Can anyone work out where the pictures of the 185 were taken? I thought the first one was outside Central Station but the buildings on the opposite side of the road are wrong. Any ideas?
2nd pic possibly Laird School of Art over the road from Birkenhead Park main entrance? Is that a tram on the right side of 1st pic? Judging by the folks getting off it may be at the end of its destination Liscard
You are spot on derekdwc. 2nd pic is outside the Laird School of Art. The first one I too thought initially was outside B'head Central Station. The tram emerging from the right looks like a Wallasey Car. The buildings to the left don't ring right, neither do the buildings (?) in the background. I can't think of the name of the roads involved BUT it's on the outskirts of Liscard. The shops had that cast iron canopy up moons ago. Someone local could nail it down I'm sure.
You are spot on derekdwc. 2nd pic is outside the Laird School of Art. The first one I too thought initially was outside B'head Central Station. The tram emerging from the right looks like a Wallasey Car. The buildings to the left don't ring right, neither do the buildings (?) in the background. I can't think of the name of the roads involved BUT it's on the outskirts of Liscard. The shops had that cast iron canopy up moons ago. Someone local could nail it down I'm sure.
The cast iron canopy is/was on Wallasey Road, between the Boot,as Derek says, and Torrington Road. (current view shown below)
Last edited by Roslynmuse; 7th Apr 20127:01pm. Reason: added a sentence to explain attachment
The tram carries the letters 'WD' for Warren Drive, which didn't go past the boot, but down Seaview Road and Liscard Road. Bus 185 was delivered on 13th July 1933, and the last Wallasey tram ran on 30th November of that year. 185 was the first Birkenhead bus to be delivered in blue and was the last petrol engined bus to be purchased by BCT. 'The Birkenhead Bus' carries the same picture, credited to AEC, the makers, and says it is outside the Capitol cinema in Liscard.
The first picture is, as Norton says, is outside the Capitol cinema in Liscard, and the second, as Derek says, is outside the School of Art, by Trinity Street. Both pictures are dated 1933.
Trams finished in 1933. Looks very much like they are building the new Wellington pub behind the bus in the Liscard one. There were loads of those cast iron and glass canopies dotted around Wallasey and probably Birkenhead for all I know.
The bus passengers are definitely alighting outside the Capitol, as the glass canopy there had it's supports in pairs, as is clearly shown in the photo, but if it is the new Wellington being built behind the hoardings in the background that presents a slight dating problem, as Ian Boumphrey in Yesterday's Wirral No.3 says the foundations for the new pub weren't laid until June 1936...
To expand on that - "A plot next to The Wellington Hotel on the Seaview Road side was purchased as the site for a replacement... foundations laid in 1936. The old pub was demolished and the site is now part of Wallasey Road."
I now know that there were hoardings at the end of Seaview Road in 1931. Therefore the hoarding that we see in the picture of the Q bus outside the Capitol is not there to hide the building of the new Wellington, but were there already, hiding an empty plot of land. I would suggest that the original dating of that picture of the alighting passengers as being 1933 is correct.
The attached picture is made from frame captures from the video "Life & Times" 'Memories of Merseyside' published by the Liverpool Echo in the early 90's. Note the policeman on point duty, the front of the Capitol with its canopy and the shops either side - Marriots and Barclays Bank. The Capitol is showing 'Monkey Buisness', which was released in 1931. The pole in the middle of the former 'Monkey House' carries not road signs, but mileage signs on its arms.
Then can we get back on topic and try and date or generally extract any more info from the original picture of the Clock?
