Looking at this pic I'm wondering if the building behind the white marked one is either the Ventilation building near Taylor St or the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool. Is it possible for someone to do a map with a straight line from what used to be the coop in grange road/St John st to those to points so I can see what streets/ buildings the lines will cross, so I can look and compare on a 1950s street map or some pics I've recently taken. Hope you can understand my ramblings
First and second pic you can identify the spire of the church at the priory. The last pic you can see the Liver building, the ventilation tower and the hydrualic tower of Hamilton Square station. Hope this helps?
Refering to your top picture, it's easy to assume that the spire in the centre is that of St. Marys, but as Grange Road goes off to the right, then St. Mary's has to be off to the right as well.
I think the centre circled white building stood next to Argyle Motors on Conway Street, by its junction with Hamilton St, just before the Market Hall. It has quite a distinctive pattern of windows and chimneys. If we were to see anything of Liverpool cathedral on the skyline, then it should be to the left of this building, and is possibly the grey rectangle on the extreme left of your photo.
The Tunnel vents would make a good reference, but they are too far to the left of the picture, as is the tower at Hamilton Square Station. You can see this from your recent photographs - but where has Beatties tower gone?
I did expect to be able to see the top of the ABC cinema and the old Post Office on Argyle St, but I can't, although there is something white with some red on it. I can't place the other spire or the tower blocks in Liverpool. There were a couple of grain silo's on Liverpool docks that would align with our viewing angle. They have gone now, and the Marina has been built in that area.
So, as requested, I've attached a map with lines on to point out certain landmarks. Hope it helps.
Edit - Sorry, the caption for the second picture did not appear. This is the tunnel marshalling area just before openning the flyovers on the public viewing & walking day. The flyover comes in from the left, passing the Post Office and runs down Conway St, past the ABC cinema. On the far right is the white building, the subject of the centre circle in the first picture. It sits next to Argyle Motors showroom. Off to the right and out of shot would be Hamilton St and the old Market Hall. A number of the building should be visable from the top of the Co-op in Grange Road.
The angle and foreshortening of this view makes the landscape and buildings look unnatural and bowed in a u shape as you look at it.
Of the 3 - the left hand one is simply the rear of Beatties which goes all the way over to Oliver Street, The middle one is Beatties tower and the right-hand one is the old Market or the long Lairds shop that runs north along Ivy Street.
The 2 black and white striped towers are Brunswick Court between Price and Cleveland Streets.
As I say with this skewed image a number of thing are wrong, e.g. Brunswick Ct looks further away than the right hand building - are we looking at an early version of Photoshop ?