On Tuesday 25th September Roger Hull gave us a talk on Bold Street, illustrated with maps and statistics. He described Bold Street as a 'feminine' street, with a touch of class, and quite different from any other Liverpool street.

A map of 1765 shows the area which is now Bold Street to be rural, but with a ropery near by. By 1800 Liverpool was the second largest town in England, and Bold Street was changing. Gore's Directory tells us who lived in the street: 16 households in 1796, 110 in 1829. They were ladies, gentlemen, merchants, professionals, traders and the forces. People tended to come to Bold Street and move on. In 1839 the traders included merchants, furnishers, high fashion clothiers, joiners, ironmonger and sellers of food and drink.

By 1905 there were 4 clothiers, 17 photographers, 14 health and beauty outlets, 12 service specialists, 11 furnishers, 11 food and drink purveyors, 6 sellers of luxury items, a diamond dealer, an antiques dealer, a piano maker, gilder and picture framer, along with several banks, artists and palmists! The early 1900s was Bold Street's heyday and of the early shops, Cripps survived until 1970. Cripps was the largest shawl manufacturer in the U.K., the shop is now Waterstones (formerly Dillons), but the original façade can still be seen above the ground floor.

'Bold Street is still different' - Mr Hull concluded - it has trendy fashion houses and designer names, and retains its own character.

MSC