailed account of why and how they were built, the
thinking behind the grand re-housing scheme of the 1930s and what it was like
to live in the area which includes the Vauxhall and Everton districts.
Take a trip back in time to my time as a school kid in nearby Bishop Goss primary school, the pleasures derived from simpler times where there were only three t.v. channels, no playstations and the bus, train and ferry were the main modes of transport to days out in Crosby or New Brighton. All in all, a good read and a pictorial history with 120 previously unpublished photographs of bygone times in a massively populated area that many will be able to associate with.
The book was finally completed and launched in time for the Christmas market in 2004, becoming a local best seller.
You can order it directly from the publishers at www.countyvise.co.uk or purchase it from most good bookshops such as W.H. Smiths, Waterstones, Borders or Pritchards. Alternatively, you can contact me on ged.fagan@rosewoodtrucking.co.uk and i'll be happy to answer any of your questions.
So....What photographs can be seen in book 1.
Gerard Crescent(3), Holly Street(4), Thurlow House(2), William Brown Street, St. George's Hall(3), Museum, Wellington Column, Walker Art Gallery, Lime Street, The Tower, Trueman Street, Manchester Street, Commutation Row, London Road, Municipal Buildings(2),Town Hall, Pier Head (2), Queen Victoria Monument, Gerard Street, Central aerial pics(9), Gerard Gardens(3), Gerard Close(3), Lionel House, Downe House, Cartwright House, Christian Street(2), Hunter Street(3), Hod Carrier statue(2), Architect statue, Islington, Fraser Street(2), Comus Street, Grosvenor Street, Old Haymarket, Holy Cross Church demolition, Fontenoy Gardens(5), Byrom Street(4), Richmond Row(2), Fontenoy Street, Virgil Street, Silvester Street, St. Augustine Street, Vauxhall Gardens, Highfield Street, Wedding House pub, Cross Keys pub, St. Paul's pub, Bond Street, Eldon Street, Burrough's Gardens, Portland Gardens, Green Street(2), Eldon Grove(3), Soho Street(3), William Henry Street(2), Springfield Street, Four Squares tenements, Langsdale Street, St. Anne Street(2), Fox Street, Prince Edwin Walk, Shaw Street(3), Great Richmond Street tenements(2), Rose Hill, St. Andrews Gardens (The Bullring)(4), Seymour Street, Lord Nelson Street, Huskisson Street, Rodney Street, Princes Road, Abercromby Square, Upper Stanhope Street, Anglican Cathedral, Metropolitan Cathedral, Minster Court, Nelson Street tenements, Kent Gardens(2), Stanhope House, Sussex Gardens, The Piggeries, Marwood Tower, Everton Park(2), Netherfield Road heights, John F. Kennedy heights, The Trinity pub, Latimer Street, Logan Towers(2), Shadwell Street, Blenheim Towers, Tatlock Towers, Marybone.
Available from Waterstones,
W.H. Smiths, Borders, Pritchards, the Cathedral shops and the Museum shops.
Alternatively, you can order online direct from the publisher by visiting
www.countyvise.co.uk